Category: Antiwork

I've been working for a major healthcare company for 4 months, doing WFH customer service so I can finish my masters. This company is a giant, billion dollar insurance company, all over the world, and yet, give no annual raises, no annual bonuses, only quarterly merit based bonuses. Normally, I'm not opposed to merit based compensation, as long as there are other ways to get bonused or raises. But, not even when adding skill sets do they give a raise (we're trained for one line of business, and can train for others down the line). Only merit based or promotions. Is this common now? Of course, the requirements to 'bonus' every quarter are strict and difficult to reach. I've worked many jobs in my life (mid thirties), and have never seen one that only provides this kind of thing.

My partner works for a large scale green energy company. At the beginning of the year the company switched from using ADP to Paylocity for payroll. Since doing so every single check my partner has got, has been incorrect in terms of hours paid, taxes taken out, he was even charged for per diem that was supposed to be given to him. Obviously he immediately brought it up and was told it wasn’t just him but the whole company is having trouble getting everyone’s checks right. He was reassured that he would get what he was owed on his next check. Even though we needed the money asap he didn’t want to cause an issue and decided to wait. Skip to next check, the money owed to him is still not there, AND the check is completely wrong again. Missing almost 40 hours of overtime pay, getting charged state taxes…

We are trying to change programs for my job. Because some people don’t realize the office walls are thin, I overheard that they would rather I re- enter data just for it to be lost in the program change and have to re-enter it again than to let me have a day off while they get the program ready to launch. It is a literal waste of time. Guess who will be looking busy and NOT entering the extra data? Yup. It’s also funny because not one of them even has the log in to the program to check my work. All because letting me have a day off would apparently be too much.

Will you get a higher salary increase than those who are doing the bare minimum? No. More in bonuses? No. But you will be rewarded by being given more work to do and more will be expected of you. You will be held to a higher standard than people who do minimal work. If that's how it's going to be then you might as well do the bare minimum.

But if the pay isn't adequate, nothing else matters. I'm sure people would be willing to move jobs and take a pay cut for a better office culture (or going remote), less hours, better perks, or a better location if it was a choice between two living wages. So when some asshole hits you with “It really is all about the money to you, isn't it?” don't tell them they're right. Tell them you have your priorities in order, and that you'll give consideration to their other points once your basic needs are met.

I consider myself a good employee. Even at a young age I took job responsibilities pretty seriously, probably because I'm a people pleaser and feel guilty if I do anything wrong. But no one is perfect and I have been fired from jobs, 2 to be exact. But let me tell you how this helped me realize employers don't give a shit about you so you shouldn't give a shit about them. First job I was fired I was in my early 20s. I had the job for a while, and during this time I moved apartments. The new apartment was further away so I saved and bought a car so I could continue to work at that establishment. My employer knew about this. The day after I moved I was 20 minutes late for work. I show up and get fired on the spot. I was angry because I…