You want me to do what?

Today, I am "most seriously displeased," to quote Lady Catherine DeBourgh.

First off, I woke up far too early. I don't care what planet or part of the country you're from, 0230 is not an acceptable wake up time. To add insult to injury, I was already well into my day by the time my alarm went off at 0500.

I made it to work, greeted by the ever-increasing mess that I am now convinced IS my desk and not just ON my desk. Since it is the last week of the month, I have back to back appointments from 0800 to 1700. That means that I get to attempt to squeeze the rest of my work (which is usually enough to keep me busy on its own from 0700 to 1700) into the hour before my appointments start and the hour after I've - ideally - finished with said appointments.

But wait! I really only have the first hour of my day because, for the last hour, I'm required to do someone else's work. Now, don't get me wrong, I am usually one of the first to volunteer to help another worker if my own work is caught up, but my caseload hasn't been caught up since OCTOBER. Meanwhile, I'm helping other people do their work and my caseload is quickly passing the point of no return.

Do our wonderful upper management take workloads into consideration while they gleefully pile more and more work onto the stack of "priorities" they've given us? Apparently not, otherwise they would realize that there is no humanly possible way to work a caseload that is more than three times the size it's supposed to be and complete the other miscellaneous reports and tasks that keep flowing in by the truckload.

I took this job because I wanted to feel like I was helping people (and because I couldn't afford a 120 mile round trip commute), but I am feeling more and more like I can't even help myself out of this hole our wonderful administration and Board of Supervisors (whom I shall henceforth refer to as BS, because that's pretty much the only thing that results from their meetings) have dug us.

Which brings me to the union. Many people have said I have no right to complain about the union because I am not a full union member and refuse to pay more than the required $13 or so bi-weekly. The reason, however, that I am not a union member is because I know them for the snakes they are. Where was the union when the Department forced us to change our work schedules and refused to approve any vacation time (even to those whose vacation hours exceeded the county's limit) for 6 months? Where was the union when the county lied about how we're paid at the same level as other counties in California because they didn't look at those of us who have to pay for our benefits and retirement? I can tell you that the union surely wasn't there at contract time in 2007 when we got shafted in benefits and raises.

The rumor is that the BS is asking for us to take a 20% pay decrease this year and for us to pay more for our health insurance. If they do, I don't think the union will do anything to try and stop it, because when the BS says "jump," the union asks "how high?"

I can tell you one thing, though, if they approve a decrease that massive, I'll be out of here so quickly, their heads will spin. I'll go back to school and live on student loans and financial aid for a year or so until I have my degree, and then I'll find a better job someplace else.