Monday, August 18, 2008

I can't call him Weasel anymore

Another illusion shot all to hell.

Today I met with our fine Mr. HR Person to discuss my placement on the secretary's pay scale. It starts $5000 higher than the assistant's pay scale and continues way into the stratosphere, or so it seems to one who's never expected to make nearly so much on the assistant's pay scale.

Last week I told him that Step 8 simply was too low, being $3000 less than I was making as an assistant, considering that I'll be working 10 hours more per week and two weeks more per school year than I was as an assistant. I gave him a resume of the years I worked as J's office manager when she had the Jazzercise franchise in town and the clerical work I'd done as a teacher's assistant for the 14 years in another school system. At a meeting this morning, he offered to start me on Step 22, when I'd have been willing to start on Step 15.

Good thing I didn't mention that going in.

I love my new job. I've been kept quite busy for the last week, and today the teachers started back, so the deluge begins. I had a little time to check my email while manning the phones for the main secretary's lunch hour, but that's all. It's crazy, but I love it.

I may even lose some weight from being on my feet all day.

Please forgive me for not blogging as much as I'd like to. There's so much I want to write about, but right now I'm too tired when I get home to sit at the computer. I haven't even gotten through the weekend's email yet. And I haven't had a chance to even mention the Last Train Home show we attended last weekend at Ashland Coffee and Tea. I also no longer have the use of the school's laptop, which I hope to have amended in another couple of weeks. Maybe. I mean, I hope to have my own laptop in a few weeks, not another school one. The desktop in my new office is 5 years old and won't even shut down unless I manually shut it down, much less anything else.

But I love my new job. I'm pretty damn lucky.

4 comments:

Knit and fall back in it said...

Way to step up, Mr. HR person!!

Debbie T said...

Are they hiring? (j/k) Glad you're liking your new job! :=)

Anonymous said...

Betty said...

I'm really glad the new pay scale worked out so well. What time do you get off now? I didn't realize that you'd be working longer hours. Since you get there so early most mornings, can you count that time as work time too? Anyway, I'm happy that you like your new job.

rita said...

I was shocked, I tell you. Everyone who's had any dealings with him came away with really bad news. One poor lady was told after she started working, after she'd signed her contract, that she'd been "inadvertently" given a higher salary than she should have had, the following year it would be at the "correct" level, and it would take her many years to make up for it. As if she'd determined where she started on the scale.

But I think he's a god.

I get off at 3:30 instead of 3 (and school is now starting a little later and getting out a little later, like, oh, 3:04 instead of 2:54), and the early mornings don't count. I was told to keep the lights turned off until 7:30, or keep the door closed, because soon people would expect me to start working at 7!