Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Supremely Irritated

A few posts back I said that as a woman I was discriminated against more for being female than for being black. Some did not agree. So I have two instances to support my point of view. The first one comes courtesy of The Guardian. 72% of Americans are ready to elect a black president while less than 66% are ready to elect a woman. Go figure.

Meanwhile, back in my nightmare of a world... My living circumstances are not the most elegant. I live in a nice home but it is in a trailer park. Yes, we have those in California. Since I can't leave mom alone for an eight hour workday without her having difficulties, I currently do private computer and paperwork for a contractor. I'm also the assistant assistant manager of the park. For that title they give me a discount of $200 on my rent.

The assistant manager (Jose) has been having difficulties with several people in the park and a discrimination claim was lodged against him along with several letters of complaint. On Sunday he told me that the owner had decided to reverse our positions. Yesterday I called the owner to confirm and was told that it was just temporary until the brouhaha had quieted down and that my job is to evict the people who had filed the discrimination claim with as little fuss as possible since I had demonstrated the ability to get difficult people to compromise. I am to assume the title and the duties but there will be no monetary compensation. Everything is to stay the same. He gets three months off at full pay and my workload triples for no extra pay. How nice.

Did I mention that Jose is the only man that works for the owner in any type of administration position? I like Jose and he pays me very well for the work I do for his business, but he has been so busy that he hasn't done any of the duties of an assistant manager, I do them. He has no affinity for paperwork and has a tendency to let his temper get the best of him when people don't do what he wants, ergo; the complaint. The best part of all is that Jose is happy not to have these responsibilities right now and he took off for a few days to see his family in Mexico.

Nobody asked me if this arrangement is acceptable. It isn't. What I find interesting is that everyone assumes that I'm going to go along with the deal. I'm not. When someone pays me a certain amount for a job, that is all the work they are entitled to. I am way too old to be giving away my work for free. I'm irritated enough to tell them to keep their lousy $200 and find some other schmuck to do the dirty work. The guy who sweeps up the garbage is compensated more than I am and that just isn't right.

3Bs

1 comment:

  1. Hi Deb
    I'm sure you've seen the Canadian made show 'Trailer Park Boys' on Showcase.
    If not, you might want to check it out- low brow dope smokin' humor, but some laughs that might make you feel a little better in your present situation, or recognize some of your co-inhabitants.

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