April 24, 2008 8:52 am
Dear First-Time-Employees,
A first job in the rat race will generally just give you a so-so pay, ranging from 7 000 pesos - 15 000 pesos GROSS. Even in the Call Centre industry 18 000 pesos GROSS is already a miracle. Deduct tax, SSS and all other contributions and that’s what we call NET. So yeah, shit for pay. Yeah, how to survive on shit for pay and there’s really no manual for that (but I’m working on it). It’s all part of the first-time process.
Tip: Get a TIN and SSS number. If you don’t have a TIN but still get tax deductions, the company is using your tax to pay for part of your salaries and other things like your boss’s parlor and spa treatments. If you don’t have an SSS number but still get deductions, that’s supposedly “ok lang” because SSS contributions are retroactive. Meaning, the company will just shoot your contributions when you finally get a number and you can avail of the SSS benefits.
Anyway the first-time-process and other things can transform you to a rat after 6 months if you don’t WAKE UP to certain facts of the working life:
1. IT’S JUST A JOB, not your life.
It’s always a bad idea to make your first (or nth) job your life. This condition is usually characterized by waking up to go to work, being at work, then going home from work, and sleeping and dreaming of work.
Consequence: You are always tired, you feel awful, and you turn into an asshole (doesn’t matter if you’re male or female) or make you turn to booze (that makes you into a snarly asshole). Either way, you will get dumped by your lovey-dovey and you get zero free sex.
2. If after SIX MONTHS you’re not regularized and you don’t get a standard 10% increase on your salary: RESIGN.
If I were your money-making-mongering boss, why would I pay you more when I can get you to work and work and work without increasing your pay or giving you miraculous benefits---- like transportation allowance, food allowance, sick&co. leaves, and that card that you use to get free medical services when you get sick from work and work and work?
Tip: Even if you’re not a regular employee, you’re entitled to sick leave based on the Labor Code of the
Consequence: You’re a slave. (Do you think Britney Spears’ “I’m a slave 4 U” is a love song too?) What are you? Living in colonial times? Or as I would say, “Kung sa lagay na yan, tang ina nag-college ka pa. Tang ina, nagtratrabaho and binabayaran ka pa kuno. Tang ina ni wala ka ngang pambili ng 20 pesos na cellphone load sa lagay na yan eh. Tang inang trabahong yan. Pak shet, gumugulong ako sa zig-zag oh!”
3. “Resign? But then I won’t have money so how will I survive?”
Consequence: You’re trapped in a shitty job by that worry.
Fact: That worry never goes away.
You will ALWAYS worry about money whether you’re being paid in shit or in gold. There will ALWAYS BE NEVER ENOUGH MONEY for you to buy this, pay that or for you to do what you want whether you’re being paid in shit or in gold. Choose to worry about that while being paid in gold OR choose a job that would make you feel good despite the shitty pay and suffer the consequences.
4. “Shitty pay is okay because I’m learning a lot anyway, getting working experience in other fields besides mine.”
Bullshit. You know why I say that is bullshit? Because I used to brainwash employees with that thought and I was being paid in gold while doing it. I would even make you believe that you’re a very important part of something so big, something visionary (while you’re being paid with and treated like shit) because you’re helping us achieve the Filipino Dream. And I could even make you believe that paying for something in behalf of the company means being “resourceful” (which I learned from my super bosses). I was so good at it too... Damn, my soul is going to...
Text message:
Hi Ma! How are you?
Can you please add an extra 100 to the 200 Hail Marys you pray everyday?
Thanks! I love you!
That is what also makes bosses stay bosses: they motivate you to do the jobs of three or more people when you’re only being paid for one. They can even motivate you to do their job(s) for them, too.
Consequence: You’re being used and you believe that and being a “slasher” or a “multi-tasker” is for your own good and the good of your “career”. You will even begin to think that you’re indispensable to the company because you’re super-utility-employee: that it would all fall apart if you’re not there. Bullshit.
5. You’re not THAT important.
If you were, you would’ve been regularized and given an increase before 6 months.
You’re TISSUE: disposable.
Really, you will think that you can’t demand what is rightfully yours because you also know that there a fresh-crop of graduates and people who didn’t even go to college who are desperate for any job, including yours. You believe that you’re lucky to even have a job because you know that your boss would rather get them than retain you with an increase in pay + benefits. Getting them would be cheaper for your boss because they can also do your job(s) and maybe would be more industrious at it, too. For general information, this strategy is what malls use on their contractual employees. Look at how rich the owners are.
And for your gleeful information, this is why a lot of companies don’t get graduates from UP, Ateneo and
6. And here’s that unvoiced thought “I’m scared to leave my first (shitty) job...”
Because you don’t know where you’re going next.
Because you don’t want to go through the whole hoopla of applying for jobs, waiting, interviews, waiting, and not having money while at it again.
Because you’re so “busy” and “tired” from your “job” that you don’t have time and energy to look for and go through other opportunities.
Because “Hey, I’m comfortable in this job. I know how to go about it. A new job would mean going back to zero. And hey, I have friends here already.”
7. The “friends-at-work-who-make-me-stay” Theory.
Sure, it’s all good if you acquire friends at work and get along with everyone. It makes you feel that you belong the way you belong among your friends or in your college organizations. But really you’ll stay because you like the people in a job that’s making you feel like shit and paying you shit?
And really, these “friends” would not hesitate to leave you when they leave for a better-paying “job.” You have to have that special connection to stay friends and it takes a lot of effort to stay friends with them because you’re doing different things already.
Ask anyone who has been working for years if they managed to retain their work-buddies. They will say that you become “buddies” because you’re at the same place and at the same time and share the same interest--- and that’s work AND bitching about your stupid boss and the stupid policies at work.
And really, through time you don’t want to be “buddies” with anyone at and from work because you’re sick and tired of looking at their faces for eight hours or more a day. You get sick and tired of going out to have “fun” with them because you end up talking about work (which makes you uptight whining bitches and bastards). And you get sick and tired of their borrowing money from you which they don’t pay. Don’t acquire this buddy-habit which is easy to acquire on a first job. Get a life.
Warning: In the rat race, the general rule is “You scratch my back and I’ll stab yours.” Your so-called friend will “make you laglag” if she or he thinks that you’re a threat to his/her position or to the company’s “mission and vision”.
WARNING: Generally, working is thought of as a matter of “use”. You think you’re using them also while they use you? Are you and the company getting the same benefits from this mutual “use”? What, they get to take your life or soul while they give you free food and drinks and “work experience”?
8. The “kapit-sa-supervisor-or-boss-pati-their-friends” Strategy.
You won’t believe how many people use this strategy and really think that it works because it’s supposedly good for future contacts.
You will hear people say, “My supervisor/boss and I are tight, pare. He/She will take care of me. I get to meet a lot of new and powerful people because of them and I get to experience new things.”
So, if you’re “tight” and you’re “being taken care of”:
How come you didn’t get that regularization in six months?
How come you’re getting a shitty pay?
How come you got shit for a salary increase?
How come you didn’t get what you wanted or thought you deserved?
How many times have you heard your supervisor say “Yeah, yeah, I’m working on it. Kuha lang ng tamang timing” when you gingerly remind his/her about your status? (And you’re the one who feels embarrassed or bad because you did that.)
How many times did you hear “Hey, I know you’re swamped but favour naman oh...Can you do this and that? Thanks! By the way, come to my party!” (You’d feel so grateful and I can make you do more things.)
How many rich and powerful people remembered you if you’re not with the connecting contact?
Wake up to the reality that you’re all employees, as powerless and as disposable as each other. If the supervisor had so much power, then why isn’t she/he the BIG BOSS? Wake up to the reality that you’re the employee and that’s your supervisor programmed to brainwash you to work, work, work for shitty pay. Wake up to the reality that even if your supervisor is a friend or a good person, she/he will get a memo from the BIG BOSS that says “The employee wants what?! No, I don’t want to give that employee that regularization or that salary raise because I’m going to lose more money and because... I say so! I don’t care if you say the employee worked his/her ass off. That’s expected. Hello?! The employee’s threatening to leave? Tell the employee ‘thanks for your amazing service yadadyada’ and send the fucker packing.”
And here’s another important tip: If there’s a frequent turnover in employees (meaning a lot would resign, even supervisors) then get out of that job ASAP. That means it’s a shitty company with shitty bosses and shitty policies.
9. And after more than 6 months or so, you finally get a shitty less-than-10%-increase:
Was it worth
Your amazing talent
Being one of the most unique persons in the world
Your beliefs
Your health
Everything else that you might have lost like your soul or people
10. Of course you’re not stupid. First jobs (and jobs in general) can just make you be so good at playing stupid.
It’s just a first job, there are other jobs, wake up.
A first (shitty) job is a stepping stone that’s good for 6 months, wake up.
It’s just a job, not your life, wake up.
School’s out: WELCOME TO THE RAT RACE.
1 comment:
Thank you for the reminders.hahaha. I think natamaan ako dun sa hindi pa regular and pinapagawa na ng trabaho ng tatlo -->so all-in-one ang concept ko. Will remember this.
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