I’ve worked the last 9 years at an electronics manufacturing facility. The pay isn’t great, but isn’t too low either. People get $35-$45/hr based on experience, but its still not enough to keep up with the cost of living in this city. This year we got bullshit raises that were around 25 cents on average. Their reason was “the company isn’t making enough money” clearly a lie since all the executives got huge bonuses for exceeding their targets. Today I was on lunch break with a coworker who has been here for 15 years. He told me he used to think I was lazy, but now he realizes I’ve been working smart this entire time. I come in and do the bare minimum for 8 hours then clock out and go home. My assigned tasks are finished on time everyday, and I take my sweet time completing them. I always refuse overtime unless I’m in need of extra money(my enjoyment of life is more important to me than a few extra hours of pay that mostly disappears to taxes anyways.) And I never go above and beyond to try and help out the company. My coworker on the other hand is a robotic yes man. Never says no to extra tasks or overtime and kills himself getting all the work done even though its detrimebtal to his physical and mental health. There were certain years he did 1000+ hours of overtime. Me and him get the same hourly rate, and there is no room for promotions within the company. We’re stuck doing what we do until we retire or quit. The big shot office workers on the other hand get regular promotions and big bonuses while we get bonuses at all. There was a recent payroll leak at work, a document was printed to a public printer on the floor and we all got to see what everyone in the company got paid last year including bonuses. My friend was not happy at all. I told him these guys get promotions and bonuses by exploiting people like you who do all the hard work that actually makes the company money. This is when he finally saw the light, and now he is doing the bare minimum just like I’ve been doing