The Individual in the Organization: Fair Wage and Job Satisfaction

Fair Wage

Fair wage in our country is basically defined by paying minimum or above minimum wage. The government which sets the minimum wage does not give justice to the workers. Obviously, it is not enough to sustain life and basic needs of an individual. Life is literally difficult especially if you are born in a country with so little opportunities. I believe that our country is one of the most difficult places to live in and survive. If there is any consolation, I guess that we are just fortunate that we weren’t born in Syria, Iraq, Bangladesh or other countries that are totally in the midst of crisis as of this writing. Our country is currently being named as the “Asian tiger” because of the improvements in our economy and the credit ratings that were upgraded recently. Yes, we could take those into considerations, but as a regular employee being paid with a minimum wage, I guess nothing’s changed. Our country has a lot of untapped resources and it could provide employment if developed that could generate enormous profits which could improve the living standards of our locals. It seems like we are yet too far from those developments because our country’s famous of being the most corrupt in the world that doesn’t help solve the poverty issue.

Job Satisfaction

Sometimes hard work doesn’t pay off. Especially in countries where most companies do not measure performance based on input, output, skills and talents. Instead, it measures clocking in and clocking out of the office and those timecards serves as an evaluation for productivity which does not really make any sense for me. I’ve been working as an employee for almost 7 years and I’ve hardly noticed anyone who seemed to be totally 100% productive in their time during office hours. The setting is always that traditional inside the box mindset where you get to meet repetitive deadlines and you just do it anyway without even knowing what it is for. Most employees just clock in and gossip and do personal things all the way until time runs out and they clock out. In comparison, if I was late but I finished all my work in time, it still doesn’t count. The one who will get more productivity was the one who rendered more hours than I did even though that person did nothing at all. It obviously seems unfair but that is the way performance is measured. Aside from that, it is obvious that most people are biased. I think that topic falls on job discrimination but it also affects job satisfaction if it is always a case of being left out being under-appreciated because of workplace politics. Sometimes, politics is more effective rather than hard earned qualifications and skills acquired. We do things that we don’t want to but we do it anyway with the hope of finding that job that will truly satisfy us.