Workplace Money Grab

For some odd reason, my co-workers always find a way to finagle me out of money. Yesterday was Boss' Day. The team I'm on works parallel with another team and each team has its own team leader.

"Here they go again." I mutter under my breath when I get the email, which shows up in the middle of our pay period. The folks on the other team want to collect money to get gifts for the two team leaders. They've even made a list of the possible Detroit Tigers ties they want to get for the male team leader, i.e. their team leader. Oh and they'll get something nice for our female team leader too, treating her almost like a second thought. I know the game they're playing. The gift they want to get him is expensive, so they think they'll involve our team to get more money.

Now I don't have a problem with the team leaders, I like them both and they're good people. I don't understand why they feel the need to collect money when passing an appreciation card around will do.  My coworkers ask for money more than PBS.

A month ago, we had finally had our pot luck, which had been delayed probably about five times. Now me, I go to work to work. If I want to bring a snack or something to munch on, I do that. I work a 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. shift, so I don't like eating anything heavy, otherwise I'll be sleepy and miserable for the rest of the evening. I'm also funny about pot lucks. Unless you let me come over and inspect and clean your kitchen, I more than likely don't want to eat your food. I've seen too many of my co-workers walk out of the bathroom without washing their hands and how do I know if you don't have animals at home that walk all over your kitchen counters? Call me a kitchen snob or anti social, but it's just me. Anyway, I was able to get away with not participating in the pot luck and I thought I'd have a reprieve before I was hassled for money again.

Over the past year several members of my team have lost loved ones, including Von's father and my grandmother. Our team has the routine of passing the sympathy card around and giving it to the bereaved when they return to work. Now the other team had a member who experienced a death in the family and they wanted to go all out collecting money for flowers and giving the remainder of the funds to their teammate. The members of the other team participated, but most of our team refused. No one collected money for us, so why should we give her money? Not trying to be funny, but the truth is the truth.

Earlier in the week, I got stopped by a couple people on my own team who want to have a Stuff Your Face At Work Day in the next couple weeks. These are the hungriest people I've ever met. We just had a pot luck only a few weeks ago. The only difference is that this event will only include our team. Why are we planning yet another meal at work? I don't come to work to hunt up food and I'm not really interested. I use a stall tactic and say I'll think about it and I quickly disposed of the emails pertaining to the event. Today I discovered the Stuff Your Face At Work Day falls on my off day, so they can eat all they want and I don't have to spend a dime. Though I know that the holidays are approaching and they'll be trying to set up yet another Stuff Your Face Day before the end of the year.

Getting back to Boss' Day; I ignored the emails concerning the gifts hoping they'll leave me in peace. Unfortunately they sent one of their bounty hunters out to gather more funds. I know how the game goes; I refused to participate in the pot luck, so she asks me face to face to pour on the pressure. They might as well have sent two mafia wise guys to pay me a visit because it's the same effect. It's one of those situations where if you refuse to cooperate, you'll have that stigma of being antisocial or uppity, not that I care what they think anyway, but I gotta work with these people everyday. Submitting to peer pressure, I say yes, but I won't have the money til payday.

Now before the money was collected, we got emails with all the details. Today when I come in, there are no mentions of the gifts, or what was even bought for the Team Leaders. Now I'm pissed. You take my money but you can't send a simple email telling me what I actually paid for? They got what they wanted from me so they don't need me any more.

Let me set the record straight; in no way am I cheap, I in fact have very expensive tastes. But it's my money and I like spending it on what I want to spend it on. I don't like feeling pressured that I have to spend my money on some stupid event at work, just to avoid being ostracized or fitted with the label of 'doesn't work well with others'. Yeah, I don't care what they think about me, but I want to get along with the people I work with. Like everybody else, I've got bills and other stuff I'd rather spend my money on. I know one thing: whatever they cook up for the holiday season, if I have to pay for it, they can count me out.

It Ain't Easy

If you talk to anyone who blazed a new trail or started their own business, they'll tell you how hard they had to work to get it off the ground. They can tell you stories about the nights where they got little sleep or the ulcers they got while working to make their dream a reality.  Having your own business is certainly not for the lazy or the faint of heart. Doing your own thing is hard.

My writing buddy and I have been on this journey for over a year; starting working on our first novel June of 2012, since that time we've released two projects with a third being edited right now and the fourth currently being written with a script for Amazon Studios also in the works. Not too soon after we started our endeavor, we discovered that the writing is the easy part.

One can not simply put their book on Amazon and wish it to sell, you've gotta hustle. Along with our day jobs, we have to write, and find time in our schedules to tweet, network, and blog. There are never enough hours in the day and any time you spend with trivial things can be time better spent building our brand.

Like crumbs to a starving person, we get our little signs that we're headed in the right direction. Maybe while out in about we'll see the exact make, model, and color car one of our character drives or maybe we'll one across someone with the same name living in the same location that our characters are from. Or happen to be driving behind someone with a vanity plate that says 'Author'. We don't see these as coincidences, but as mile markers on our journey.

The challenges one faces while working their dreams are there to weed out the weak from the strong. Nobody ever said pursuing your dream would be easy; ask the people who've been through it.  If you keep your eyes on the prize than it will be yours. One day this will all pay off, until then we'll just keep blogging, networking, and tweeting.

Leave Me Out of That Drama!

"Yeah, I don't know why she stopped talking to me all of a sudden. Now every time I walk past she rolls her eyes and turns her back."
"Oh, I don't know anything about that. She didn't say anything to me."

I nod my head understandingly, lying through my teeth the entire time. You see I know exactly why Ms. G has a beef with Ms. V, but I'm not opening my big mouth.

I learned early on in my career to stay out of drama. My very first job was a store where 98% of the employees were women. I don't know what it is about women, but if you get too many in the same place at the same time there's bound to be some issues. Somebody doesn't like somebody else and this woman is talking behind the back of this woman. It doesn't make sense because you can get two guys who have a knock out, drag out, punching match and by the end of the night they're having beers and watching the football game. What is it about women that we can't get along?

There's a feud going on with the women in my department. You see, last week, Ms. G overheard Ms. J talking about her with Ms. K. Feeling outraged, Ms. G told off Ms. J, who proceeded to call Ms. K on her off day and tell her what happened. Now both Ms. K and Ms. J are totally ignoring Ms. G who could care less. Now Ms. G went to our supervisor with an account that Ms. V was supposed to be working on, but she messed it up. Now our supervisor has warned Ms. V that Ms. G is sharpening her axe behind her back.

I don't know if everybody is PMS-ing at the same time or what. All I know is that we had a weekly lottery pool going then all of a sudden I get a text from Ms. G that she wasn't participating anymore. I asked some stupid questions about what was going on and found myself in the center of a possible cat fight.

Now I'm in the awkward position of being approached by the women who are feuding who want to rest their troubles on my shoulders. I'm the type to get along with everybody, so I'm still talking and interacting with these women, despite the visible friction. I make a point of not saying anything negative about the other parties involved, instead I offer neutral words of support, mindful of not committing to any side in this arms race. Like my mother says; A dog that brings a bone will carry a bone. In other words if they bring you info on someone, they'll take what you say to the other party. I don't want anyone saying that I said anything about any body so I took myself out of the equation.

As women, we have a lot of issues to deal with, which makes it even sadder that we can't stick together. Hopefully the cooler fall temperatures will chill the tempers in my department and things will go back to normal. Whatever these women decide to do about their situation, I know one thing is true; I'm staying my behind out of all that drama.