Culture Shock, part 1.
One interesting thing about this new job: I'm starting at a salary that's higher than the official pay scale for the position. During the second interview, my supervisor-to-be asked, in an offhand sort of way, what I'd been earning at my last position. I naively told the truth without a second thought and the interview continued.
A couple of weeks later, when I was signing the contract in her office, she mentioned that the starting pay range for this position was actually lower than what I was being offered. Since the company didn't expect me to take a pay cut to work with them (clever bunch, huh?), they decided to match my previous salary as an enticement. The catch? I'm not permitted to discuss my pay with anyone, ever. Why? In case it breeds envy, resentment and dissatisfaction among my colleagues.
This is my new ecology.
A couple of weeks later, when I was signing the contract in her office, she mentioned that the starting pay range for this position was actually lower than what I was being offered. Since the company didn't expect me to take a pay cut to work with them (clever bunch, huh?), they decided to match my previous salary as an enticement. The catch? I'm not permitted to discuss my pay with anyone, ever. Why? In case it breeds envy, resentment and dissatisfaction among my colleagues.
This is my new ecology.
posted by Labris @ 9:58 p.m.
1 Comments:
At 10:03 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
As a longtime drone of office culture I can appreciate comments made on the blandness and mind-numbing environment that the office job provides. The constant clicking of computer keys in an otherwise silent maze grinds at you like chinese water torture on your forehead. Its all about the prairie dogging, popping your head up to see whats going on. It takes 114 steps to the urinal and 126 to the pop machine. I know it takes those amounts, as I count it off silently in my head as I weave my way through the rat maze of faux-offices with no doors but markings of where doors would be ala Les Nessman at WKRP. The ultra-slow classroom style clocks, where time runs at 1/3 speed of what your body clock would suggest. It drives you mental.
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