From: slarsen@berlin.helios.nd.edu (susan larsen)
Newsgroups: soc.men
Subject: Re: Companies can afford it, right?
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:17:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Apr6.161750.2113
Organization: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame

In article <2660@unisql.UUCP> wrat@unisql.UUCP (wharfie) writes:
>In article <1992Apr2.183118.15317@news.nd.edu> slarsen@berlin.helios.nd.edu (susan larsen) writes:
>
>>My philosophy comes directly from experience in the private sector 
>>in which the carrot was dangled in front of my face for five years 
>>"Oh, work harder, Sue, there are rewards."  "Come in on weekends, 
>>its for the team."  "No raises this year, but next year we 
>>promise you a promotion."   HAHAHAHAHAHA.
>
>	So you're a sucker.  

So that is what you call a team-player.  I merely did for five 
years on a job what you claim to be doing right now:  That is, 
giving my all to a team hoping to achieve something.  

>When I found myself working for people
>like that, you know what I did?  I found myself another job.  (Novel idea!)

Yes, and you neatly excised the text in which I described finding 
another job.  I hope you can trust your current employers not to 
do you dirty, because you do not seem prepared to forgive yourself 
for making the mistake of selecting an employer who in the future 
could lay you off, or get bought out by a less-scrupulous owner, or 
zap your insurance coverage, or the myriad other ways employers 
have of showing "appreciation" for years of loyal service.

>	And, turning back to the original topic, why should *I* have to hold
>up your end of the project (at work) because you've decided that something
>else is more important?  Why shouldn't I just ask for your resignation until
>such time as you're willing to do what's required?

This is exactly the mentality that I find reprehensible about modern 
corporate times, that being that all human activities are judged as 
to how it affects the team/corporation.  If the team is such a 
wonderful place to work, then why would they penalize me for pursuing
personal pleasure or family responsibilities?

Why should you help out the guy who has to drive his lupus-afflicted 
wife to the doctor every Friday?  Why should you help the woman who 
stays up nights tending her child with ear infections?  Why should you 
understand that your co-worker is running late because he has to 
take his elderly mother to an adult care facility? These folks aren't 
being team players, cut the payroll, dump their slack until they have 
their priorities straight!  If the team is so intransigent and 
inflexible as to deny the frailities and conflicting priorities of 
its members, then I submit the team is a deeply flawed organization, 
in terms of managing the activities of human beings.
>
>	Why didn't you wait until you were financially secure to have children?

More of that "What is good for the team thinking."  I had a job, 
how much more security is required for having children?  

Just a clue as to the thought processes I engaged in by deciding to 
leave the dog-eat-dog venue:  XYZ, Corp. could find a secretary to 
fill my place by this afternoon.  My daughter could never replace her 
mother.

It was real obvious to me where my relative worth lay. 

Sue Larsen
slarsen@berlin.helios.nd.edu