9/26/22 Finally, A Raise?

     Well, it was a long time coming, but we finally got a raise.  It wasn't some gigantic change your life type, but it was nice to see my salary going up, for once.  In the last 12 years or so, we had not gotten a raise and had actually gotten two salary reductions.  IT sounds bad, but I guess in the moment it seemed right.  The first pay cut was at a point when it seemed like our company was going under.  The solution they came up with was to do pay cuts across the board.  It sucked at the time, I lost 25% of my salary, 10%, which most everybody did, then my 15%-night shift differential.  I managed to bitch and moan my way back to my 15% differential back, but then because I was no longer working from 7:00pm to 7:00am, it was taken away in the last year or so.  I did not fight that one too badly, I did manage to keep 10% differential, and that means I work until 11:00pm, theoretically.

    The raise basically gives me back what was taken when I lost the night shift differential, which I guess is fine.  For a long time, I was fighting for every nickel and dime I could get my hands on, but now that Wife is doing good, I have stopped fighting for more money.  I am comfortable in the job I have and what I do.  I have kept it out in the open that I leave early, I mentioned it to our CEO yesterday, I don't want him acting like it is new information if he decides to use it later as punishment.  The "leaving early" thing started with Covid, and basically, we were told to get whatever needed to be done and due the next day taken care of, then feel free to go home.  This was mostly to reduce the interactions and reduce the spread of Covid, I guess.  What it did, was change the way we work.  I used to work following the clock, knowing I was going to be there 10-12 hours, I would do all my prep before lunch, take a decent lunch, then I could plan on coming back after lunch, sitting on the tool with a Netflix/Hulu movie or show and pace the work until the end of my shift.

    Now, the plan is to come in and start running the tool as fast as possible.  I may have half the job prepped if it has many samples, well, I will start the sequence and as the samples keep getting prepared, they are getting analyzed.  Nowadays, I just don't think about going to the breakroom for coffee or killing time like before.  I don't even think about turning on a computer for entertainment.  I stay focused hard on prepping whatever needs to be prepped and running it on the analysis tool.  I also have been running both analysis tools at the same time to finish in half the time.  This means the work gets done, but in half the time, most nights, which translates to me being home in time to eat dinner with my family.