go forward, move ahead, crack that whip

It's a relatively calm Friday, I have not a lot going on. So I'm doing some laundry and gonna rake leaves in a minute. Excitement abounds!

It also happens to be a payday. We get paid every two weeks from the college, and I never really look at my emailed paystub. But today, I decided to peak at it before discarding. Lo and behold, we've gotten a pay increase.

This is strange because, it being a state school, there are no merit increases. Everyone who works a certain job, whether they've done it for 5 years or 5 minutes gets the same pay. We get annual increases, typically in mid-summer. 

In July, my coworkers in the testing center and I got half the percentage increase as most other positions that we knew of, which actually seemed a bit silly and insulting. An informal sampling of others at the college revealed that most got the larger increase - my tutor wage, for instance.

Honestly, my working there is not so much about money at this point in my life. It's a comfortable gig for a variety of reasons, and better than a lot of other part-time jobs available to me. But I noticed, while perusing my pay stub this morning, that we got an additional pay increase a few weeks ago and are now being paid the full increase as the rest of the college over this time last year. Why nothing was ever said about it, I don't know. Maybe someone heard my somewhat internal bitching? 

New boss did mention to me that our old boss, now Director, has been adamant in meetings about sticking up for us part-timers and noting that we should not be taken for granted. We "are not easily replaced". The guy often drives me bananas, as I've mentioned here before, but he's a good guy to work for. 

And speaking of the job, a young student came in for a test yesterday. She did not have any photo ID - as required for testing - on her. 

Me: Nothing? No driver's license, student card, etc?

Her: Uh.. no. 

Me: Well, we need to verify that you're you before we can give you the exam.

Her:  I can show you my instagram?

...That struck me as such a gen Z thing to say. At least she didn't try a SnapChat

The entertainment does help make up for the wage. 

And no, an instagram account does not count as proof of identity.