Sunday, February 8, 2009

My Support and Dedication!?

I was in a bad mood when I got to work today. It appears that the bad mood is going to continue. Why you ask? Because here in Amy's real world. Life sucks. I was in a bad mood for a dumb reason. I'll admit to that. A real dumb reason. Valentines Day. I was feeling sorry for myself. It's dumb. But I'm a girl and I blame it on that. However, my current bad mood is entirely related to this.......

A letter from my company telling us we ALL must take a mandatory 1 WEEK FURLOUGH. Between Now and the end of March. Here are some of my favorite lines from this letter.
  • I know this action will create a strain on our personal budgets.
  • I know I cannot GUARANTEE that a furlough will prevent any future layoffs.
  • A Brief period without pay is better than many more layoffs.
  • Please understand that I am not trivializing the serious nature of furloughs.
  • A question and answer sheet is being prepared for distribution.
  • Thank you for your understanding, your support and your dedication.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. My response.

  • You have no fucking idea what kind of STRAIN this will place on my personal budget as you make MUCH MUCH more then I. I'm a single women with one income. I currently don't have enough left over out of my bi-weekly paycheck to go grocery shopping. I eat most meals at my parents because after $400 in rent, $326 for my car payment, $50 for my phone, $86 for electric, $40 for gas, $86 for my student loan, I have a roughly $290 a MONTH to take care of the necessities like food, clothes, anything I might need to buy for the MONTH! So no, you don't know the strain. With your company car, company credit card to pay for your meals 5 days a week, and company expense account. I don't think you can even begin to understand.
  • Well that's reassuring.
  • But you said you couldn't guarantee us you wont lay us off in the end. So really you're just blowing smoke up our asses.
  • Well thanks for that. Also thanks for the heads up. This all starts well according to the letter "over the next few days". I'm glad you cared enough about us to give us some advanced notice so we could try and prepare for this. Thanks.
  • I would think the Q&A sheet should have come out....oh i don't know when you gave us this letter. Thanks for passing it out on Friday and then not giving us this handy dandy Q&A sheet until the next week. That makes for a stellar weekend. Nice job with being half ass prepared.
  • You aren't welcome. Because I don't understand. I don't understand how you can have the guts to send us this letter after my department has hired 5 NEW people in the last week. 5 people. I'm not getting my raise, I'm being forced to take a week off with no pay, but you're hiring new people when you can't afford to pay the people who already work here. Are you fucking kidding me. My department has 5 new people LAST WEEK, Advertising has 5 new people in the last 2 weeks. And you Understand my strain. FUCK YOU! I don't support this at all. I don't support this company. I don't support the fact that no where in this letter does it mention that while the other 2 obit ladies are off for their weeks "To be determined by the department head" that I'll be working 6 days both those weeks with one day off. Or how they wont be paying us for any overtime accrue during these "Furloughs". So no I don't support you. I don't support the fact that I've been given extra work since you laid off everyone at the Hanover evening sun, making our job harder and you aren't paying me now for my extra time. And dedication. Trust in the fact that if I could find another job, I would jump this ship and never look back. This company by far has the worst employee relations. This company cares only about the money. They don't care that our department head talks to us like we're trash, they don't care that she explodes on us and other employees when ever she feels like it. She has never ONCE been reprimanded for her actions. She is the scum of the barrel.

So in short.....GO FUCK YOURSELF MEDIANEWS GROUP! Go fuck yourself.

So needless to say I have no idea what I'm going to do. I know it's just a week, but it's a WEEK with no pay when i can hardly afford to live on what I make now. I don't live an extravagant life. On this note I'm going to try and do some work and try not to short circuit my keyboard with all these tears.

4 comments:

Diane said...

Oh man, I'm sorry. I can actually FEEL your frustration through this post. I know this isn't much but I hope it's the worst there is. These are definitely uncertain and uncomfortable times. I'm sorry. Keep your chin up!

Diane said...

Oh, when I said 'this isn't much', I didn't mean what's happening to you isn't much... I meant that my little thought about hoping it was the worst thing wasn't much to offer you in the way of 'feel good thoughts'. It didn't come out right and I didn't want you to think I was minimizing what you're going through.

Amy McMean said...

It's ok I got it. I hope this is the worst also. Thanks Diane

Melissa said...

Geez, this f'in SUCKS!!! I hate when the "big" guys try to be slick and compassionate... BS!!!

Do you have the nerve to say anything to them about it?? Like, maybe they could at least split it up (2 days one week and 3 the next) so you don't have to miss out on a full week's pay!!

I'm sorry this is happening.... I agree with your sentiments.... go fuck themselves!!!