Now that I’m closing in on retirement I feel more bold about what I write regarding my workplace. I know I could get Dooced, but at this point I don’t even care.
One thing that really bothers me about the day job is the unfair way people are paid. In our agency we have everything from the most base (but very necessary) jobs like paper shredders and mail routers to those who hold advanced degrees, the likes of PhDs and MDs. As you would guess the doctors get the big money, and I suppose they should in order to pay off all of those student loans. Those without advanced degrees, or no degrees at all get paid less. Way less.
I have a college degree, but am one of the people who gets paid way less than the doctors. And the thing of it is, the doctors are always asking me questions. Not hard questions either. “Where can I get some Scotch tape?” “Do you have a stapler?” “There’s a paper jam in the copier.” These are simple questions and problems I can answer and fix, but seriously? Aren’t they smart enough to figure these things out? I don’t get paid enough to take care of people who make seventeen times more money than I do just because of the proximity of my cubicle to their problems.
Not only do these pompous high-brows not know how to work a photocopy machine, what their fax number is, or wonder if they can exit the office from a door that clearly leads into the hallway, one of them doesn’t even know how to hang his jacket.
This jacket belongs to Dr. Smart E. Pants. Quite frankly I think he gets paid way too much for not even having mastered the coat hanger. This isn’t a fluke – most days he hangs his jacket like this.
Really? Why doesn’t he just ball it up and toss it in the corner? It’s time for me to retreat into a place where the inequities of the world aren’t so obvious. Is there such a place? Above the moon? Beyond the rain? *Cue Dorothy Gale singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow*
I might never be rich but I earn my money, at the very least for my patience and tolerance, and for the simple fact that I know how to hang my clothes.
Auntie B's Wax 
Well, I don’t know if this will diminish your level of ire much but with the current job market the way it is, when you retire your replacement could very likely be someone with an advanced degree who will be paid less than you make now!
You’re probably right. Or I might not be replaced at all – I’m pretty much indispensable. What would all those doctors do without me?! My last task before I retire is to teach that guy how to hang his jacket. Drives me nuts!
Sara what I did notice in the hospital visits I had with thing one and thing two my blessed kiddies. I noticed that the Nurses did most of everything and the doctors just flapped about and made a couple of decisions. Nurses are people who I think deserve to be paid TOP notch wages……and I bet they all know how to hang a coat too! Looking forward to seeing what you do with your retirement friend.
I love that phrase – “flapped about.” Doctors get paid for their knowledge, and I get that, but common sense knowledge is worth some money too, right? Nurses deserve big money, and so do I. I’m not a nurse, but I take care of an awful lot of people in my office.
My aunt worked thirty years in the mail room at Pontiac Motors. She was often given the assignment of training a newcomer…so that they could become her boss. She was even told once, “As a man, he needs more money…he wants to find a wife, have a family…” This to a hard-working woman who was taking care of her elderly uncle, several nieces and nephews, supporting herself, purchasing her own home, etc., etc…I like to think that SOME of these conditions have improved (most employers are smart enough to not state sexual bias out loud, anyway!) but I know they still exist. Countdown to retirement, Yay!
Ugh!! I’m glad things have progressed a little since the days of your aunt, at least where I work. There is no way in hell I would train someone to be my boss. On top of that for most of my dating life I always made more money than my male counterparts; I don’t know if that says much, but I at least made enough money to earn my own way. Men need to make more money to get a wife? Yikes!!
Sara, you make some very valid points. As a Ph.D. I didn’t earn very much money because I chose to teach in a small community college rather than do research for a big private firm. But I remembered a very simple rule that many people near the top of the “food chain” forgot: always be respectful and kind to everyone–especially those people upon whom you rely because those people know EVERYTHING. In a college, the profs are at the top of the academic “food chain” (kind of like doctors in a hospital), but I always treated the secretaries (secret-keepers) and cleaning staff with kindness and respect. Heck, I treated everyone that way. I figured everyone’s job was important to the overall mission of the college in some way or another.
It wasn’t just student loans I had to pay back, but I worked by butt off for that degree. Now my starting salary was $31,000 back in 1991, which isn’t very impressive. When I retired with a disability after 15 years of work as a full professor, I was making less than $60,000. With a Ph.D. I know it’s a vastly different salary scale in health care.
Anyway, since you are such a talented person, you’ll be busy in your retirement. And that’s good. There’s only so much relaxing a person can do!
Oh, Lorna. I hope I didn’t offend you and your advanced degree. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that these somewhat ignorant PhDs and MDs in my office aren’t nice to me – they are. It’s just that I think I should get paid more for having to babysit them. And they should get paid less if they don’t know how to hang their clothes.
I know you’re smart enough to figure things out yourself and plus you probably have lovely clothes and coats that have been hung properly. You are worthy of your PhD!
I wasn’t offended at all, Sara. And you are right–they should learn to hang up their own clothes or pay you more for your services! 🙂