iGoogle for Hope

Our HR person asked me to review a job posting for her today for clarity and grammatical accuracy, and whatever else it is I do with words. It’s our company’s new policy to recruit for positions with the salary range as part of the posting. You can imagine my surprise when I saw that the salary for this Administrative Assistant job, for which only an Associate degree is required, was my salary. I have 7 years experience in my field, a master’s degree, and a year with the company. But what does that matter? Oh, and I requested a measly $5,000 increase just last month and was told that my salary was adequate for my job function. Yes. Adequate.

So today I’m trying to keep the big picture in mind. The fact that Joe and I have goals, both financial and personal and this job is necessary for us to achieve those goals. I have had little countdowns on my iGoogle page for several months.

Two of the countdowns are for upcoming vacations. One countdown denotes the number of days until our appointment with the RE. And the last countdown is for the number of days left until I can go part time here.

After the last meeting with boss lady (where I was told that I am not the web content manager – just the person that writes all html code, java scripts, and copy for our 9 websites – and that a master’s degree in English is not the same as a master’s degree in Engineering) I had a loooong talk with Joe. We agreed that if we meet all of our financial goals for 2009 I could drop to half time here next year.

I’ll be close to finishing my degree in web design by then which will help hopefully make up the income I’d be losing. And this is the bigger picture I have to focus on. Not the little nits that make me want to slam doors and jump on desks and demand that I be valued. I hold onto the small hope that someday soon I will be my own boss and that I will love my job every day.