Read Online Deja Vu by Michal Hartstein - Free Book Online Page B

reassurance.
    “But there are two things that bother me. Really bother me.”
    “What?” he asked a worried tone.
    “The first issue is my job description. In many other companies, what I do is considered the job of an accountant and not the work of a bookkeeper.”
    “ Chief bookkeeper!” he immediately corrected.
    “And I think, as a result,” I continued my speech, “my salary is inappropriate for my role.” He looked at me, shocked, but I knew I had to finish what I came there to say. “I don’t know why my role’s entitled chief bookkeeper [I made sure to add the ‘Chief’] and not an accountant.” The truth is that I had a pretty good idea why my job title wasn’t ‘accountant.’ The salary of an accountant would be almost double. “Maybe it’s because Shoshana, my predecessor, was a bookkeeper by profession.” I tried to come up with a logical reason for Gideon.
    “You're doing exactly the same work Shoshana did.”
    “I have to tell you that Shoshana’s knowledge wasn’t that of an ordinary bookkeeper, or even of a chief bookkeeper,” I hastened to add. “And since I came here, I’ve added quite a bit to the content of management reports, additional material that Shoshana didn’t put in.”
    I watched Gideon. His gaze was frozen. I didn’t know how to interpret it. I continued, as I’d practiced. “I know it's not fair to use the knowledge I’m privy to about other employees’ wages, but I think it's just not fair that I earn, just as an example, four thousand shekels less than Ofer Kaduri.”
    Gideon frowned. “Hasn’t Ofer just had a 2000 shekel raise?”
    “Yes,” I replied passionately, “and he’s a practical engineer. He doesn’t even have a college degree like I do.”
    “So you think you deserve an extra 4000 shekels?”
    Honestly, I thought I deserved more than Ofer Kaduri, but I was embarrassed to say the exact amount I thought I deserved. “Something like that,” I said, and I tilted my head from side to side, as if trying to weigh the money in my head. Gideon checked something on the computer. I thought it was a good sign, that maybe he was calculating how much he should give me.
    He turned away from his computer, looked straight at me and said in the angriest voice I have ever heard, “I have to tell you, you are rude !” He swallowed and continued. “ So rude! You compare yourself to Ofer Kaduri or Shoshana? How dare you?”
    I hunched down in my chair and he continued. “Ofer Kaduri has been working here for six years and this was his first significant raise. The raise you’re asking for would bring you, more or less, to Shoshana’s wage level, and she worked here for more than fifteen years! How do you even dare compare yourself to these two workers? While we’re at it, how dare you use other employees’ salary data to your personal ends?”
    I felt tears welling in my eyes. I couldn’t answer him because I knew that if I opened my mouth, I'd cry.
    “You think I don’t know your wages here are about fifty percent higher than you earned with your last employer? You came here and dramatically improved your working conditions and signed an agreement that stated you wouldn’t be getting a salary review for two years… and now you want to break the rules?”
    “I don’t want to break the rules,” I managed to say without bursting into tears.
    “Maybe you don’t, but I would really like to fire you right now!” 
    I was shocked. I couldn’t believe the conversation had come this far. Now, without even uttering another word, I burst into tears. Gideon was stunned. Like many men, he didn’t know how to respond to a crying woman.
    “I'm sorry,” I said, sobbing. “It was bothering me, and I thought it would be best to talk to you… It was beginning to interfere with my work.” Gideon got up from his chair. I was afraid he was going to throw me out, but he went to the dresser behind him and took out a pack of tissues for me.
    He