Much awaited summer vacation

 Starting with May my friend Donny was in a frenzy, when asked what happened he said anxiously:

- I am going to Greece man, going on vacation! 

- When?

- End of August, long way still. But it's costly, I gotta save up big time. Big time. 4000 euro for me , wife and little one, can you imagine? They are ripping us off. 

- Why so expensive? I said. It's not wise. Don't tell me you're going with that turd c-sucker Mititica again? He's an idiot but a high-cost idiot, you should say no and go somewhere you can afford.

- No dude, I'm commited, already said I'm going, I need to cut expenses and save the money. 2000 euros upfront and 2000 euros to spend there, it's an expensive place you know.

- I can imagine , still it will be a dry and tough summer and let's be honest you liked to spend.

- I know, it will be horror, all work and no fun...

- But there is still a good thing in this, if you can make it maybe you will get the habit of spending and start spending for you as well, to invest and not to splurge on vacations. 

- Yeah sure dude ...

And it was indeed a long and dry summer for him. One week worth of expensive vacation can cause several months of gritting the teeth and working hard with little spending. 

Work harder resource!

 Yesterday Danny was really down, after work we met at the pub and ordered beers. He was quite pale and tired and looked like he came out of an asylum or something.

- Seb, the patron has really gone nuts today, I am working my behind off, juggling lots of customers, answering calls at 7 AM in the morning and such but he's really mad.

- How come?

- Not enough money I generate he says. He says I am lazy, I slack, I don't pull my own weight and I don't cover even my salary let alone bring him much-needed profit. He wants to dump a few more customers on my head and I am already burnt out.

- That's tough I said, since I came back to the evil corporation I am working pretty moderately, there are some peak times but nothing to complain about.

- Yeah , what can I do? I really try my best.

- Sounds like a management problem, maybe he's not charging enough or his products are crappy.

- They are indeed but we are supposed to sell them. But what can he do? He can't fire me, he needs me.

- Hahahaha, I said almost dropping the beer glass, you are fooling yourself. Every wageslave is replaceable, he just needs one more desperate than you willing to work harder, take more whipping and give up on free time , maybe even for a lower wage.

- You think so?

- Yes, sadly the only chance is to suck it until you find something better, or maybe settle for a lower pay with less stress and work...

- But the house, the mortgage, the car, little Audi? I have a lot of costs.

- It stinks I know, got to reduce them, save some money. Otherwise you will end up like that p.o.s  wageslave Vasile, a loud-mouth bragger who was lazy and arrogant, got his ass kicked from the company. He only resisted so much because he was kissing behinds left and right. 

- Mkay, I will have to look out maybe there's an opportunity out there in the job market.

- You do that otherwise the patron is gonna keep making your life harder, after all he wants an ever increasing profit. But in the meantime cheer up, vacation is coming!

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.

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! 

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.

🙈🙉🙊

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!

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.