VENT!

I’m sorry, but I will forewarn you now that this is going to be a major VENT of an entry about how my day went yesterday. At least you have been forewarned …

Please explain to me, if one can, from where exactly did the whole concept of entitlement come from these days?! Why does it seem more & more that the younger generation feels that they are owed something for nothing?

Case in point … A 34-year old male who has for 4 consecutive days gone into his cubicle, propped his feet up onto his desk, and promptly feel asleep. When questioned as to just exactly WHY he was sleeping at work, his response was, “Look, I’ve worked hard and paid my dues to earn the right to come in, kick back, get my paycheck and go home.” WHAT?! Excuse me?!

1. You are only 34 years old and have only been in your current career field for 6 years. Exactly WHAT dues have you paid?

2. Even if you HAD “paid your dues”, what gives you the idea to think you’ve the right to get a paycheck without legitimately earning it by doing the work for which you are being paid? This is a JOB, not retirement!
3. Do you care so little for your fellow employees that it doesn’t botther you to slack off which causes them extra work because when people can’t reach you, they call them?

Yes, I admit I’m a few years older than this particular person, but not THAT much older. Where, in less than a decade’s difference of age, did a good work ethic get tossed out the window? Do people just not give a rat’s ass any longer as to their reputation and doing an honest day’s work for their pay?

I also realize that I cited only a single example, but I could give you many others. This is just the latest that has annoyed me to no end. It seems that everyone just wants to come into the office, goof off all day, yet bellow when they don’t get as big of a raise as they “deserve”. I’m sorry, but if you want a good raise, then get off your lazy ass and actually do some work!

And, for those wondering, I wrote the bulk of this entry last night at home and saved it as a draft. I have added my final comments and am posting it while on my lunch hour. I do try to limit my personal internet use to my lunch hour and breaks unless it’s an extremely slow day.

Now, for the second part of my vent for yesterday, I decided to be a bit proactive and get a jump on my taxes. I logged in to the Employee Self Service website and printed out a copy of my last statement of earnings of 2005. I then printed out the necessary forms and tax tables from both the IRS and the California State Franchise Tax Board websites and sharped my pencil to get to work.

It quickly became quite apparent that I was NOT going to be happy for long. By the time I reached the end of the federal form, I was rudely met with a tax liability of over $2000. Now, you may be asking yourself, “Why on earth would you have such a large tax liability?” Well, that’s where the vent comes in …

My ex was a lazy bastard who barely worked during our marriage. During our divorce settlement negotiations, it quickly became apparent that if he didn’t get exactly what he wanted in the settlement that he was going to make the divorce drag on for as long as humanly possible making my life as miserable as possible along the way. In an effort to just be done with him, I acquiesced on a great many points that, in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. In an effort to get out of things as quickly and as easily as possible, I ended up spending over $10,000 on the divorce while he didn’t spend a single dime.

The story took a rather nasty turn when about 2 months after the divorce was final when he decided to “come clean”. He finally admitted, even though he protested loud and long during our divorce proceedings, that he had indeed been having an affair. Not only did he have one affair, he had MANY affairs and they had started even before we were actually married. So, not only did he basically use extortion tactics to get his way during the settlement negotiations, he then just made things worse by finding ways to purposefully hurt me even after the divorce was final.

So, now here I am nearly 2 years since we split up and I am, once again, getting hit in the face indirectly by this bastard! I guess I should be grateful that, as far as I know, this is the last thing I’ll have to deal with related to him. Initially I had thought about swallowing my pride to contact him about still filing a joint return for 2005 since we legally were still married for a few months of it, but from reading the IRS website, I learned that if you weren’t married on Dec. 31, then you weren’t married at all for the year. I can only imagine that this is for the IRS to get more taxes out of those of us in similar situations, but it’s very annoying. If I were able to file the return jointly, I would be getting nearly a $2800 REFUND instead of the current liability.

Ok, I guess I’ve ranted and vented long enough. I do believe this is probably the longest blog entry I’ve ever made, but I just had to get it all off my chest. Thankfully, tomorrow is a day off for me and I can forget about work for a while. I’m actually volunteering at a Women Build site for Habitat for Humanity Orange County tomorrow. I know that going to help someone else and do some volunteer work will help me get my focus off myself and to realize that life could be much worse for me. I really am fortunate to have a good job, a good place to live, and, best of all, wonderful friends who help keep me grounded.

Happy Stitching and peace to you all …