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How are Washington and Wall Street responsible for your employment situation?
They set the policies and the trends that affect how people are hired, how much they are paid, etc.
I can bend over backwards to get a job, but the boneheaded notion that it's okay to pay people less than what's the job's worth, not to train or invest in employees for long term gains, those are things that come from up top.
I agree with you. I will not be training anyone unless they are going to cough it up and recognize it's something to invest in. I will not be rude about it, just explain it to them respectfully and with confidence. It is not part of my current job description, but they already stated they no longer need that service, because they are unwilling to pay for it. So be it.
Best wishes to you and thank you.
Arrogant much? Good luck with that attitude at your new job.
I am a CT Technologist and have been for 10 years. 2 years previous experience in X-Ray so a total of 12 years experience. My last job in CT I was paid 35 dollars an hour. The last job I had was in a higher tier field of imaging, and it paid 43 dollars.
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"We have to take our other employees into consideration, and you are being paid in line with them. We cannot offer you anymore than 32 an hour. We do not pay premiums for non benefit employees. We need to know by tomorrow."
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The other issue for me is . . . I kind of resent them. I feel like they are low balling me just because they can, and I dont think they're investing in a good employee. I feel like I'm starting out on the wrong foot with a chip on my shoulder.
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I'm sure there's a lot of people here who cannot find work. I should be jumping for joy that I found a job . . . but its very bittersweet.
Any responses you have . . any personal stories . . . and any idea for how to swallow my pride and tell them I accept this offer . . .
Expressive post. I'm not disagreeing with the emotions, other than that it seems to me 1) you may be attributing emotional aspects to an entirely mechanistic process and 2) you may be at risk of identifying your self-worth to your going rate in the market.
IMHO, your assessment is entirely factual - employers are lowballing because they can. However, there is no malice - it is purely an algorithmic process. They've always done this, but the Great Recession has allowed them to do it longer, and with less sugar coating (aka, no benefits). Just recognize the model for what it is - entirely impersonal. It stings right now, in this decade, because wages [except for the .01%] have stagnated for the past generation, without a commensurate decline in real inflation [I can't remember if I'm referring to the 'core' or 'headline' variety, lol!]. Embrace the fact that we are objects in an algorithmic process. It is a great freedom! You will never again feel enslaved by "loyalty" again. ...Of course, you have enough acumen not to say this out loud.
Second - and this is easy for me to say, since I'm not sharing your disappointment - why should you allow your own sense of self-worth - a spiritual thing - to be at all affected by an external mechanistic process? It does not make sense. Your real life, and your real self, does not lie in your work. From the caliber of your discussion, you have outside avocations that enrich you. Work is a forced extraction of time, that allows you to live your real life. I'm of course not advocating being a slacker. "Live every moment to its fullest" also means that we bring the best of ourselves to solving the problems we are paid to solve. Honor the time you have been given wherever you are, by striving to be your best self.
If you can divorce your emotion and your sense of self-worth from this current dilemma, you are money ahead. From now on, anything "they" do or say will feel like water rolling off of a duck's back. You will have a Teflon coating. You will preserve your equanimity and dignity regardless of circumstance. The emotional buffer, keeping your core apart from your surroundings, will drive the psychopaths and manipulators mad. That in itself is a pleasure, seeing them go to pieces. But keep the pleasure to yourself while displaying equanimity and dignity.
Wow - it's nice to hear other people are going thru this BS too...
It can be an EXTREMELY stressful experience, and it IS extremely "un-fair", but unfortunately that's the world we live in. I felt the EXACT same ways you are / were feeling and have come to pretty much the same conclusion - take it as a step (almost like starting over) and go from there - which can be a haaaaarrrd pill to swallow.
Wow, this thread is a blast from the past. It's literally almost one exact year after I posted this thread and somehow it got necro'd and showed up in my email.
I do not have the time to view all the responses, but I do remember a lot of back and forth about my entitlement and some people in support of my feelings and other's felt I was being greedy or unreasonable. I think there were valid points on both sides, and I appreciated the commentary. It helped put my life into perspective.
But in case anybody is interested I can give an update in what's happened in one year, and give perspective on the situation in Healthcare in Boston, MA and in comparison to what is now a stronger economy (yes it's only been one year, but the economy is much healthier now, and employers are starting to realize, it's no long their market.)
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One of the worst things about the whole ordeal for me was the fact that employers took such a sharp dark and horrible turn into being complete and absolute jerks about hiring. I was asked questions in interviews and on applications that would have NEVER been asked of me in a healthy market. It was almost down right abusive. This superseded any emotions I had about money (but that sure did not help).
I want to be completely open and honest about numbers, so that maybe others in my field can gain insight into the hourly rate, or maybe just people in general who feel they are being underpaid. So here it goes.
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In 2007 I moved to Boston MA and started a new job as a CT Technologist. My rate of pay at that time was $33 an hour with benefits. I then took a position in 2008 and my job paid $34 an hour with benefits. In 2013 I left that job because of undue mental stress and abuse from management. At the time that I left, I made $43 an hour with benefits.
For around 8 months or so I looked for work with no bites, I found out that my employer had black listed me in Boston from getting another job. Keep in mind this definitely has to do with one person, I have 5 references from the job I left in Boston, but one bad seed can really ruin you career. Anyway, I finally found another position, and I was offered $28 an hour with no benefits. This was in early 2014. I worked at this job for about 2 months, then I was offered a position in Bay Area California for $59.50 with no benefits. I've been offered benefits at a rate of $48 an hour but it's not worth it to me, as (because of the affordable care act), I get health care benefits anyway because I work over 30 hours a week.
So let's outline this in a quick easy to read summary.
I rounded up the 59.50 because honestly, I also get pay increases depending on which shift I am working and if I'm working weekends or not, so sometimes my pay goes from anywhere from 59.50-73 dollars an hour.
Also please note, I have been offered other jobs in the Bay Area, and I actually have physical copies of the rate of pay from two extremely large healthcare employers in the Bay Area, and benefitted positions for a CT Tech in the area range from 48-56 an hour . . . give or take in top tier positions . . . depending on experience.
So what did I learn from this? A few things . . .
#1 I was not over-valuing myself. Boston area is far behind in their pay for Healthcare professionals. It's extremely expensive to live in Boston, yet they've done nothing to keep up. I could move to a much less expensive area and make the same rate of pay I did in Boston.
#2 Employers were taking advantage of the crappy economy. At the time I posted this we were just really starting to come out of the worst of a bad economy. Hell, even now employers are STILL trying to act like we're in a bad spot. At my current place of employment, we have had two technologist jobs open for 6 months. They've been offered to people, but they have stated that the "Pay isn't high enough." My managers could have this position filled quickly if they raised the pay, but they still think they have the upper hand. They will learn soon enough they no longer do
#3 I let my emotions take over my professionalism. My ego took a real bruising. This made me grow as a person. I learned to accept the fact that I was being paid under what I was worth, but I needed to learn to take it like a man, and overcome this challenge . . . and I personally feel I did. I've grown and I've become stronger. I've learned not to settle for less and I have not settled. I did my time, and I moved on.
Overall, I really feel for those going through a tough time financially and professionally. I really really do. I still have a lot of growth to do as a person, but in the end, I'm glad I did not settle for less and I kept working to realize my goals and get to where I am now.
In the end just one piece of advice.
Network, network, network, network (i mean. . just be nice and make friends.)
You do NOT get jobs by applying cold. You get jobs by knowing people. Do anything you can to reach out and get involved, even if you're unemployed. Volunteer, join forums, communities. Put yourself out there. I'm literally DRENCHED in people interested in me now that I'm back in the field.
Good luck to everyone and hopefully somehow these posts help people in whatever weird way haha.
POST SCRIPT
My original post states my offer was for 32.00 an hour non benefitted at the 2014 job. I was actually pushing the number up a bit. I was 28.00 base salary but I got 32.00 because I was working overnights. Just wanted to clarify that, the numbers here are correct.
Last edited by Lsquallhart; 03-07-2015 at 07:10 PM..
You do NOT get jobs by applying cold. You get jobs by knowing people. Do anything you can to reach out and get involved, even if you're unemployed. Volunteer, join forums, communities. Put yourself out there. I'm literally DRENCHED in people interested in me now that I'm back in the field.
That doesn't work. I networked and I volunteered, still nothing. So I take your advice with a grain of salt, congrats it worked for you but it certainly didn't work for me
Dang..9 pages worth of telling the OP to get a grip on himself/herself and take the job and move forward with life. There is nothing out there to prevent you to keep looking. Why not work and earn while looking then sitting on the couch getting fate, not earning anything, and looking?
Sitting on the couch sounds like fun for a day or two, but have you looked to see what is on TV during the day? You will get bored so fast.
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