Poor working conditions

Poor Greg is feeling the effect that overtime has on an employee over the long run.

This is the perfect example of why I chose to make my living as a contractor as opposed to being a fulltime employee.

Nowadays, it's too common to see management abuse their slaves^H^H^H^H^H^Hemployees by expecting absurd overtime in order to meet unrealistic deadlines or to make up for obvious resource shortages. It's acceptable in unforeseen circumstances (server crashes and you need to work the weekend to restore it and figure out what went wrong). But more than often (as evident in Greg's workplace), the management knows the problem upfront and simply ignores to resolve it properly.

Ever sit in the meeting on Friday afternoon where a deadline was missed and they need to decide on a course of action? This is the meeting where the management is looking for volunteers to come in on the weekend to get the job done. I used to despise these meetings. Now as a contractor, I have no problem with getting paid to come in.

Wanna know what's a big crock of steaming dung? The entire fallacy of an "end of year bonus". Hello?!?! Can we wake up here? That bonus is the carrot and you're the ass^H^H^Hdonkey chasing it up the mountain. I've seen people get rewarded hansomely with large performance bonuses, I've even collected a few myself. But the entire bonus system is abused and simply too subjective for my tastes. You could bust your hump working overtime all year long and at the end of the year, the amount of your bonus is at the disgression of your manager. Scumbag employers will entice their staff with promises of a bonus only to disappoint at year end with the "We're very pleased with your performance this year but we can't pay you much of a bonus because the company didn't do well financially" excuse. Quit the job before year end? Buh-bye bonus. New manager? Buh-bye brownie points for all that ass-kissing you did to the former manager.

No thanks. I'll work my contract and get paid by the hour, thank you. No big suprise envelope at the end of the year to take home to the wife, but I know exactly what I get.

It's funny but I've always had this urge to own my own company. To manage it the way I've always felt I wanted be managed; in a fair, respectable manner. I'm not going to turn this into a bile log but I am going to document my dissatisfaction with employers/managers/working conditions from my own experiences. Kind of a like a journal. Then one day...one day I'll have my own company and it'll be interesting to come back and read this stuff. Hopefully I won't have to eat my words. If I do, and you're a future employee of mine who's googled my past and you find this, feel free to throw it in my face. I promise you I'll do good on my word.