Good News at Work

Hey, how about some good news from the workplace?

First, you might recall the post I wrote back in April in which I started to wonder just how much longer I was going to be around there since they let one of the other proofreaders go. Fortunately, they were the only part of the puzzle that wasn’t considered very useful and thinking about this person’s work ethic, it really wasn’t all that surprising to hear they given the ax.

But being a contractor is kind of like being a mobster in that you’ll never know when you’ll get whacked and when one of your fellow mobsters is taken out, there’s fear you might be next. That’s just how it is.

And now that we’ve gotten word of yet another huge project coming our way, several new proofreaders have been hired in to handle most of the new stuff while the veterans tackle the daily workload. But what irked me about having all these neophytes in my workspace is that I inadvertently learned that they were hired in at a higher rate of pay than I’m currently making, even after being on the job for almost a year (my anniversary being on October 11, 2011).

Naturally, I had to inquire about this so I made a call to the HR person the day I found out. After an explanation that completely justified their rate of pay, I was told that not only was I respected at the office by my bosses and whomever, I had also made significant improvement since coming aboard.

As a result of all of this, I was told to expect a raise of $2/hr. on the day of my anniversary which will move us into a much better position than we’re in now and is a practically livable wage. With the week-long Christmas shutdown and the unpaid day-after-Thanksgiving we have, this raise couldn’t have come at a better time. And with the overtime we’ve been promised, things will be even better.

The meeting, however, was not without its awkward sitcom moment. That’s because I came across the ad for the job on CareerBuilder, which prompted me to be asked if I was in the market to find something else.

Ahem.

I told them that honestly, yes, I was looking at one point and that as a result of having my resume on that site, I still get (often unrelated to my employment history) job alerts sent to my inbox. I was naturally curious seeing the ad for my current employer so I clicked the link and saw the rate of pay being offered. And that’s what prompted my inquiry. A little uncomfortable but hearing both sides, all went well and probably better than I had expected.

So all in all, things are looking up at work in terms of my performance, respectability, and compensation. Although it goes without saying, I think my job search has been temporarily put on hold as the onslaught of work is expected to hit us tomorrow. Between this and working at my friend’s place delivering pizzas, I think we’ll be fine. And if not for the fact that I had to buy a new set of tires for my car a few weeks ago to the tune of $400, we would have already had a jump-start on the shutdown and Christmas shopping.

Despite that and taking the OT and new pay rate into consideration, I’m pretty sure we’ll be back on track in no time.

Good news — finally 🙂