left my bedside for weeks after the accident I’d had in my youth. He was right. Maybe they were jealous of me and I just wasn’t aware of it. I always had the feeling that I was the only one busy examining Daria and Asi’s prosperity and Inbal and David’s love life. Maybe they looked at me and found reasons to be jealous?
CHAPTER 6
In my first year at Smart Green, I blossomed professionally. Apart from the fact that I was repeatedly embarrassed by my demeaning and undignified job description, the work was interesting and challenging.
Over time, I got to know more and more employees who didn’t work in my department: engineers, technicians, production workers and product designers. At first, they were all names on my payroll list, but gradually I began to associate faces with names. Being acquainted with the people I worked with while making up their paychecks every month was very difficult for me. In my mind, I saw everyone’s salary flickering over his or her head. I couldn’t remember the exact amount, but over time I could remember more or less each employee’s wage. This troubled me. Before working at Smart Green, I’d never had to make out employee paychecks. Now, when moving through the crowds of people at work, I would constantly rank them according to the privileged information I had.
I was amazed to find that there was often no connection between the quality of the employee and the wages he earned. There were good and loyal workers earning lower wages, while other workers doing the same job were lazy and exploitative, yet earned more. I discovered an inverse relationship between efficiency and loyalty and the ability of workers to demand their rights. My stomach turned every time my manager informed me that a lazy employee or one with a poor work ethic was getting a raise, especially when there was another employee, whom I thought was more deserving of a salary bump, who didn’t get one. I was angry with my boss for not recognizing the injustices occurring in the company’s salary division.
Over time, I added myself to the list of employees who were rewarded properly.
“Today, Gideon notified me about another wage adjustment,” I told Amir that evening. “He gave someone from the development department an extra 2000 shekels a month.”
“Very nice.”
“What's nice about it? I know this man. Although he’s a fairly good worker, he's not even an engineer, he’s just a mechanic.”
“I thought that, since Shoshana showed you that some bookkeepers have wider skills than accountants, you no longer cared about a person’s job title.” Amir reminded me of my predecessor.
“True, but this guy doesn’t put that much effort into his work, either. I have to go through the time sheets… he does almost no overtime.”
“Maybe he's just efficient?” Amir was starting to annoy me.
“I’m efficient… Gideon doesn’t raise my salary like that. This guy's salary was higher than mine to begin with, and now the gap’s even bigger.” I sat on the couch feeling angry. Nofar approached me and handed me a paper she’d scribbled on vigorously in the last few minutes. “Good job, Nofar,” I said listlessly. She looked at me, full of hope. She wanted me to admire her doodling, but it was always difficult for me to lie to her. It was just a messy scribble.
She took the drawing to Amir. “Daddy, hang it!” she ordered him in her baby voice. Amir took the doodle and praised it as if he was holding a rare work of art and then pinned it on the refrigerator with a magnet. “Go and make me another beautiful picture like this one,” he said softly, and our little girl ran to her room full of motivation.
“Where was I?” I asked when we were left alone again.
“The growing gap,” Amir laughed.
“It's not funny,” I said angrily. “It drives me crazy that there are people who contribute less to the company than I do, yet they earn more than me.”
“How do you
CHAPTER 6
In my first year at Smart Green, I blossomed professionally. Apart from the fact that I was repeatedly embarrassed by my demeaning and undignified job description, the work was interesting and challenging.
Over time, I got to know more and more employees who didn’t work in my department: engineers, technicians, production workers and product designers. At first, they were all names on my payroll list, but gradually I began to associate faces with names. Being acquainted with the people I worked with while making up their paychecks every month was very difficult for me. In my mind, I saw everyone’s salary flickering over his or her head. I couldn’t remember the exact amount, but over time I could remember more or less each employee’s wage. This troubled me. Before working at Smart Green, I’d never had to make out employee paychecks. Now, when moving through the crowds of people at work, I would constantly rank them according to the privileged information I had.
I was amazed to find that there was often no connection between the quality of the employee and the wages he earned. There were good and loyal workers earning lower wages, while other workers doing the same job were lazy and exploitative, yet earned more. I discovered an inverse relationship between efficiency and loyalty and the ability of workers to demand their rights. My stomach turned every time my manager informed me that a lazy employee or one with a poor work ethic was getting a raise, especially when there was another employee, whom I thought was more deserving of a salary bump, who didn’t get one. I was angry with my boss for not recognizing the injustices occurring in the company’s salary division.
Over time, I added myself to the list of employees who were rewarded properly.
“Today, Gideon notified me about another wage adjustment,” I told Amir that evening. “He gave someone from the development department an extra 2000 shekels a month.”
“Very nice.”
“What's nice about it? I know this man. Although he’s a fairly good worker, he's not even an engineer, he’s just a mechanic.”
“I thought that, since Shoshana showed you that some bookkeepers have wider skills than accountants, you no longer cared about a person’s job title.” Amir reminded me of my predecessor.
“True, but this guy doesn’t put that much effort into his work, either. I have to go through the time sheets… he does almost no overtime.”
“Maybe he's just efficient?” Amir was starting to annoy me.
“I’m efficient… Gideon doesn’t raise my salary like that. This guy's salary was higher than mine to begin with, and now the gap’s even bigger.” I sat on the couch feeling angry. Nofar approached me and handed me a paper she’d scribbled on vigorously in the last few minutes. “Good job, Nofar,” I said listlessly. She looked at me, full of hope. She wanted me to admire her doodling, but it was always difficult for me to lie to her. It was just a messy scribble.
She took the drawing to Amir. “Daddy, hang it!” she ordered him in her baby voice. Amir took the doodle and praised it as if he was holding a rare work of art and then pinned it on the refrigerator with a magnet. “Go and make me another beautiful picture like this one,” he said softly, and our little girl ran to her room full of motivation.
“Where was I?” I asked when we were left alone again.
“The growing gap,” Amir laughed.
“It's not funny,” I said angrily. “It drives me crazy that there are people who contribute less to the company than I do, yet they earn more than me.”
“How do you
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