Thursday, October 27, 2022

Inflation, inflation, hyperinflation everywhere!

 What's a resource going to do when all prices rise sharply? Spend less, consume less and hope the wage and job last enough...

 I was out for shopping at a hypermarket and I met Danny, he was carrying a small basket with a few products:

- Seb this is crazy, everything is double in price, everything .. I just took several small items and the price is already close to 100 EUR.

- It's tough, prices going crazy everywhere, war in Ukraine raises them even more like there is any sh*t actually made in Ukraine ... 

- Yes man, this is bogus. They are keeping us poor on purpose. I just had a raise this year and now in real value I can actually buy less with the increased salary than I bought last year... 

- Forget about it, I am just in a hurry to finish shopping until they are raising the prices as we speak...

Suddenly Danny's face went pale and he said : You're right, make a run for it! And he went quickly to the cashier to pay for the products.


Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Pandemics hit!

 That day the boss arrived at the office even later than usual, he looked annoyed and stressed. He walked a bit around his desk and finally opened his laptop.

 Me and Chris were already digging through emails quietly for several hours , now we knew that our quiet was gone. We still pretended we didn't notice a thing.

 Bursting with anxiety the boss finally talked:

- Covid is spreading, is spreading like crazy! They can't contain it, it's off ! It's off I tell you!

He panicked and navigated to a news site, the prime minister should make a statement, it's a crisys.

Next to me Chris felt somehow reliefed, for the first time in many weeks he didn't have to stare in the boss's shoes resting on his desk half a meter from his face. He nodded and said:

- I hear they recommend working from home...

- It's madness the boss yelled, they say the economy will shut down, they talk of quarantine and locking people in their appartaments! If it gets worse I am thinking to go to a mountain cabin, I will be safe there...

I couldn't help smile seeing the cowardice displayed by the same guy who used to show off as being distant and relaxed all the time, he was a mess :))

- Pack a lot of cans, food for a year, move up the mountain with the family, stay there with no contact... he mumbled on and on ...

I smiled again and went for a coffee. When I was back there was an emergency commitee lined up near his desk all agreeing we should work from home starting immediately. I packed and went home, all good! 

Monday, November 2, 2020

Poor resources get paycut

 The boss was angry that week. Day after day he went back and forth through the office trying to look for a solution. Money stopped pouring in, more and more customers cut their work and projects so he needed to find a way to stop the losses.

He could of course run and seek new customers, pitch, sell as the desperate competitors were doing and found some success. But this boss wasn't going to do that, he found it humiliating ech time he had to go and make a sale. He even tried to hire a sales man but to no avail, new customers were nowhere to be seen.

So one day he had a "brilliant" idea: I am gonna cut all the wages. Resources will get a 25% cut while managers will get 30% cut since we have triple their wages or more. 

He summoned the entire workforce and proudly stated his plan. There was an unhappy mood in the crowd or resources but they couldn't fight it, it was take it or leave it and some of them would be laid off anyway.

I have saved the company the boss happily said and went off to his hobbies after lunch, he spent 3-4 hours working that day so he thought he deserved some rest and relaxation. The resources went back to working, they had another 6 hours minimum left.

🙈🙉🙊

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Work more, work harder just woooork!

The manager was angry even as the workers were taking seats in the meeting room. He nervously scrutinized the room and the audience. He took a moment to try to calm his nerves and started talking:
- It doesn't work anymore! Yes, you have heard me, it doesn't work anymore! The competition is cheaper now, they offer the same services at rates we can not afford! You can not afford! We can't have such big wages with so low margins...

Next to me Dave whispered in my year: What big wages? Who's he talking to? I said nothing trying not to laugh out loud.

The boss continued to talk louder and louder until he was almost shouting:
- You need to deliver value! You need to offer consultancy to the customers! You heard me? Con-sul-tan-cy! No be stupid low value copy pasters, not be simple operators, you must help the customer grow, provide huge value, become their partner!!!!

He kept on and on for a few minutes more and then dismissed us from the meeting. I replied to Dave: Move resource, let's go create some value!


Monday, September 2, 2019

Resource wants to buy a house

Every now and then there comes a time in the life of a resource to move to a bigger house. Generally this happens when the resource's family grows, usually with the birth of the first or second child.

Faced with the need to move resources start assesing their opportunities. Depending on their luck the real-estate market can be low or high, rarely do resources wait and expect a price fall. More than that there is usually a gap between what they want and what they can afford as resources tend to earn to little money and save very few to none.

Let's be honest here, each of us wants a nice house with large rooms, storage areas, a nice backyard to relax, parking space in a quiet area with good infrastructure, nice neighbours, good schools and kindergardens and ... wait a minute, all these come with additional cost. And when finally adding up expenses and looking into our wallets and accounts we are considerably short of money. We sigh and we hope for a market fall.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Resources with kids

There comes a time in the life of every resource when it needs to consider the future labor generation of the systems. Sure, you can work a resource its entire life but at some point (later and later nowadays) it will retire and live on a minimum pension unable to work. So the system is very careful to encourage child birth as to prepare its next generation of hard-working resources.

When Danny told me his wife was pregnant I was really happy for him. They were trying for some years with lots of effort so finally they succeeded. I was even more shocked on the news that my wife become pregnant a few months later too, so we will get to follow Danny and his wife and experience parenthood.

 Now as a rebel resource that I am I discussed with my wife to have the birth in a state hospital with a state doctor, all expenses covered by the mandatory health insurance we are all forced to pay as part of a salary. I wanted to do nothing with the private hospitals, extremely expensive here and outside of a better accomdation and comfort (true) with sometimes questionable doctors.

Danny on the other hand wanted to do nothing with the state hospitals and was determined to take his wife to such a private hospital. Unfortunately he didn't afford all the costs and commissions especially since his kid needed some extra medical procedures afterwards and sunk into some significant debt (a few months pay). Happily his kid is healthy and jolly but pursuing the private healthcare going forward will continue to sink him lower and lower into debt assuming he can pay the current one.

My wife had a lovely kid in the state owner hospital, it costed us very little and she had very good care and confort. We decided to enroll the baby in the care of a state doctor pediatrician as well to reduce cost. That gave me hope for Christmas and the New Year, hope I can continue to save and invest my money and gain financial independence for me and my family.

And since this is a Christian holiday I dis the SJWs and politically correct idiots with their Xmas and holidays and wish you all: Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!



Thursday, May 18, 2017

Still employed still unsafe

Well the Corporation is still doing bad though I left as well as other countless resources, shot in the beack of their head and left to struggle in the agony of unemployment. I was lucky to get a job soon and managed to keep intact my leave pay and invest it in stocks but other colleagues such as Gabe stayed more than half an year jobless and ate all the compensation money while going into debt too.

I was happy seeing he got a job finally but a bit disheartened that he learned nothing from this experience. He still does not save and spends recklessly. And if him who went twice through being fired doesn't learn what hope of financial education is there for others?

A job is not safe, being resource is not safe, being at the mercy and whims of a boss is not safe nor pleaseant. Working you behaind off until you're 65 to get a measly pension is the way the System tells you once you're an old fart that it made a fool out of you all your life and you actually happily accepted. So earn, save, invest, buy assets that bring you passive income and free yourself more and more from the salary. Because tomorrow it might not be there!