It has been a while since I posted, huh? I say that every time, I know. Crazy. I’ve been pretty busy lately - I was sick last week as you know, but also some pretty exciting things have happened.

On Thursday or Friday last week I made contact with Serenity regarding her podcast, because I’d just restarted my own podcast at GeekWitch. We got talking and she let me know about open positions at the Tradition she founded, called The Path of the Wise Ones. It’s a non-profit, non-dogmatic, innovative and progressive pagan tradition that seeks to unite people of all spiritual paths in a unique new collective. Serenity offered me a voluntary position as Director of PR - I was a little hesitant but figured “What do I have to lose?” and so I accepted. Eventually it could turn into a full-time, paid position, which is really awesome, but even if it doesn’t, I’m still certain that this is what I want to be doing, because I really do enjoy it.

So essentially it’s been PR for PotWO and full-time work at my actual job; I’ve also got schoolwork due which is a pain in the ass but I hope to get that all done this weekend so that I don’t have to worry about it.

On Monday night I also had the pleasure of attending a concert by Wendy Rule at the 45Downstairs in Melbourne with my sister. Wendy’s performance was awesome, and she was the most lovely person ever! She made time for everyone who waited after the show to meet her, and signed CDs, and even had a photo with me - see here.

If you’re in the Phoenix (AZ) or surrounding areas, you might want to check Wendy out at the Chez Nous Cocktail Lounge on the 21st May 2008 - it’s at 915 Grand Ave in Phoenix - for more deets, go here and view it at original size.

I want to say Happy Mothers’ Day to all the mums out there - I unfortunately won’t get to see my mum on Sunday, but I will see her at the end of the month when my little brother has his 18th birthday.

So that’s about it - nothing really much else to talk about. Anything you want me to comment on or that kind of thing, let me know.

I’m so sorry I haven’t posted for a while - I know I made a vow to get back into posting regularly, and now I haven’t done so for over a week, so I’m terribly sorry. I’d also like to apologise for those 15+ Despair comments I’m behind on - I have them in my To-Do list and will hopefully get to them tonight.

A whole lot of stuff has happened this week - well, not a whole lot of stuff, but a couple of significant things. Number one is that Michael and I have been living in our apartment for a year now, which is awesome because it means neither of us has killed the other in that amount of time and we’ve managed to hold it down.

Number two is a significant event in my life, and some of you already know this so it might be old news now, since it happened on the 10th, but it’s still pretty huge to me and I’ll get to that in a second. In smaller news, we purchased two new goldfish, Urik and Anya, bringing the total number of fish to four (we lost Vladimir last week )

Lately, I’ve been working on http://geekwitch.org - I’ll warn you in case you have very Christian or other-religious parents; it does contain content of a Pagan/Wiccan nature, so don’t get caught peeking at that while the ‘rents are around, and respect their wishes if they’ve expressed to you that you’re not to look at that sort of content under their roof.

I’ve also joined a couple of new messageboards to do with Wicca and Paganism, and got into some really interesting discussions and debates, which is great in furthering my knowledge and horizons as to what I’m learning and experiencing.

So, I’ll get to the big news now - since there’s a lot to write, it’ll be after the break.
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Wow I haven’t posted in a while, mainly due to the fact I’ve had nothing significant happening - it’s just been the same old bullshit on different days.

However, I thought it was about time for an update, and for something new for people to comment on, so I said “I’mma post a blog entry”, and here I am.

So the other day at work, we all received an email from our General Manager, letting us know that the company’s minimum wage was being upped to $34,000/year ($16.98/hr) including leave loading. Previous to this, I was earning $33,500 incl. leave loading, or $16.72/hr, so I was happy about this. Additionally, there was also mention of a payrise for those who’ve been employed for over 12 months or more, but that was still in discussion.

However, I thought about it for a bit longer, and became pretty disappointed with it. I have been employed in this company for almost two years now (21 months, to be precise), and it struck me as odd that I was still on minimum wage (despite my being there for over 12 months and being one of the top processors on the floor). I did realise that there might be an extra bonus since I was over the 12 months employment, but even without that, I shouldn’t still be on minimum wage! I mean, for God’s sake.

So, I took it to my Team Leader, who then took it to our Operations Manager. Our Ops Manager pulled me aside and said that she agreed with me, and that she’s been pushing for a payrise for me and four other (young) girls on the floor, but it’s fallen on deaf ears basically because one of the girls she was pushing for is, incidentally, her niece. She said I would need to take it to our General Manager myself, if I felt I had a strong enough case, as all her calls were, as I mentioned, not being heard.

So that I did. I wrote an email to our General Manager, as follows:

Hi T*******,

I’d like to put forward a complaint about my pay. I am sure that many other people in the office must have my same concerns, but unfortunately when it comes to pay I cannot speak on their behalf, as deserving as they are of the same treatment.
Additionally, I am putting this forward in writing as a) I then have record of sending this to you, and b) I tend to express myself better through writing than speech, and it also allows me to get my point across. I am happy to come to speak to you about it if you would like to discuss this further.

I read your email in regard to the decision you’ve made regarding [company]’s minimum wage. Whilst I don’t want to seem ungrateful for that, because I have a job I love and am surrounded by awesome people, it seems incomprehensible to me that I am still on the [company] minimum wage, when I’ve been here for over 18 months. Before your announcement, I was earning $16.72/hr (whether that was the minimum wage previously I am not sure), but I would think that with nearly two years service here (21 months), I should be at least above minimum wage now that the $16.98/hr has been put into place. I also don’t think it should come down to previous experience – at this point in time, any experience I had prior to this position should be irrelevant to how much I am being paid, considering I have the experience in this position, and I do my job well.

I understand that you have plans to introduce the second tier wage for employees who have been here for 12 months or more, but even without that I believe I should still be at least above the minimum wage at this point. I apologise for the upcoming language, but I work my butt off in this place, and without the recognition that I deserve, I’m soon not going to have a choice but to leave (and as I say, I don’t want to do that because I love my job) and, not to talk myself up, but [company]’s productivity would drop significantly without me here.

For your reference, here are my statistics for last week alone as provided by S**** (team leader), in terms of my productivity:

Mon 24th Mar: nil
Tue 25th Mar: 110.67%
Wed 26th Mar: 120%
Thu 27th Mar: 97.33%
Fri 28th Mar: 160%

As you can see (bar the 24th where it was a public holiday) I am consistently above our goal of 80% productivity per day, and at every appraisal I have been reaching and exceeding my KPIs. I can provide my statistics for the week before last (but unfortunately nothing previous to that as S**** only started sending these out two weeks ago – however, I’m sure you could get any of those details from reports).

I hope you can understand my standpoint on this. As I say, I am happy to discuss this further, and I would definitely appreciate your input.

Regards,

Terri Hyland

I received a reply about half an hour later:

Hi Terri,

Yes I do get your point and I will review your situation as you’ve asked me to.

I’m sure you are a valuable employee and I can appreciate that you would like to see that reflected in your pay. Decision about wages are based on equity and I will do whatever I can based on fairness across both [parent company] and [sister company] staff.

Thank you for raising this with me. I’ll get back to you with my decision as soon as possible, - hopefully by the end of this week.

Kind regards

T*******

So I let it sit there for the time being, since she said she’d get back to me by the end of the week, and I didn’t want to rock the boat or push my chances any further than I already had.

So today, as I stayed home sick, my colleague and one of my best friends messages me on MySpace with the following email from our General Manager (and I’ve underlined the points of interest, or relevance to me):

Hi Folks,

Earlier this week I sent an email outlining the new entry rate of pay for [company] staff. In that communication I also indicated that a rate for completing 12 months of service would be introduced, and other performance-based incentives.

I’m pleased to outline the following new structure:

Entry rate of pay /first 12 months of employment $34,000.

After 12 months of employment the rate increases to $35,500 on the anniversary date.

Two wage categories for staff who’ve complete 12 months of service; either ‘Good’ performance or ‘Very Good’ performance. Staff who’ve achieved the level of ‘Very Good’ performance during their performance review will have their base rate increased to $37,000.

All these rates are inclusive of leave loading.

I will be sending an email to each of you letting you know your new rate of pay if applicable. For the past performance review I rated all staff who achieved a total score of 9 or above as Very Good performance. In the email I send I will let you know your rating if applicable (not for staff less than 12 months).

The rating system will be changing for two reasons; firstly we have introduced our SMART productivity tracker so we can gather more accurate statistics; and secondly we are moving to a different and better performance development review system. Don’t worry too much about this right at the moment, as I will be running detailed workshops on how our new systems will operate.

In addition, I am also introducing an up to 5% performance-based bonus system – beginning from July and incorporating performance from 1 March – and I will provide the mechanics of this shortly. Sorry for the info being broken up, but the main point is that all staff have the opportunity to increase their income.

Please wait for your personal email to be sent to you prior to asking me any questions. This may take me a bit of time today so be patient.

I’m aiming for these pay adjustments to be reflected in your next pay – but, as it’s quite a bit of work, if this doesn’t happen you will be back-paid.

T******* J*******

So, since I wasn’t there today, I don’t know if I’ve got the payrise to the $37,000, but there is a good chance of it, since my stats are so high.

Basically, cross your fingers for me. I’ll let you know when I know