In January, I went on vacation for a couple weeks. I had only been with my current company for five and a half months, and two of those were as a part time employee, so I didn’t have enough vacation days accrued to take the whole vacation. The company let me go anyway, and I went into negative vacation days. Mind you, I only take one vacation a year: I leave the country for two weeks and three weekends in the winter to go visit my family in America. Then I come back and work straight through without another vacation day until the following winter.
When I came back from my vacation, my boss had a tremendous amount of work for me to do. The amount of assignments piled over and I had to stay late every night, but still there was no way for me to get them done. I realized that no one had stepped up for me while I was gone, so basically I was doing all the work that I would have done, plus the work for which I was normally responsible.
Then I got my January paycheck. It was only about 75% of what I normally earn in a month. And I realized that my salary is actually 75% salary and 25% built-in bonus, and that they didn’t pay me the bonus for January because I didn’t work enough days. It doesn’t matter that I used vacation days, and even negative vacation days, to “pay” for the vacation. Nor does it matter that I could have just split the vacation into two months, by going at the end of January and beginning of February instead of going all in January.
So I’m now triple-paying for this vacation: in vacation days, of which I won’t have any until I think February or March 2011; in labor, which they’re taking from me not only during the days now but also in the evenings and into the night; and in shekels.
This is how companies in Israel do business. This is the normal – I should be happy I didn’t get back to Israel after my vacation to discover that I’d been replaced. But it also breeds disloyalty. Do they not realize this?
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds terrible – the bureaucratization of the inner workings of a formerly independent nation. I suppose we all should feel gratitude that we don’t need to live in dirt to suffer physical hardship, then, survive to only bind our wounds for the next day of the same repetition.
If you want your future, just read American history to see disgust foretold.
I think, when becoming a beggar is the best option, civilization becomes just that.
I hope I live to see the day when we get rid of the whole notion of “everyone has to work”.
I just ran into someone who moved to Israel right about when I did (almost six years ago) and he hasn’t had a conventional job in that entire time: he spent a while in an Ulpan learning Hebrew, then went to a kibbutz for a while, then two years in the army, then two years traveling around the whole world (including hiking the entire Appalachian Trail). Now he’s just gotten back from Israel and he’s set off to hike the entire Israel Trail, which will take at least three months. I don’t understand how he supports himself, but he’s definitely demonstrated that not everyone has to work.
It’s a chore laboring for a dim boss or following the orders of one who’s not as smart as the subordinate.
That’s one of the reasons I love working in the internet industry, especially startups: the big boss, as a rule, is someone who had a pretty good or great idea and built it into a reality, and the little bosses are almost always intelligent, high-achieving people.
Now, I’m confused: You gave the impression you are dissatisfied with your boss, thus calling him “stupid.”
Oh no – the trick is stupid, not the boss.
I’ve never heard of a company allowing a person to go into negative vacation days. Were you paid for your vacation, or was it unpaid leave?
I’ve never heard of a company allowing a person to go into negative vacation days.
I guess you’ve never lived in Israel. This whole country is built on “combinot” (workarounds, fixes).
Were you paid for your vacation, or was it unpaid leave?
Apparently it was unpaid leave, though I expected it to be paid leave.
I’ve never separated a person’s actions from themselves, so if I hate their action, I hate them by necessitous default.
not only do actions speak louder than words, actions are the language of intent.
I used to feel the same way, but living in an extremely irrational society has changed my mind. Sometimes, rational people here do stupid, assholy things because they think assholery is normal or because, even though they know it isn’t normal, it’s their only option.
Maybe I once modified my thought process to interpret them, as you’ve successfully done, but I’m not sure how effective I could be having to burden myself with extraneous deciphering of another’s actions. I believe one can never know another, so anything they do is highly subjective.
I’ve never been disappointed by underestimating The Good in Mankind.
Combinot is partly the origin of English Common Law.
Wow, this is just awful. What the hell is the point of a “vacation day” if you are not paid for it? What happens on sick days, do you have to pay them? Crazy!
In Israel, if you’re sick and you take the day off, you need to bring a doctor’s note. I remember the first time I called in sick because I was puking and too weak to get out of bed. When I got to work a few days later and they asked me for my doctor’s note, I was appalled and thought they didn’t believe me. But no, it’s the result of institutionalized mistrust, not a personal insult.
I’ve heard that we get a certain number of sick days per year and that if we go over them, we have to sue the National Insurance for the money.
Combinot is partly the origin of English Common Law.
That’s true. I guess the difference between England and Israel is that over there, it took hundreds of years before people realized that an entire body of law was gradually accumulating and everybody accepted it because it had already been happening for so long; here, “making it up as we go along” has been official policy from the beginning, and since we all know that any rule can change any old time, there’s no reason to follow any of them.
Where I work a doctor’s note is required if I miss more a day of work. Also, where I work if I am sick more than a week I can get temporary disability, which is capped at $150/week. If I am sick for more than six weeks and I don’t have any vacation time saved up I am on my own. I can only collect disability from the Federal Government if I am permanently disabled. For anything between six weeks and permanent disability I may be able to go on welfare, maybe.
In Arizona unemployment compensation is calculated as 40% of your gross pay, capped at $240, see this table for proof.
English Common did accrete over time, but all parts of it were accepted as legitimate from the beginning, even if the public hated the laws. Prior to 1066 England was under Saxon law. With the Norman Invasion of 1066 the new king put England under his laws and nullified the ancient laws of the Saxons, If I remember correctly. After most of England submitted to the new king, he then proceeded to brutally crush the remaining holdouts, laying waste major sections of the countryside and in the process setting an example for any potential rebels. Here is a short article on forfeiture that will also partly explain the origin of the Common Law:
http://www.fsu.edu/~crimdo/forfeiture.html
At one point in England’s distant past there was no police force or public prosecutor. If you were wronged you were expected to prosecute the offense yourself.
Speaking on Israel, I think that most of the disorder that your are disgusted by is cause by Israel being surrounded by Arab countries that have no standards themselves, and the presence of millions of Arabs and Sephardics within Israel.