Hard work does pay off

So yesterday’s post showed how I’ve cost myself some money in the past with how my personality has conflicted (nicest word for it) with previous bosses. Today’s post shows how that by staying true to myself (while still growing as a person) I’ve managed to make money!

Without going into too much detail about where I work, at the annual review they give out, unless you do really horribly, you usually will end up with a small raise.  Not a huge one and the most they give out is 3.5 percent.   Now, I’ve been at this company for a year but only in my position for 6 months so I was really happy when I was told that I would have a review at my starting date for the company and not the starting date for the position.  Extremely nervous but happy—I enjoy getting feedback for my work and also enjoy setting goals for myself.

Now, to give some background on this, a fellow employee who just recently had her review.  We work in the same department; have the same title but different duties.  We also should have the same hours—we are salaried but our boss still expects the 40 hours from us.  He also doesn’t really expect us to work from home or on the weekends unless it’s a true emergency.

She is a mastermind at pawning off her job duties to other people.  I feel sort of bad saying that but I work in the same office and get to hear her doing this.  She is really good at schmoozing other people-including higher-ups.  She also tends to come in 15 to 20 minutes later than she is “supposed” to and loves to take LOOOONG breaks randomly throughout the day.  One of those being her lunch break and she’ll tend to take an hour to two hours for it.  Due to this, she will sometimes not have enough time to get her work done in the 7-4 shift and has to stay until 5.   It’s always funny listening to her complain that she doesn’t have enough time to get her work done.  But I never say anything—I just keep quiet and get my stuff done.

She had her review and complained to my fiancé that the small raise she got was barely enough to be a raise because 2 percent is just so small.  But I know that the previous person who held my position left because she couldn’t get a 3 percent raise (she kind of complained extremely loudly about it) so I figured that was kind of the norm for my department.

Turns out, it’s not and my boss really recognizes hard work.  I received a 3.5 percent raise. (Remember that is the maximum amount allowed by my company for some odd reason) I was also told that I am really the glue that holds my department together.  So all of my hard work has paid off—the long hours, working at home or on the weekends and working through lunches!  I’m pretty happy about this because I was going to try for the 3% if they offered me the 2% one.  So, even though I have cost myself some money in the past, I think I did pretty well for myself this time.

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