I was thinking, and getting pissed, at work tonight

This work situation is the new norm. Ronald Reagan said we would have a service economy. And this is the economy we have now. You can blame all the Republicans and some Democrats for your predicament. Better yet you can blame all the stupid asses who voted GOP for 30 years. And you can blame all the leader in the scumsucking fundy churches who helped push and validate that agenda.

Americans who vote conservative can blame themselves. And the ones who are unemployed and sick and voted GOP can stay unemployed and starve and the sick ones can die. We would not be in this mess if voters had kept putting Republicans in office.
They are responsible for starting it. And too many weak Democrats were too scared to resist.

In a perfect world, it would only be the gop voting idiots, unemployed and suffering economically. Damn shame it doesn't work that way.

your slaves. Pay them a wage instead, and make them pay their own room and board, and keep them in debt.

I decided I had enough, oddly it wasn't over work conditions, mine were just slightly better. But, it was because I had heard one too many lies from management.

why would you NEED anything????

I have a Neato XV12 clean my house every day.

But then they might not need you to work so many hours.

by voting Republican. Republicans always leave people in this kind of a mess, working way too many jobs and too afraid to unionize because they've gutted labor laws and enforcement for decades. And their ridiculous lemmings in the red states seem to think that if they don't have high wages that no one else in the country deserves 'em either, that's why they support these idiots because they think that a higher wage for you will somehow put them in the poor(er) house.

Something isn't right when people have to work like that for low wages.

If it were up to me all jobs would pay at least a living wage.

Posting your plight on the internet may feel good but does nothing to improve your situation at all.

What would you suggest?

I'm getting my kids through school in hopes they fare better then I.

What's happening is just disgusting.

and, believe me, he doesn't have it much better than the hourly people. He makes less than $35,000 Per year and is required to work at least 60 hours per week wth one day off. Because there is only one other manager on staff, he usually ends up working closer to 70 hours. That means his hourly wage is about $10. His health insurance is a joke, and we have huge medical bills for all the numerous basic services that it doesn't cover. He has to take public transportation to work because we can't afford the gas for him to drive. That also adds a extra 90 minutes to every work day because of fixed schedules.

But the District Manager drives a Mercedes and the Regional VP drives an expensive Jaguar. The point is, everyone who works in the stores (except pharmacists, who are treated like royalty) is treated like serfs and slaves. It's only corporate people who have any chance to get ahead.

And they are always on the store managers to watch every hour, every penny. They can't hire more people because the bosses want more profit.

lots of folks looking at the same imbalance . . .

Without giving too much information, I work for a small locally owned company with several divisions and interests.

My responsibilities are in a retail design store and involve many different skills such as: promoting the store through any possible means including facebook, accounting work like purchase orders - receiving items - processing invoices - invoicing sales - monitoring financial reports - closing out the profit and loss statements at month end, helping stage the store, updating displays, meeting with sales reps to keep up with the latest products, estimating large installation jobs, design work on home remodel projects - colors - furniture, etc. and most importantly servicing customers with a smile on my face.

My hours are 8 to 5 week days. I arrive at work at about 7:30 every day and stay until 5:00. I never, ever leave the store for lunch, which means I am working more than 9 hours per day. I am only allowed to turn in 8 hours per day and no one has asked me to work more than the 8 hours, but it takes that and more to accomplish all those tasks. Occasionally I am allowed some overtime to meet with out of town clients on Saturdays. I am paid a reasonable hourly wage (although it is less than I asked for) and a small commission, which has been cut two times in the past 18 months.

I am very conscientious about the quality of my work. My parents taught me that if you work hard and do a good job, you will be rewarded. I am the top sales person in this store. Instead of being rewarded, my commission gets cut.

And on top of that about a year ago (right around the time my commission was first cut) an additional designer was hired - a very talented person who does nothing with the talent. This person arrives at about 8:30, proceeds to sit and drink coffee for a couple of hours, doodles and draws room layouts most of the rest of the day, gets mad if anything is moved around in the store, goes out on consultations for hours and only charges the client for one hour, travels for the store as an outside sales person about one day per month - but doesn't even leave until about 10:00 and returns at about 3:30, spending about 4 hours of that on the road. Sales? Almost nothing. Not producing at all.

The store has been in business for years and is doing okay - not great, but not horrible - about what could be expected considering this economy. Traditionally, January and February are slow months. But March has been a lot better. The other day the owner came in my office and asked about March sales. I pulled up the appropriate report and said that March was looking quite good. He said: "Well good because if it doesn't get better, some changes will have to be made." I am sitting there thinking that he should get rid of the dead weight sales person not producing, but who knows what will happen. I am trying not to worry because I think it would be quite silly of him to not keep his top sales person.

Hard work is no longer rewarded in today's society and that is a real problem.

nt

even harder with no monetary compensation.

Upper management is compensated well and many are just dead weight getting in the way of efficiency, especially in the furniture division which makes beautiful custom built upholstered furniture right on site. If promoted correctly, that division would be a gold mine. But of course, no one has the foresight to advertise it correctly.

I hope you can find a better job. K&R

fortunately i have this weekend off and slept til noon