Some things are more trouble than they are worth.

Several years ago at a former employers they had a safety bonus. If I recall, it was $500 if you didn't have an accident all year, but in reality it was that if you didn't have an accident all year coupled with being a good boy, which was nothing more than arbitrary hogwash.We had a one of supervisor that was an out and out jerk that took joy in using the bonus as a threat. If you did something he simply didn't like the looks of, he woud threaten to take your bonus away.

Truth is, he enjoyed taking someone's bonus away.

Every year you had to fill out some kind of form to be eligible.

One year I decided that the money wasn't worth the hassle, so I simply threw the form into the trash.

Of course, I was sent a memo that reminded me I had not filled out the form along with another copy. These also ended up in the trash. Finally I got called in to payroll and handed the form and I told them I wasn't interested and explained to them that my paycheck was ample compensation. The payroll woman was aghast and called my supervisor in.

I explained to him that I was content with the money I was paid in my paycheck and explained that the extra money would cause me more problems than it was worth.

When he asked me what I meant by that, I explained that first of all it would put me into another tax bracket and cost me more than I would get along with the fact that it would simply be sent to my house and my wife would put it into the account and I would never see a dime of it.

This was a crock, of course.

The reason I didn't want the money was that if I didn't sign the form, I wouldn't be part of the program and therefore none of the few mental midgets that used the bonus as another tool to threaten employees with couldn't use it to threaten me with.

My supervisor started trying to explain that I really should sign the form and simply take the money. When I told him it wasn't a part of the union contract and I was going to check with the union first, he caved in and simply told the payroll woman simply not to sign me up.

It wasn't long until the miserable jerk that used the bonus started throwing threats to take the bonus away from people to get his way.

My fellow employees told me I was nuts until I quietly pointed out that by not signing up for the damned thing that they couldn't threaten me with taking it away frome me. They were dubious. They didn't understand what I was doing because they were so caught up in scarfing every dime they could.

A number of them lost their bonus for petty things during the year and they were upset.

When the jerk in the office tried to threaten to take my bonus away from me, I simply told him that I hadn't signed up for it and that there was nothing to take away from me. He ran off at the mouth with a few empty threats, but after that he left me alone. I had taken his weapon away from him. It was noticed by my coworkers.

When the other guys recieved their bonus, I was called into my supervisors and handed a check for $500. I took it straight to payroll and tried to turn it in. Of course, she called my supervisor in and they told me simply to take the check and give it to whatever tax-deductable organization I saw fit. I took it, buut with a very dubious look on my face.

I took it home and cashed it and started a rumor that I had turned it over to the local volunteer fire department or some such thing. I simple deposited it and used it as I saw fit.

The following year I did the same thing. That year I was called in by my supervisor, a sharp guy that was actually one of my admirers. "I see what you did," he said to me. I played dumb, but we both knew and he kept quiet about it.

Again, I was given a check and went through the motions of trying to turn it in and again I was told to keep it.

That year a number of coworkers figured out what I was doing, but kept quiet about it. They knew and a few of them admired me.

If I had not gotten the money it still would have been worth it because it got one certain jerk off my back for five years.

This was clearly a case where the bosses were using what could have been a good program for gratifying their egos and not as a way of looking out for the employees.

I wasn't going to buy into it.

Some things are not worth it. and I am damned glad I do not work for that sad outfit any more.



my other blog is:http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/