Need a new job. Have a question. (Very long)

[hotelslave]

Alright I just need to vent and/ or some advise would be great.

At the hotel where I work you get your first review and raise after 90 days. Then every year on the the anniversary of the 90 day review. My anniversay day was in late November. I have asked my GM at least once a week since then about my raise. My GM who doesn't come in to work as often as he should so it's hard to ask him since he isn't always here when I get in at 3 pm. I have been here for four and a half years. When I started starting pay was $9 an hour. The starting pay for some one now is $10. (I make very little over that. Less then 2 dollars more an hour.) So when I do finally go in for the review I am planning to ask for at least a bump up to $13 an hour. In this area if I felt like commuting into DC every day I could easily make $15 an hour with my experience.

Lately the Gm has been bugging me to fill out some life insurance paperwork. Where at first the reason I didn't fill it out completely is because I didn't have my nieces SSN which since I listed her as the beneficiary (?) I couldn't turn it in. I told him I was just waiting for my sister to return my call and then I would fill it out. Now he asks me every day for the filled out form. Yesterday I told him he would get the form when I got my raise. He got mad and said I wouldn't get it until he was ready. So I told him he wouldn't get the form until I had my raise.

Another truly up part of the story is that the Snitch who I have wrote about before is now for some reason in charge of writing our reviews and giving them to him. Me and the Snitch don't get along for the simple reason that I hate two-faced liars. She has called the GM before in the attempt to get me in trouble which of course didn't work. If/ when I finally do get my review I think I should be able to see what she wrote. But may heaven have mercy on her soul if she wrote something bad. Because my Puerto Rican temper will come out and she will be sorry. (There won't be any violence since I have never been in a fight.) I just don't understand why she is writing my review when we barely work with each other and she hasn't even been here a year. Plus she has it out for me trying to tell on me to him every chance she gets.

How can I make him give me my review? How can I convince him to give me what is deserved? Do I have the right to see what she wrote about me? Or is it just best just to take the first job that is offered to me that will pay me a decent rate. In the DC area it is very hard to pay my bills, put gas in car, eat and survive on what I make now. I am getting close to doing a couple of options: walking out, going to the GM's boss and demanding he come into the hotel and fix all the problems, going to the labor board and placing a complaint, getting a lawyer who works with issues like this. Or just for the fun of it going to OSHA and complaining about lstuff that the Fire Marshall has told him he needs to fix.

I am very frustrated and I get mad every night that I have to come to work.

[myswtghst]

I'd say, as calmly and clearly as possible, explain this to your GM. If necessary, write it down and give it to him in letter form, that way you can review it and have a copy for yourself. State that, given your history with the Snitch, you would like to have a chance to respond to whatever she writes in your review. Also state, as you did above, the hourly rate you feel you deserve, and why. Summing up your years of experience and the commute seems like a good place to start. Mention that you have been waiting since November for this discussion, and just don't want it to get pushed off any longer than necessary.

The only other advice I can give is to do this as calmly as possible, and don't mention the possibility of a new job, as the GM may take this as a "threat" and decide to be pig-headed in response. I tend to try to address issues like this at my work via email, since I often need to read over what I'm trying to say more than once to make sure it makes sense, and also so I can CC or blind:CC anyone I think needs to be involved, and so that I have a copy of what I stated.

Just my $0.02. Hope it all turns out all right for you!

[hotelslave]

What you suggested is a good idea. I will do what you said is talk to him about the snitch having any affect on my raise and try to reason with him on that. I will also write the email like you mentioned. I won't write the email now I will wait until I am calm and relaxed at home. So I can actually make an email that is thought out. Also it's not like I can talk about this with another manager. Because the only other manager at the desk is his wife. I have kind of decided to on Monday when I am off spending the day working on resume. Then emailing/ faxing it to people who advertise jobs in Sunday's Employment section. I don't think I will be able to stay here with the Snitch.

[myswtghst]

Makes sense to me. No point in staying there for too little money with an obnoxious co-worker! Good luck with your search!

[Gurndigarn]

And... why is the boss pushing the life insurance so hard? Is it part of the company benefits package? How much does it cost you?