Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Employment Expectations

I work in the public sector.  My livelihood is connected to many decisions made by others who have never met me and some that have met me but my future does not even get an honorable mention where money choices are pondered and made.  The latest word on the street is that we should expect a pay cut.  This isn't the first time we've been told that, not surprising given the state of our economy in the past few years.  However, it hasn't happened before.  Pay freeze, yes.  Pay cut, not so much.
 It could be as high as 5%.  I'm trying to not focus my attention on this information until it is a done deal but after the 2% decrease in take home pay that happened in January, I'm more than a little nervous.  Right now GJS and I are on track to pay off our mortgage by December 2014.  If we don 't bring in enough money to cover our bills and put $2350 towards the mortgage each month, we fail.  Failing is not an option I'm willing to accept.  The only failure I'll allow is if one or both of us gets laid off or we have a baby.  That's it.  Nothing else is acceptable.

So I need to crunch some numbers, which I usually don't mind, but today, it just isn't going to happen willingly.  I am worn out from my job.  There is a fair amount of inequality going on already and this "threat" just puts me more and more on the defensive.  My morale is low.  I feel trapped in this choice because it is a steady pay check and I have benefits and lots of time off.  It is easy most of the time because I've been doing the same thing for almost 10 years.  I'm on autopilot.  And it is hard because I put in the same time on the job but am compensated less, with the cost of food/gas/medical insurance/every other necessity in life going up in price and my income shrinks. 

Puts more fuel in my fire to change my career path.  Just gotta get outta debt, then I'll be able to go after my dream.

2 comments:

  1. This is a problem with working in the public sector. In many (maybe most) private sector jobs, morale is considered something important. The thought is "we want to make this a place where people WANT to work". In the public sector, morale = $ and is therefore expendable.

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