DUmmies Give Career Advice

[GOBUCKS]

DUmmy SmileyRose, a nameless, faceless, heretofore unheard of unterprimitiven comes up with a pretty good introductory bouncy about what a hardworking, vicitimized DUmmy she is:

SmileyRose (1000+ posts)      Fri May-20-11 10:10 PM
Original message
My poor poor boss.
First, a little background

I work for a family business of about 10 employees plus 3 family and 2 inlaws. 30 years in business catering to the upper 5% of the world the family has millions put away. The business is worth millions. The real estate is worth millions. The inventory is worth millions. Their connections are worth millions.

They pay decent. Treat employees like humans. 3 yrs ago, when the economic shit hit the fan, they gave up salaries and lived off their millions. Gave us 30% pay cuts, laid off half the salary people. We all, owners included, are putting in 50-60 hr weeks or more. Often more for them.

After the pay cuts and with the extra hours

I MAKE LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE.

I DRIVE AN HOUR EACH WAY IN METRO ATLANTA TRAFFIC TO GET IT.

I would be financially better off to quit my job and find a McJob close to home so we can jettison my paid for old gas guzzler car. I stayed because we all assumed it would be temporary. I stayed because the working conditions are amazing. I stay because my job is relatively secure and I fear the change. I stay because after 60 hrs of constant multitasking, I'm just too exhausted to work at my own life.

After 3 years of this I am getting angry. There have been too many comments in meetings about how the owners are sick of being poor how we need to step it up and get the money flowing so we can all be happy again. Rude words about how costs in China just keep going up. Rude words about "the food stamp president". And over time, I realize. These "nice" people are my enemy.

They will never give us our 30% back and will keep demanding more and more for the pittance they pay. They could care less about me and mine. Will step on me if they have to and try to convince me how nice they are by stepping on me with the fuzzy house slippers instead of the hob nail boots.

What is sickening is that making a change of employment makes little difference - if it can even be done. College people are working McJobs in Atlanta. There's not a whole lot of hope I'll do much better.

So I'll sit there, and do my job, and make them rich, and listen to their stupid little comments about how bad they have it.

****ing assholes.

 
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1144998


DUmmy Brickbat demonstrates how far out of touch with reality the DUmmies are:

Brickbat  (1000+ posts)      Fri May-20-11 10:15 PM
Response to Original message
2. Why not organize?

DUmmy luckyleftymenumber starts with some amazingly bad (and amazingly illiterate) advice:

luckyleftyme2 (1000+ posts)     Fri May-20-11 10:37 PM
Response to Reply #3
14. you need to be told the truth
 
If they gave you a 30% pay cut and have millions =an[sic] you make less than min. wage after 60 hours-you must be salary. an[sic] a poor one at that. If you have skills enough to multi-task and are doing the job of an office manager its[sic] time you spoke up!
Believe me you can find another job! So go in their[sic] tomorrow and tell them if they can't give you a decent living wage then you will need to put your skills on the market(get another job) they will either give it to you or find" ANOTHER SUCKER" either way you will be better off!

Then he changes gears, and tries to spin a bouncy of his own, which is as sad as it is comical:

If your[sic] as good at organization as my last sectary[sic] they will be lost without you. she was so good she could type ,answer the phone,make sure I had my morning coffee,have all my appointemts[sic] lined up for the day sew a button on my suit coat an fill me in on the local gossip etc etc.
believe me they don't want to lose you! so don't cave in! cuz they will try that first! then they will up the ante!

DUmmy cameozalaznick thought "catering to the upper 5% of the world" meant literally catering, that the OP DUmmy spends the day bringing in big trays of Salisbury steak to groups of rich guys:

cameozalaznick (562 posts)      Fri May-20-11 10:21 PM
Response to Original message
6. Have you considered taking what you've learned there...
 And going into the catering business yourself? Sure you won't be able to start where they are now, but start small, keep your overhead low (work out of your house for a while), and who knows, in a few years you could be competing with them for jobs. There's no secret to starting a small business. Get some business cards printed, take out a DBA, get whatever license you need to operate a catering business and start networking. You'll collect a deposit on your first job which will help you defray the costs of said job. There are lots of networking opportunities in every medium sized cities. Some are free, some are cheap.

Or tell your boss that you're planning to do it unless they start treating you better. As an employer, you never want good people to become your competition.

There's nothing more effective than threatening your employer. This is why DUmmies are so successful in life.

Hannah Bell  (1000+ posts)        Fri May-20-11 10:26 PM
Response to Original message
8. thought you said they treat the employees like humans....

More good advice:

unkachuck  (1000+ posts)        Fri May-20-11 10:26 PM
Response to Original message
9. "****ing assholes."
 ....who are the assholes?

"So I'll sit there, and do my job, and make them rich, and listen to their stupid little comments about how bad they have it."
....quit! 

   

ohheckyeah  (1000+ posts)      Fri May-20-11 10:31 PM
Response to Original message
11. Get a work at home on the computer job.
There's a pile of them and many that are legit. I have one that pays twice what anything around here pays per hour.

Stuff envelopes, work on the computer, mystery shopper - where do people find out about these great jobs? No one has matchbooks anymore, and matchbook covers were the only place I ever saw the applications.

[BEG]

The OP has NO IDEA what it takes to run a company, what it takes to start a company or what financial troubles their boss may have.  This DUer assumes the financial situation of their Employer, they have no actual proof.

Be grateful you have a job, if you think you can get a McJob and make more money then quit and stop bitching. You won't though. 

[BattleHymn]

believe me they don't want to lose you! so don't cave in! cuz they will try that first!

DUmmie, I can almost assure with 100% certainty that this is what will happen:

[jtyangel]

Stuff envelopes, work on the computer, mystery shopper - where do people find out about these great jobs? No one has matchbooks anymore, and matchbook covers were the only place I ever saw the applications.

Umm, I think one of the more active members on this board works a job like this. Maybe she'd know.


as for the rest of it, ignore all the memes about the 'rich boss' and basically the DUmmie is realizing you can't have it all. Sometimes people have to choose work environment over pay/benefits/opportunity or visa versa. My guess with what the DUmmie referred to regarding China, she works in one last bastion of manufacturing. Probably a small company struggling to stay afloat. You think she'd commiserate with their struggle against the evil ChiComs. We all know in the end though, this will be the AMERICAN EMPLOYER'S fault. You think the DUmmie would be happy to be living her ideals and helping the american manufacturer stay afloat. Sounds like those ideals get shaky when a DUmmie is personally affected. The boss should sacrifice, but she should not.

[JohnnyReb]

Or tell your boss that you're planning to do it unless they start treating you better. As an employer, you never want good people to become your competition.

The DUmmie will never be "competition.

1-Dummie doesn't have any startup capital.
2-DUmmies doesn't have good credit.
3-DUmmie doesn't have the required smarts.
4-DUmmie won't work the long hours needed.
5-DUmmie will lie, cheat, steal and lose customers.
6-....list goes on and on. 

[DumbAss Tanker]

So leave, bitch.  If you're as good as you say (Fat chance) you can do better.  If you're stretching the truth beyond all resemblance of reality, well, may you better just STFU and keep your job.

 

[jukin]

Trust me, at some point as an owner you get tired of working 60+ hours a week and not taking any money home. Then you shut it down. Obama is no friend to any business. Until he is out of office American business will at best go sideways as some firms close and others pick up that business. There will be no uptick in overall economic conditions until he is gone. No sane business person that is not locked in to the government will spend or risk any capital in present conditions.

[NHSparky]

If you're making minimum wage and driving an hour each way to work, you're 1--lying, 2--an idiot, 3--both.

Then again, this IS Atlanta we're talking about here.  An hour driving in downtown traffic means about a 2-minute walk.

I still find it humorous that DUmmies are giving career advice when few if any of them have grasped the advanced technology behind the fryolator.

[Ballygrl]

After the pay cuts and with the extra hours

I MAKE LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE.

That's illegal.

[Rebel]

Brickbat  (1000+ posts)      Fri May-20-11 10:15 PM
Response to Original message
2. Why not organize?

You idiot, have you not read the entire thread? You are as stupid as a brickbat.

They pay decent. Treat employees like humans. 3 yrs ago, when the economic shit hit the fan, they gave up salaries and lived off their millions. Gave us 30% pay cuts, laid off half the salary people. We all, owners included, are putting in 50-60 hr weeks or more. Often more for them.

They're just trying to survive as a company in the Obameconomy, dickhead.

[Chris_]

Let's see... 60 hours a week, minimum wage... this pinhead makes a "salary" of about $23,000 a year.

[sybilll]

Sometimes you have to take one for the team in order to keep the doors open.  Of course, the DUmmies would not know what being a team player meant, even if it was delivered via Louisville slugger. 

[zeitgeist]

If you can draw this picture you could be become a tattoo artist.



Or better still:

Learn Massage Therapy in the privacy of your own home.

Earn money doing something you love.

[Ballygrl]

Sometimes you have to take one for the team in order to keep the doors open.  Of course, the DUmmies would not know what being a team player meant, even if it was delivered via Louisville slugger.

Hey sybilll, how you doing?

[sybilll]

Hey sybilll, how you doing?

Hey girl!  Doing fairly well, and you?  Sure miss you.