Houblog

That was, I think, the title of a fictional role-playing game being played by several medieval fantasy heroes sitting around a table, killing time between orc-killing expeditions, according to a comic in the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide. They role-played clerks and managers in a fictional techonological society, which of course was a total inversion from what the player was doing.

As if I’m in a game of Pencils and Paychecks, I’ve often thought I should re-roll this character. I seem to be stuck in a rut, at say, third level.

Just how much of a rut got driven home to me recently, as I was cleaning out some old files at work. I ran across a lot of things I’d sooner forget: a recommendation for counseling due to “hostility towards management,” a reprimand for disrupting a (poorly organized) training session — don’t get me started on the policy that was the subject of the training itself, and the fact that the trainers had a key issue wrong…. I certainly have an up-and-down history: commendations and reprimands, high marks and low, evidence of keen insights and some things that just make me groan to look at today.

I don’t think they invented the saying about square pegs and round holes to describe me and bureaucracy, but I’m fairly sure it was polished up and saved for application to my case.

The one thing that got my attention though, was a notice I was given the last time (prior to White) that the city did a “merit” pay increase. The city claims to have done them from time time to time, but the reality is they might have approved something like a 1-2% “raise” (their term for “inadequate cost of living adjustment”) that went only to the top rated people, and even that was rare. Usually, our raises were a flat 1-2% or so, across the board. No matter how good or bad of a job you did, everyone got the same raise.

It’s going to be interesting to see if White holds to his promise to “try” to give us another 1% increase on top of the 1.5% we just got. That will be a total of 2.515%. Last year, inflation was 3.6% — the amount we raised utility rates by. The year before that was 3.5% and 1% raise.

Anyway, I’ve been wishing I had this kind of info, to document what I made years ago and compare it to the rate of inflation. Here is the notice, with my personal information redacted, of course. My apologies for it being difficult to read, but it’s spent 14 years in a drawer.

Now look at this paycheck, fourteen years (and two promotions) later. Again, information redacted that could directly identify me:

There are a couple of hours of overtime included on this paycheck, adding about $45 to it, so the net is just under $1k. Let’s just round to $933 and $1300 even. That means my pay has increased, over the course of fourteen years and two promotions, by 39%. The problem is that inflation has increased as fast, and it compounds, whereas this is a straight comparison.

Here’s how much I’d have to have earned to keep place with the inflation index for the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria urban area, according to the U.S. Department of Labor:

So, $1,274.32 to my actual 2006 pay of $1300, biweekly (under the most recent raise not-quite-cost-0f-living increase). What am I kicking about, eh?

Well for starters, there were the two promotions. The first one netted me a 9.6% raise, and the second one 2.6%. Since other raises occurred before and after those, I can’t specify how much effect they had in dollars and cents, but lets just reduce that 39% by 12.2. That gets us 26.8% additional income.

So, $933.24 * 126.8% = $1,183.34

That’s what I’d be earning if I hadn’t been promoted. $1,183, or about 93% of my 1992 wage. Don’t forget increases in insurance premiums and taxes during that time.

In short, working for the City of Houston for the last fourteen years has caused me to take a 7% cut in real pay . And that’s before you consider the opportunity costs of foregoing any possible increases from taking a job outside the city.

Oh wait. I forgot; it’s hard to get hired out there once you’ve been with the city a while. (Suppressing memory of interviewer asking how my resume could be trusted in light of Shirley DeLibrio’s not-even-a-slap-on-the-wrist at Metro. “Apparently that sort of thing goes on at the city.” Must…not…kill…)

Well, it may not excuse their behavior, but at least now you know what Rosie Hernandez meant.

Now we rob Peter to pay Paul just so basic oversight can be done. And Peter’s pretty much tapped out. And the honesty of city employees is beginning to waver in the face of increasing economic pressures and inadequate compensation.

When asked if they ever expressed the idea that they thought they were underpaid, “Yes, two of them did,� she said.

According to sources, Lee’s successor Rosie Hernandez, told the three other staff members that they were going to make up for all the time they’d been underpaid.

The more this story develops, the more it looks like I was a damned prophet.

Oh well. The next time I feel like grumbling about how my Pencils and Paychecks character is doing, I’ll just remember what Robert A. Heinlein said about prophets: “Cassandra didn’t get half the kicking around she deserved” and shut up.

I wonder how many xp a temporarily-not-mayor pro tem is worth…

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 11th, 2006 at 11:00 am and is filed under Analysis, Personal, Random Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.