u/eightballpuddy69

Not a political person, this is not a political post, I am admittedly and for all intents and purposes, a dumbass with no dog in the fight one side or the other.

I don’t know very much about unions, but once I start overthinking the purgatory that is my career it made me think “I can see how unions get formed, I wish we had somebody to advocate for us (worker bees) and to collectively bargain on our behalf.”

So I asked ChatGPT to give me a down the middle explanation of the pros/cons of unions - pros being better benefits, better pay, continuity of work, alignment to health and professional resources, training, and safety improvements, etc.

The cons were that they can turn into a “good ol boys club” and favor the older generation who’s been around longer and is within the inner circle. The other, more poignant argument mentioned that unionization can deteriorate worker ambition, by granting protection to employees, high performers have less incentive to continue performing highly because the union can act as a governor in a way, while the low performers benefit from the union because their job is protected even if they perform poorly. Doesn’t matter, everyone is still on the same boat.

I want to be clear, I do not consider myself anything more than an average employee, but I’ve seen some terrific ones get laid off, and I’ve seen some bad ones get laid off. What I haven’t seen is my paycheck increase in size (or even return back to what it was when cerner was cutting the checks).

We don’t have a union, I don’t think I’m really advocating for one, I’d at least hear them out if someone tried to form one. But we suffer all the disadvantages union workers put up with, (There is 0 incentive to work harder at this company) and also receive none of the benefits.

This constant loop puts my brain in a spin cycle and I just can’t make it make sense. I just want someone, anyone, from upper management to look me dead in the eyes and answer the very simple question of “what is my incentive to work harder?” Because there is simply no way they could tell me “raises and promotions” and also pass a lie detector test.

Have been renovating my home office (live in a condo) and had to demo a wall. The sawzall went brrrrrrrrrrrrr and when I removed the sheet rock found I cut a coax cable that looks like it runs down to my neighbors place. He rents it out, and it’s currently unoccupied. We hate each others guts, mainly because he constantly is attempting to shake me down for money and I verbally undressed him in front of our HOA a few months back.

Anyways, if he finds out he’s going to try to parlay this into me causing other damage because he doesn’t insure his rental unit and thinks my insurance also covers his unit. You think it’ll be alright if I just reterminate the ends and add a coupling? Then put up new drywall and pretend like I know nothing? I’ve terminated a few ends in my day so I’m comfortable doing it, just didn’t know if the coax was charged or had any current running through it

I have some takes I really want to get off my chest, and since I work remotely and can’t really talk about this stuff with my actual coworkers I come here, to Peter Pan land to distribute my takes for the review of the last fiscal year.

I do not feel that I filled out a performance review, I feel like I organized an easy to digest summary for someone to review the next time layoffs come around. I filled out this review knowing full well I’m likely not getting a raise, if I do it will be insultingly low, so little that it won’t even make a difference. I know I am not getting promoted, and likely not for a couple of years minimum. That’s fine, I don’t feel I’m entitled to a promotion, and know I work with many much more deserving people that have a deservedly better spot in line. That’s life, and I want my (cool) coworkers to thrive.

What I filled out this year was not a review. It has no impact on me financially, and doubtfully organizationally either. I filled out a brief summary of why they should keep me around when the next wave of massive layoffs hit. That’s the only tangible benefit I can see in it. All I did was just go to bat as hard as I possibly could for my own self, so that on some random day on some random month, I do not wake up to a cowardly, gutless email telling me my services are no longer necessary. It sounds nihilistic but what’s the point to this? What is our incentive to work harder? It’s not to progress at this point, it’s simply just to stay alive.

I don’t know what the decision making level people are thinking, and I certainly don’t think I’d ever make it as far to be one of those people, but what is it? Do they just think it’s a privilege to work for Oracle? That their employees will just grip it tighter and push it harder year after year, for …….what?

I actually like my job and the people I work with, which has never really happened to me before. But at my other jobs that I hated I could at least see the path. That ____ went from entry level consultant, to a lead consultant, to managing a team, to managing projects, to managing managers, then to the c-suite. Or that my coworkers remember when the division head was just a lowly middle manager yada yada. I couldn’t even tell you what I’d consider to be the next vertical leap for me, and at this rate, how long it would take to even get to that point.

Just sucks. I like it here but I have to do Olympic level mental gymnastics to convince myself that I could be crushing it here or achieving my goals someday. When you sign your paperwork to become an employee it should just say “we’ll cut you a check every 2 weeks and provide some pretty good benefits but that’s really all you can count on”