I have resigned from the box

[The_Asbestos_Mango]

So, anyway, my pit boss has had me sitting box lately (for those of you who don’t play craps, a boxman is the guy in the suit at a craps table sitting down between the dealers, pretending to run the game.) It’s an awkward position for a dealer to be in- one day, you’re on a crew with a guy, the next day, you’re his supervisor, the next day, he’s your supervisor. Throw into the mix a smart-ass punk kid of a dealer who has no respect for the full-time boxmen, let alone for another dealer who’s just sitting for the day, and you have a recipie for disaster. So I finally told my pit boss I don’t want to sit anymore. I was actually being groomed to stand floor- now there’s a spot for a dealer to be in- not only are you your co-workers’ supervisor, you’re your supervisor’s supervisor.

The casino is basically doing this to save money. The idea is, have a dealer sit box and pay them $120.00 a day instead of paying a full-time boxman $140 a day- doesn’t seem like a hell of a lot of money, but multiply it by six dealers a day, times three hundred sixty-five days a year, and you’re talking some serious bucks here. And that’s not counting all the dealers (and boxmen)the joint has standing floor at a cut rate.

I don’t think the amont of money the company is saving by putting entry-level employees in management positions without promoting them outright is worth the problems it creates in working relationships. Nobody quite knows who is their supervisor, who is their equal, who is their subordinate. I know that rigid hierarcharies are unfashionable these days, but I think they do have their place. I think the ambiguity in where you stand in relation to your co-workers creates a breakdown in teamwork and in mutual respect between team members.

Me, I think I’ll stay at entry-level for a while. I’m making pretty decent money, it’s fun, and I have a minimum of hassles to deal with.

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The trouble with Sir Launcelot is by the time he comes riding up, you’ve already married King Arthur.

[Wicked_Blue]

The bank I used to work at pulled the same shit on me. I was a Teller, and when they needed a Lead Teller, I got to do the job, minus the pay increase, but including all the added responsibility. When I complained about it, they gave me the excuse that I had to know the job and be able to perform it well enough to get the title and the raise. So, there I was, doing a job that wasn’t really mine, under the impression that it would be mine one day. A few weeks later, my boss calls me into his office, and tells me that he thinks it would be a great idea if all the tellers could function as Lead Teller, and I should start training them one by one. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I wasn’t skilled enough to get the position, but I was skilled enough to train someone else, who had even less experience than I did, to do it. I said no way, and then I told him that I wasn’t going to be the Lead Teller anymore either.
Looking back, I probably only spited myself, but I hate being taken advantage of.

[RTFirefly]

In both cases, it’s one of those things where they try to take advantage of you, simply because they can.

Companies play games like this all the time, in my observation. The relationship between the company and the individual employee is never one of equals. Which is why, despite the frequently discussed problems with unions, I’m basically all for them.