I started this back in February or March...
Now, there was an upshot to this – the upshot was quite simple. What happened was on the day in question, I went in and stayed really late and put my health in jeopardy. I put my health in jeopardy and the end result was the benefit to me was only I got paid the few extra hours I stayed late and nothing more.
Well, I got paid! Isn’t that enough?
See, I really should’ve gone home. I wanted to go home. I didn’t feel well and the best place for me was back in bed but because I want to be a go along guy, but because I want to please my client and I want to garner their favor I hung in there and made sure everything went out. It went out on deadline and it looked damn good when it did.
I made my client look good in the process and took care of what was a problem (or what would’ve been a problem for some other people if they had to stick around and deal with the situation).
Now, what did it get me?
Nothing.
And that’s the contract today between employee and employer. You are a resource and a disposable one at that. If the time comes your employer is slow they will no longer carry you during those slow periods – it simply doesn’t happen anymore.
The question I have is when you take that off the table, what’s left?
Anyway, in this instance I really do like my client, I like the company, I like working with people there and I even enjoy the work at times. I make a point of saying that because I don’t want to present myself as some bitter malcontent but at the same time I find it would be foolish not to recognize the dynamics of the workaday world.
I wound up going to a clinic locally to get the care I needed and I really, really needed the care. I had to take antibiotics because it was pretty bad. Through it all I kept working, didn’t miss a day but I will say I kept to a schedule that was easy on me.
How do I find myself in this situation? I wonder about it myself but I think it is a more common occurrence for a growing number of people in our country and this is where our system is failing. Our system is failing in the sense that there are people, people who work and who are trying to make a go of it but the deck seems so entirely stacked against them currently it is near to impossible for them to make ends meet.
I know in my case, it got to the point where I was paying for my own medical coverage and this was what I consider to be standard coverage and it was costing almost $1,000 a month!
So, I had to drop my coverage and what I have now isn’t even slightly adequate. It’s faux insurance. It doesn’t cover visits and like I said earlier the maximum yearly benefit is $1,000 a year.
So, when people rail about Obamacare as the Health Care Reform Act is derisively referred to I find myself stepping back for a second, asking them what in particular is their issue with the legislation itself. Then I ask them it they’ve read the bill (in most cases they haven’t) and take a few moments to lay out the arguments about why the bill is actually a good thing for everyone in this nation.
Anyway, this was just one of those snippets laying around in my draft queue and I wanted to get it up and this is where it led me.
More can be said on this topic but let’s leave it for another day. In the meantime, I am like a shark once more swimming to find my next meal.
So, I’m back at it again. Scraping around trying to drum up work as the gig I was working wound down.
And I’m sad about that but I’ve also arrived at the unfortunate conclusion that no amount of effort, no amount of quality work at this client will produce any kind of permanent job offer which can be discouraging but also can be incredibly freeing too. In essence the relationship becomes one of need and convenience for both parties – if your needed and available then it works.
But while I try not to allow myself to fall into a state of rancor, it certainly isn’t a situation I want to rely on either.
This week after the taking a day off because I couldn’t push myself any harder, I went in. I didn’t feel well still, if anything I really do push myself more than I should in these matters but my circumstances don’t allow me such a luxury so I sallied forth and made the best of things. I did however commit myself to moving at a pace that I felt I could manage, and in this I mean I got in when I got in.
Now, in some corners that might sound awfully cavalier but I have heard of two circumstances where guys in my profession have been in places where people have dropped dead because of heart attacks and it came from not listening to their own internal mechanism. Much as I do need to work and am committed to doing a good job, I’m not committed to making some kind of ultimate statement by dropping at my desk – my work simply isn’t that earth-shattering in the scope of the world no matter how much people these days like to believe work is all.
Anyway, I did go in and really could say I was not someone I would want to be around since I had this dry hacking cough I couldn’t for the life of me stop. I wouldn’t want to sit around that and I was embarrassed to say the least. I got an email asking me if I was in (most of the people in my department are actually on another floor now) and when I replied I was but I didn’t know for how long (given how I felt) the response I got was “for the rest of the week, unless I hear different.”
Now, this was kind of funny...
Anyway, round about 5:30 I got a call something needed to go out and I was slated to pick it up. Long story short, I walked back in my door at midnight. This is not really altogether unusual with my job and even this I can’t say I’m horrified or put off by it, but I really wasn’t feeling good at all and the next day when I awoke it was clear I either find a doctor or go to the emergency room because I desperately needed something stronger than what an OTC drug could manage.
Now, I was in a bit of a quandary...
I have medical insurance if you can call it that. What I have is what could best be termed as ‘insurance lite’ as this program that covers very, very little (maximum yearly benefit of $1k..
Now, there was an upshot to this – the upshot was quite simple. What happened was on the day in question, I went in and stayed really late and put my health in jeopardy. I put my health in jeopardy and the end result was the benefit to me was only I got paid the few extra hours I stayed late and nothing more.
Well, I got paid! Isn’t that enough?
See, I really should’ve gone home. I wanted to go home. I didn’t feel well and the best place for me was back in bed but because I want to be a go along guy, but because I want to please my client and I want to garner their favor I hung in there and made sure everything went out. It went out on deadline and it looked damn good when it did.
I made my client look good in the process and took care of what was a problem (or what would’ve been a problem for some other people if they had to stick around and deal with the situation).
Now, what did it get me?
Nothing.
And that’s the contract today between employee and employer. You are a resource and a disposable one at that. If the time comes your employer is slow they will no longer carry you during those slow periods – it simply doesn’t happen anymore.
The question I have is when you take that off the table, what’s left?
Anyway, in this instance I really do like my client, I like the company, I like working with people there and I even enjoy the work at times. I make a point of saying that because I don’t want to present myself as some bitter malcontent but at the same time I find it would be foolish not to recognize the dynamics of the workaday world.
I wound up going to a clinic locally to get the care I needed and I really, really needed the care. I had to take antibiotics because it was pretty bad. Through it all I kept working, didn’t miss a day but I will say I kept to a schedule that was easy on me.
How do I find myself in this situation? I wonder about it myself but I think it is a more common occurrence for a growing number of people in our country and this is where our system is failing. Our system is failing in the sense that there are people, people who work and who are trying to make a go of it but the deck seems so entirely stacked against them currently it is near to impossible for them to make ends meet.
I know in my case, it got to the point where I was paying for my own medical coverage and this was what I consider to be standard coverage and it was costing almost $1,000 a month!
So, I had to drop my coverage and what I have now isn’t even slightly adequate. It’s faux insurance. It doesn’t cover visits and like I said earlier the maximum yearly benefit is $1,000 a year.
So, when people rail about Obamacare as the Health Care Reform Act is derisively referred to I find myself stepping back for a second, asking them what in particular is their issue with the legislation itself. Then I ask them it they’ve read the bill (in most cases they haven’t) and take a few moments to lay out the arguments about why the bill is actually a good thing for everyone in this nation.
Anyway, this was just one of those snippets laying around in my draft queue and I wanted to get it up and this is where it led me.
More can be said on this topic but let’s leave it for another day. In the meantime, I am like a shark once more swimming to find my next meal.
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