2002-11-07 - 7:39 p.m.
FIGHTING OVER MONEY
I must like to fight. This fight, however, is just strange. I�ve never been in one like it before. The fight is about money. I�m trying to pay more and my cleaning lady is afraid that if she takes the extra money I�ll expect more. I couldn�t possibly insult her by telling her that I pay her mainly for the discipline it imposes on us to straighten and for my absolute trust in her having a key to my house.
The fight started a month or so ago when she came to me and sheepishly requested a small raise. I thought about what I paid her. I thought about what I�d been paying her for years. I thought about what it would cost me to get someone else in�and I balked. She was right that I owed her a raise. What she was wrong about was how much of a raise I owed her. I realized that, without thinking about it, I had been taking advantage.
After much dickering, I believed we had it resolved. We had split the difference between what she wanted and what I thought I should pay. Two times she came to clean since then and two times Mr. Philately has left her the check on the table. I assumed we were all happy. I assumed wrong.
The last time I came home to a clean house, I also came home to a post-it note on my kitchen table. She feels guilty. She feels we are paying her too much. She wants to go to the figure she requested. I feel guilty paying her that but I�ve concluded that I should not be making her uncomfortable both for moral and practical reasons. Heck, I need her more than she knows.
So Mr. Philately and I got together and talked. It seemed so clear. We should pay her what she is worth to us. Now that she�s so upset, though, we�re not sure that forcing the money on her is good. The more we think about it, the more it seems wrong. So we�ve come up with a plan. We�re going to pay her what she wants.
But I think the poor woman is going to faint when she sees her Christmas bonus.
LAST YEAR: The Real Problem of Boredom
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Terribly Sad Just the Same
The Man I Married
The Blister
Bullying
Just What the World Needs
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
