Show Me Da Money!

I thought I would touch upon the topic, although near and somewhat dear to my heart, hasn't seen the light of day on this blog for quite some time. The main reason as to why it hasn't been touched has more to do with not really having anything to talk or harp about.

Today's flashback topic du jour is work.

Now before you go and start shouting from the roof top over the fact that I'll serenade you with tales of brave G.B. whose naked ears were tortured from dealing with stupid, this will not be about that. Instead, jhis will actually be not only about something positive about work but something positive about my labor union too.

Back in the year when the messiah was masquerading as a man who cares, all the state agencies finally got the attention of the state by presenting a united front (via the clerical union) about the obscenely high turnover rate in their payroll departments. For years most state agencies were bleeding bodies with extreme prejudice in payroll because over the perceived pay inequities (true) and lack of upward mobility (also true), which often fell on deaf ears with the powers that be (surprised? you shouldn't be).

Finally, in the year of the messiah masquerading as a US Senator (aka 2007), the state asked all the agencies to write an excruciating detailed oriented report so that the state could perform a SCOPE project as it applied to the payroll clerk position. A SCOPE project (for the uninformed masses like you and I) is where the state performs an exhaustive study based on the excruciating detailed report that were prepared to see whether or not a justification exists to reclassify the payroll clerk position.

Some 6 1/2 years later, after dealing with multiple labor concession packages that featured salary freezes, unbalanced givebacks like furloughs, ObamaCare and enough red ink to write Battlefield Earth in every conceivable language known to mankind, the state cried uncle and said, "Yes! Yes! Yes! We agree with your claims! Just make the incessant drumming go away!"

With those magic words of "We agree" being offered, an entire class of worker bees dropped to their collective knees in shock and awe, because never before had they experienced something positive and touched the hand of God in the process. Can I get an AMEN! from everyone?

I say brothers and sisters, can I get a HALLELUJAH! and a AMEN! at the altar of the Church of OMFG I Don't Believe It! Sing his praises to the person who matters the most in your life , the one that gives you the tools to affect change....your union rep!

Right.

Reality check: What this does is to revamp an entire overworked, underappreciated, much maligned and seriously stagnant job class and not only gives them a decent monetary incentive but also gives them a chance to earn a promotion. By promotion I mean that this agreement creates two distinct group of payroll clerks: those who handle regular non 24/7 (aka M-F) payrolls, which covers about 85% of the state agencies; and those who handle 24/7/365 payrolls, which is the remaining 15%.

What does this mean for me? For starters, because I handle a 24/7/365 payroll at my current stop, I'll go up two pay grades, instead of the one pay grade like the majority of my co-works, which of course means more money. The downside is that I'll only have three other agencies that I can go to should I choose to do a lateral transfer.

However, the upside of more money couple with potential new duties and responsibilities more than outweighs the downside of limited growth and opportunities.

It's tough working for the guv'ment, no matter what level you're at, because you are often the only contact that the public has when dealing with the fallout of kicking the can down the road. I can sympathize with the public because I've seen and experienced first hand the ineptitude and hypocrisy of those higher ups.

But sometimes, a tiny little sunbeam that punctures the black sky of disillusionment can often make a world of difference.