I’m a technician, not a manager or P.R. type, at an oil company. When I leave work, I really leave it. work is work, and my private life is just that. Basically, none of my bosses business. Most people I know don’t know or care what I do. I do not excuse high gasoline prices to the public. I am at philosophical odds with many of the company policies.
My relationship to my company is a paycheck. That’s all.
I never participate in United Way, Savings Bonds, company sponsored volunteer events, or anything of that nature. My charitable activities are outside of my job.
That being said, I do a good job. I work hard, do O.T. when needed, solve problems, and generally am of value to my employer. I do very well in job performance reviews. I do what I’m paid to do and more. At work.
So why does my immediate supervisor think I owe more?
Anyone else in a similar position?
Peace,
mangeorge (Chevron, btw)
This seems more of a pit item. I can’t imagine anyone actually disagreeing with you. There are thousands if not millions of people in the same position. Basicly it comes down to your supervisor being a cheap bastard, and not wanting to hire someone else.
Sadly, I don’t think your situation is uncommon.
The way I see it: my job pays for my life. Not the other way round. I will work my guts out for my contracted hours, and I will put the extra effort in to see something completed before a deadline to a standard sufficient to satisfy my own personal pride in my work. I will not work unpaid overtime, or weekends, or be on call, unless I am rewarded for that commitment. Why should I?
I’ve seen member of my family suffer problems because of the effort they were expected to put in beyond “the call of duty”. I am not prepared to do more than is necessary, although during my contracted hours I will work as damn hard as anyone else.
Whoops! I didn’t make something very clear here. I’m actually pretty well paid, and don’t have an antagonistic relationship with my boss. He just wishes I’d participate in more extra-job related stuff, so’s they could get more pr out of me. A lot of corporations expect more than just doing your job.
Not the pit, please. I’m scared of the pit. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Ok then it comes down to your supe being just plain inconsideret. How does he know you don’t spend your free time caring for leper kids. You know. the extra stuff is just that, extra. Don’t worry about it.
I’ve been in that position for years. I will work overtime when required, but I do not attend company parties, picnics, potlucks, happy hours, pep rallies (except on company time), etc. I’ve found that on nearly every job I’ve had, my bosses start out thinking I walk on water, but end up resenting that I am so antisocial. I know that it has kept me from a promotion on at least one occasion. If you ever find a company that is happy to take your work, give you money, and not want to see you outside that 40-hour week, let me know. I’m tired of being expected to give up my free time to play politics. It shouldn’t be part of the contract.
Well stated. I’m an “exempt” employee, which means I work overtime for free. I don’t mind it once in awhile, if there is some important deadline, etc., but over the past 10 months it has been every freakin’ week, and frankly, I’ve had it. Why? The implied rewards are simply not forthcoming. Sure, my bosses announced at a staff meeting a couple of months ago that I had single-handedly saved a big account and made the company $300k it otherwise would not have had. Everybody gave me a round of applause, led by my smiling bosses. They should have cut me a big check, but nnooooo!
Suffice it to say, I’m floating my resume.
hello? a newbie; apparently an idiotic newbie, as the process is proving to be rocket science…
Aha! One of those, huh? 
I was kinda offered an “exempt” position a few years back. Luckily, I knew what I’d be exempt from. No thanks. I’ve seen people called in from vacation to attend a meeting, fer crissakes. Comp time? Yeah, right.
Good luck, Sneevil.
Peace,
mangeorge
I’m with you, Mangeorge. I like my job, but 8 hours a day, 5 days a week is enough. I don’t think about it when I go home, and I resent any attempts to get me to come in early (or on my day off) for some social “event”. I have other things to do.
People don’t resent me, (so far) but they don’t understand me. They can’t figure me out. Oh well.
My boss is the worthless type. Real gutless bastard.
I work about 35 hours a week, I’ve been here a year, and I’m making 6 cents an hour over the MINIMUM pay. I told my boss I wanted another $2 an hour, and he asked if I was threatening him.
They expect me to not only work my scheduled hours, but to stay late Sunday nights for ‘training’, where I’m told stuff I already know (fuck, I could lead the training sessions), and again once a month on Saturday morning (at 6 am, no less) for a ‘company meeting’. If I don’t go to either, I get PCR’d, which is a fancy way to say wrote up. Big fucking deal. They also want me to work on Sunday mornings, too.
So I usually go to church Sunday mornings, big deal, doesn’t stop them from continuously scheduling me then. So I’m not available on Fridays, doesn’t keep them from scheduling me then. So I have Fraternity meetings on Sunday nights, big deal, doesn’t stop them from pestering me about it. So I need to SLEEP on Saturday mornings, big deal, doesn’t stop them from bugging me about it. But you know what? Since none of these are in my availability times, I can just not show up, and there’s not a good God damned thing they can say.
Hell, today, I went into work with three friends to get my paycheck. One boss, Jim (who I normally really like) asked me if I wanted to work, NOW. Nope, Jim, sorry, I got plans, and three other people with me. “Well, they can pull down packages or something, I guess…” Not gonna happen, sorry. If I’m not scheduled a week ahead, I’m not working, it’s as simple as that.
I put in my hours at work, I do a damn good job, and I’m consistently ranked one of their best employees. And that’s ALL I do. Because my job funds my life, and my friends, family, school, religion, and fraternity rank about 10 powers above work on my ‘importance’ scale. Hell, my immediate supervisor actually asked me if I thought going to my cousin’s graduation, who’s leaving for the Army for six years, was more important than coming into work. Ummm… YEAH.
–Tim
One question is whether the emphasis on extra-work activities was mentioned during your interview and hiring process. If they said, “Look, we expect employees to participate in the company volleyball team and charity balls…”, then you got no beef.
If that wasn’t made clear as an expectation before you accepted the job, then you probably need to have a heart-to-heart with your boss. Recognize that many people will consider your attitude a “lack of commitment”.
Lessee, I got two employees working for me. Performance is identical. One of them comes to the company picnic, always has lunch with the other employees, plays second fiddle on the company baseball team, and wears the company logo on his shirts on days off. The other one never attends company affairs, eats lunch alone in his office, rejects any offers to play on the company team, and is in my office every second week telling me how his mental state totally changes once he leaves the office and he never even thinks about work during weekends.
So, which one of these two equal performers do I (as boss)feel better about? Which one is more committed? Which one do I think might have a long-term career track with the company, and which one do I think is probably short-term?
::: shrug :::
a lot of companies expect to have mind-control over their employees. of course, they don’t call it that. sometimes it is refered to as corporate culture. you have to decide for yourself how to cope with it. if most other employees are conformists, it can be a pain in the neck.
company loyalty is UNPROFESSIONAL!
i’m a tech also.
drop the cash, i fix your trash. but i do want to see the benchmarks out of curiosity. a lot of companies want the employees to be almost as dumb as the customers. LOL!
Dal Timgar
p.s. ex-IBMer by the way, they never talked about benchmarks
Then when it’s time to downsize, everyone is reduced to an equal cipher on a spreadsheet and fired - regardless of how enthusiastically or lacking they’d been as company cheerleaders. Since my view of corporate culture is as skeptical as it is about religion, I can only suggest that you do your best to be fair to your co-workers, customers and vendors because they are your fellow human beings. Abstractions like God and IBM can take care of themselves.