While there is still a couple weeks left until the close of the year, because the team I work within is shifting the cadence of the milestone planning that affects bonuses, I have until Friday to complete the tasks. While I am not going to complete everything, 80% completion will be enough to gain 100% of the bonus, so I should scrape in and get the bonus, though it won't actually be paid until probably February or so.
It has been an intense quarter.
Because I have been doing dual (or perhaps triple) roles, everything has become more challenging than normally. But what has been the bigger issue is that as I am responsible for onboarding new employees into the Sales organization, there has been several unexpected hires that have come in, triggering my "normal work", except on the US side of the equation, which isn't my region. This takes a massive amount of time, but is absolutely necessary to do in a timely fashion, so it has to get jammed into wherever it is possible. This week, my new counterpart starts, but before they are able to do any of this work, I have to onboard them first - which takes even more time.
But, with only a week and a half left until Christmas, I am already looking forward to having a few days off and spending some time away from work. I had the intention to shutdown my work PC completely, but it looks like I will have to support a session on one of the days at least, which is pretty frustrating, as I have put this week aside for a while now. However, they hire people when they hire people, though I think they could have started the week after new year instead, considering that so many people are out of the office. Oh well.
I still need to get into the discussion about salary for 2023, so I guess this gives me a little more ammunition in that process, though I get the feeling that it is going to be an uphill battle. Employers have to consider these things seriously however, because there are options out there and if they want to keep their senior people, they are going to have to pay their senior people adequately, especially considering the state of the economy and expectations for cost of living in the coming year or two.
I am hoping that my wife is going to be able to negotiate something too, as her role deserves more than she is getting considering the effort she is putting into it and, the importance of it. The companies of course don't want to commit to increasing fixed costs with so much uncertainty in the market places, and they are essentially relying on people to "want to keep their job security" rather than attracting them to want to stay. This is not a good path for a business to take long-term though, as it can heavily impact on corporate culture and can breed other internal issues.
But, despite what many people seem to think, having a job that doesn't pay quite enough is still far better than not having a job at all or, not being able to cover the basics of life. Too many people have this expectation that they have to always get paid what they think they are worth, and burn bridges along the way, leaving themselves struggling and under financial duress for long periods of time.
Working conditions might not be ideal, but when are any conditions ideal? So many people get onto their high-horse about working conditions, yet the people who generally believe that they are not getting paid enough, often aren't the ones who actually deserve to get paid more. Often, they are the underperformers who overvalue their contribution to the organization and are often a burden on colleagues, not a support. This doesn't mean it is always the case, but over the years of consulting in various businesses, a lot of the biggest complainers are the ones who are lucky to be employed at all.
I think employment growth is somewhat of an investment mindset, where there is the work done now in order to get access to improved opportunity later. That time, energy and effort investment can see a far greater return in the future, where at that point, the return outweighs the effort invested. It is like putting money in for a compounding return where the initial cost is now generating significant gain.
I don't know if in five years from now it will have an impact like this for me, but in that five years, it is also possible that my investments into other activities starts to realize significant gains too. This means that the employment path is more of a hedged bet, rather than something I am relying completely upon and what it means is that either way, between now and the future, I am able to provide for my family, rather than have to worry about everything, every moment of the day.
But, just like I am looking forward to a week off, I am also crossing my fingers that at some point, I won't have to work at all and then can instead, pick and choose what I do, because the money won't matter as much.
That'd be nice.
I don't know what the odds are that it will work that way, but I am pointing my actions in that direction. I am guessing I am not the only one here doing the same.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
