Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Christmas Dilema

I work for a small family-owned company. It's not my favorite job that I have ever had, but most days I don't mind it too much. It's a bit of a socialist-like environment...the 3 main people running the show and calling all the shots. Those 3 main people happen to be Bill the owner, Donna - the owner's wife, and Jan - the owner's sister-in-law. I feel I also need to add that Jan serves NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER!!! I cannot stress enough just how little and how worthless she is around here!! Maybe that's just my personal thoughts on the matter, but judging from things that others around the office have said, I think it's a general consensus.

So the Donna and Jan (aka Donnis - aka the old bats!) decide that everyone in the company is going to chip in and get Bill a Christmas present. This would be fine if it were something that was a mere suggestion or something an employee had the option to do only if they wanted to. Nope! That's not the way it works around here, folks. We are forced to "donate" $25.00 to buy whatever the 2 ladies decided to get him...and if we don't either pay or authorize the money to be withdrawn from our paycheck, they just take it out of our paycheck!

I have a few problems with this: a) I have never EVER bought a Christmas gift for a boss. Not even when I had worked at the farm for nearly 5 years for some of the nicest people I knew. (Nice meaning that they were not 2-faced, snobby, and fake, and never gave me a dirty look for any reason - whether or not I deserved it). I always thought it was a little inappropriate to get a gift for a superior. b) What the gift usually is. Last year they wanted to get him a golf cart. This year they went with a $900 telescope. Apparently he didn't even say he wanted a telescope, but he just built a new home office and the ladies think it would "look good in front of the window"...so they bought a really expensive one online that is suited more for someone that knows a little something about telescopes and space and whatnot. c) The fact that it is his wife and sister-in-law deciding that it is something we have to do, deciding on what to get, deciding how much we are supposed to give. You know, I don't typically spend that much money on my own family!!! d) What if there is someone that has fallen upon hard times and actually needs that money for something else? I have a coworker that told me one year she had to borrow money from a relative just to buy a couple of things for each of her smaller children because her husband had had s medical emergency and had been out of work for quite some time - and here the bosses wife is demanding that you give up your own cash to buy something for the boss.

HELLO!! CAN ANYONE SAY GREEDY!!!??!?!?

For a family that claims to be such good, humble small business owners, they sure are greedy! And I would venture to guess they are the greediest people I know. It's just really disappointing. It's not that I am not grateful to them for providing me with a job and it's not that I am against getting anything for the boss. I guess I just think that all of the employees should decided together on the amount that is to be given and I think that all the employees should decide together what to get, and what we decide to get should be something reasonable and not something stupid like a golf cart or NASA-worthy telescope.

Am I wrong in thinking this way?

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