A letter from the boss. (Great read.)

[Purge]

A Boss Who Tells it Like it Is ... To All My Valued Employees, There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests. First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I'm sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life. However, what you don't see is the back story. I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you. My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business - hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had. So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden - the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations ... you never realize the back story and the sacrifices I've made. Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for. Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why: I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch. The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country. The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy. Here is what many of you don't understand ... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now. When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep. So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem any more. Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship. So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about ... Signed, Your boss

[krakenslayer]

What I see this financial crisis doing, if it gets much deeper, is seriously polarising political opinion to the extreme. Left is gonna get lefter, right is gonna get righter, and the middle ground is gonna dry up. The right wing is gonna be advocating every man for himself and let the weak ones (the "single mothers", etc. they see as the cause of their problems) die in the street for their mistakes, the left is going to try and bring down the capitalistic system (the bankers, etc. they see as the cause of the problem) and bring about a commu-socialist revolution. Either way,I have a feeling things are gonna get bad...

[Tricky]

Thats a good read & the man has a valid point!its the same over in the UK,the government looks after the shirkers & single mothers,while hammering the shit out of businesses & those who work.Bad times

[Philly_SWAT]

To my valued boss, Thank you for your "kind" words of encouragement. It is good to know in these tough times what motivates the people around me. Apparently the idea of paying taxes is so horrible to you that you would prefer to devestate the families of the people who have allowed you to have the choice to retire to a beach somewhere. Well, that is your right, good thing for you this is a free country. Sure, you may see me standing around the water cooler, and going out for a smoke break instead of working. I'm sure; all these icons of laisse fare conjure up some crappy thoughts about my work ethic. But behind every employee there is a back story. Let me give you some tidbits about mine. I was born here in this country 28 years ago. I didnt ask to be, obviously, as none of us do. Both of my parents were loving and caring people, and raised me the best they could. They were neither educated nor very smart, and as a result were not very well off financially. When they died in a car wreck when I was 14, I had to live with my uncle. Let me just say, they was not a happy time for me. If it were up to me, I would have chosen to work for no one at all, and lived by my wits off the land. Unfortunately, there is no place in this country where I can do this. I can not just go into the woods somewhere, build a small cabin and hunt and fish. All land is either privately owned, or owned by the government. Either would frown upon such activities on my part. I suppose I inherited the genetics of my parents, I am not all that bright myself. But I have tried to live my life as best I can. My marriage has been great, but the special needs child we have requires my wife to stay at home to care for him. She can not work to provide income for us, because we could not afford regular day care, let alone special needs day care. The 2nd job I have working nights really wears me out. But I have never been late on an assignment that you have given me, and always received good yearly evaluations. In fact, I know I do more work than some others, and that is even with the extra smoke break or two I take during the day. As far as your taxes go, they in part go to huge military expenditures, which creates a world where the threat of nuclear attacks exists, and angers people to the point where they become terroritsts and want to attack our homeland. These actions all totally out of my control, and make life less safe for me and my family. In that regard, I wish that you didnt pay so many taxes. If the world-wide economic crisis continues to deeper, and chaos ensues, there may be no one to provide you with goods and services at the beach you intend to retire to. If the world goes to hell in a handbasket, a guy like me at the bottom will not have to far to fall, but you will. I will try to take some solace in that if you decide to be part of the problem and not part of the solution. Signed, Your employee

[krakenslayer]

To my valued boss, Thank you for your "kind" words of encouragement. It is good to know in these tough times what motivates the people around me. Apparently the idea of paying taxes is so horrible to you that you would prefer to devestate the families of the people who have allowed you to have the choice to retire to a beach somewhere. Well, that is your right, good thing for you this is a free country. Sure, you may see me standing around the water cooler, and going out for a smoke break instead of working. I'm sure; all these icons of laisse fare conjure up some crappy thoughts about my work ethic. But behind every employee there is a back story. Let me give you some tidbits about mine. I was born here in this country 28 years ago. I didnt ask to be, obviously, as none of us do. Both of my parents were loving and caring people, and raised me the best they could. They were neither educated nor very smart, and as a result were not very well off financially. When they died in a car wreck when I was 14, I had to live with my uncle. Let me just say, they was not a happy time for me. If it were up to me, I would have chosen to work for no one at all, and lived by my wits off the land. Unfortunately, there is no place in this country where I can do this. I can not just go into the woods somewhere, build a small cabin and hunt and fish. All land is either privately owned, or owned by the government. Either would frown upon such activities on my part. I suppose I inherited the genetics of my parents, I am not all that bright myself. But I have tried to live my life as best I can. My marriage has been great, but the special needs child we have requires my wife to stay at home to care for him. She can not work to provide income for us, because we could not afford regular day care, let alone special needs day care. The 2nd job I have working nights really wears me out. But I have never been late on an assignment that you have given me, and always received good yearly evaluations. In fact, I know I do more work than some others, and that is even with the extra smoke break or two I take during the day. As far as your taxes go, they in part go to huge military expenditures, which creates a world where the threat of nuclear attacks exists, and angers people to the point where they become terroritsts and want to attack our homeland. These actions all totally out of my control, and make life less safe for me and my family. In that regard, I wish that you didnt pay so many taxes. If the world-wide economic crisis continues to deeper, and chaos ensues, there may be no one to provide you with goods and services at the beach you intend to retire to. If the world goes to hell in a handbasket, a guy like me at the bottom will not have to far to fall, but you will. I will try to take some solace in that if you decide to be part of the problem and not part of the solution. Signed, Your employee Well said, brother. I hope we can keep this thread civil so it doesn't become a political battlefield. I think it might. I don't think Purge meant to cause any friction in posting that, but I have a feeling it's gonna create some polarised opinions.

[MinionZombie]

The first port of call, in this day and age, is to cut wasted public spending. It's running rampant in this country, and if every normal person in the country has to tighten their belts, so should the sodding gubment - who work for us, not the other way around - at least, that's what it's supposed to be. The gubment are paid for by the people, and the people can't afford to be pumping in preposterous amounts in tax so it can be pissed into the wind with quangos, or databases that don't work and aren't wanted, or rights-abusing schemes like ID Cards and so on. My folks for example - they've worked hard all their life, and as a result achieved a nice house - but a nice house is an asset, not accessible cash - the government thinks the opposite ... which is beyond retarded. My folks pay preposterous levels of tax - and we live in the Shires, which have higher taxes than the likes of Manchester (this was spoken about last year in the papers) ... the Shires are traditionally liberal/tory voting, and Manchester is - aye - traditionally Labour land. Anyway - personal grievance aside - the waste in society has absolutely got to go. Average people need to stop wasting their money, and living beyond their means - and equally, the government need to ditch all their stupid, unwanted, money-wasting piece-of-shit schemes like ID Cards and various unwanted, unworkable databases, as well as all these non-job, red-tape-wielding bureaucratic tossers who just get in everyone's way across the board. The gubment also needs to come up with good ideas too - that 2.5% VAT Cut - it's utter uselessness would be funny if it didn't cost what, 12 billion quid, and hadn't resulted in yet more borrowing the UK cannot afford. ... As for those two "letters" - both make valid and strong points. ... Essentially, the main problem is the idiots in life, who have fucked all of us over. Who are these people? Well, let's put it very simply: 1) The stupid, greedy, luxury-obsessed, celebutard-worshipping bastards who decided to live way beyond their means via loans they knew full well they couldn't pay off in a million years. 2) The stupid, greedy, poorly-run banks etc that actually lended money to these greedy morons. It's also interesting to note that these borrowing chumps are in the vast minority - there is an average of 6 or 7 savers for every borrower ... and right now, the saver is yet again getting ass raped. Every government/administration across the globe, that has looked away whilst this problem was happening, deserves to be ousted ... ... and if only in an ideal world, the greedy morons out there who fucked us all over, need to be shafted into oblivion. Likewise, all the top board-level numpties who mismanaged numerous banking institutes need to be kicked out on their arse with such a hard booting, that their great-grandchildren will be able to tell what size boot did the kicking. ... As a final sign off - all this "banker" witch-hunting in the media, stoked up by governments looking to escape their share of the blame, is sick - it's essentially racism. Seriously - a hoarde of angry, misinformed miscreants use one sticky brush to tar an entire group with gloopy hatred - meanwhile in banking it's the very few right up at the very top who are to blame. The banking industry is run and founded upon normal, every day working people, sat in offices, doing their jobs - and shockingly, some of the departments these people work in have turned a profit - and those people deserve their bonuses - which are often just buoying-up their pay cheques which are actually too small for the job they do, and certainly not big enough to help them in the real world when they're clobbered by too much tax for too little return, all the time. And there should be a new law that basically states - if you're a board-level, handsomely paid sort, who is controlling a bank ... and you royally shit-up your job ... you don't deserve a bonus when you get justifiably fired. *big breath* Rant over.