Yesterday my husband's hours were cut... - trying to find something positive

by 5 hours a week, and because he's a supervisor, his salary will be cut by 3%.  Probably more cuts in the next few months.  I know it's not much, but it's scary.  We can't afford it (we're barely making it now), but we'll manage.  I've already taken a second part-time job to supplement my FT at MQ and am looking for another full-time job - that's not MT related.

The company he works for is over 100 years old and has never had layoffs.  They are cutting everyone's hours and supervisors' salaries in order to avoid laying people off in all departments.  All management in his company has taken deep pay cuts, no more "perks", no more bonuses.  The owner of the company stopped taking a salary a year ago!

We were talking last night and I told him that he should be grateful.  (1) He has a job.  (2) He'll be losing money in order to help someone else keep their job.  (3) He's valued and appreciated by his company.

That's in such contrast to what's happening here.  When was the last time you heard that MQ management is making sacrifices?  We do the work and they make money off of our skills.  Our wages get cut, but their's don't.  The suits at MQ make hundreds of thousands of dollars year; many of the MT/ME/MME are making minimum wage or less, struggling to survive.  We are expected to do perfect work.  If we don't we are reprimanded and made to feel like we're somehow defective because we couldn't understand some mush-mouthed ESL doctor.

The suits at MQ come up with bad, unworkable, unrealistic ideas (the cesspool, and ASR program that is a piece of crap,  Schedule Source, doing away with the CTLs, etc., etc.) and they don't get fired.  They just go on to the next bad idea.  With each of these bad ideas, WE take the hit.  We lose money (remember the cesspool?). Some of us are still in that cesspool.  They don't care, they abandon the bad idea and come up with another bad idea.  

At least my husband's company is making company-wide sacrifices, and if it means that the custodian or the gardener is able to keep his job, then my husband, the CEO, the CFO, the COO and ALL of the employees can be proud they saved someone's job. 

We're making sacrifices for no reason but corporate greed.  We sacrifice and they get rich.  Corporate profits go up, but nothing trickles down.  To show their "appreciation" they give us a Chapstick!  They send us meaningless letters to let us know how much we're appreciated and then they laugh all the way to the bank. 

Boy, this is screwed up! 

I'm just happy that at least my husband is associated with an ethical company.

My wish for all of you is that you have good health in the coming year, new jobs if that's what you want, that you develop new skills that are not MT related (if that's what you want), and realize that you are valued by your fellow MTs/MEs/MMEs, that you have close relationships with your families and that you experience love.