I really like my job. And I'm not the kind of person who leaves a job lightly. But I've begun to think it's time I moved on.
Last year my company was purchased by a larger competitor. It seems that every time one company swallows another the first thing they do is get rid of a whole lot of people. This too was the case with my company. But my department escaped. They kept us, took a look at us in action and decided that maybe that having an in-house service department was a good idea. So it looked like I would get to keep a job I very much and joy and maybe even get ahead as it was expanded. But as Jeremy Clarkson might say, "There are a few problems." Namely they don't seem to give a damn about their employees.
The first sign came at Christmas when I received my bonus. One water bottle, festooned with the company logo, one cheap pen, six individually wrapped life savers (which I ate) and two pieces of red licorice (which I did not eat). All that with a tiny mimeographed note thanking me "for all your hard work".
I feel sooooooooooo appreciated. Next year send me nothing, it would more honest and less insulting. Then they declared that we absolutely, positively must take a half hour lunch every day. As my personal growth will attest, I am not one for missing meals. But service is by its nature unpredictable. You get to the site expecting a small problem and discover you have just entered the fifth circle of technological Hell. And I drive a lot, often over 1,000 miles in a week. It's very easy to pull into the drive through, get a meal and keep going. And I must also keep a schedule, and that sometimes doesn't work out so well. Take today. For my first call, I found that the affiliate who did the installation did a lousy job of it, not meeting our standards. Most affiliates do a very good job, and this affiliate has some good technicians. but when the account number contains a certain prefix, I've learned to expect certain issues. Like using the wrong transformer. Let's just say I had a lot of stuff to fix and what was expected to be an hour long call turned into three. My following call was over two hours away out in BFE. I could not both take lunch and arrive within my appointed window. Then that job went bad, and so I ended up taking my "lunch" at 8:30 PM about ten minutes from my house. Which simply slowed me down, and made my day more expensive as warm places to sit generally want you to buy something Why are they doing this? It's easy to run through a drive-thru while completing a two-hour drive. If I have time, I will happily take a lunch break, but don't make it mandatory, or if you do, please include an asterisk.
But the final straw came when I went to look at my health insurance. It's both lousy and expensive. The only plan the company fully funds is a Health Savings Account, and there isn't much of a match. And please don't insult me by blaming it on Obamacare. I pay very close attention to such things. The truth is many companies want to get out of providing health care for their employees and have the perfect scapegoat in the Affordable Care Act. My company it seems is one of them. If i choose the plan I can afford, even a short hospital stay would likely leave me bankrupt. I cannot afford the health care coverage choices they offer me. So I need to find a place where the coverage is affordable and decent. And they treat me like they actually want me to work there. The company I hired into did that. The new mega company does not.