View From the Bushes

I had a Dilbert Moment today at work. It happened while I was getting my quarterly bonus check and my annual raise. My boss passed me the bonus check and then he passed me a post-it note with my new annual salary on it. This was a little unusual, because before he had always told me what percentage my salary was being increased by, so I asked him what the bump was, and he explained that he wasn't suppossed to tell me. Apparently, even though people know enough to not compare salaries, they were still comparing percentage points and those getting a smaller bump were feeling bad, so someone had decided to tell the managers not to reveal the percentage. "Well, what if I can do math?" I ventured.

At this my boss gave me an expression that indicated he realized how dumb this idea was, but that it wasn't his, and indicated that obviously I could do the math and figure out the percentage. I wonder if they figure that the people most likely to be upset are people who aren't smart enough to run the figures on their own. I suppose that's possible, but it indicates a deficit in education, which would be truly appalling. Doing the long division by hand is one thing (certainly even this is not expecting to much). But if someone honestly couldn't figure out how to do it on a calculator, then they certainly deserve not getting a raise at all. To say nothing of being kept in the dark about the amount of their raise.

In any case, my "wiring guy" has finally recovered from the horrible illness which afflicted him for the majority of the week and the next adventure should be released momentarily. As always, I appreciate your patience and look forward to any feedback you care to send my way, until tomorrow.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross