My Employer Is a Cheap-Ass Bastard

1. We already knew that.
2. It could always be worse.

The heightened security of the last month and a half is abruptly gone today. No more bored security guard, sitting in a chair at the intersection of two hallways, glancing halfheartedly at the passerby and contemplating the pointlessness of her existence. I'm not sure if the agency really discontinued her or if she just enjoyed her work so much that she found a state job in another area.

As far as electronic cardreaders on every entrance to our area go, the contractors mysteriously vanished as soon as they had finished installing the, um, boltholes. So that project appears to have been abandoned, although I'm sure there was a not entirely insignificant cost to the taxpayers for the useless holes in our door jambs.

So either the crazy ex-employee who was a threat is no longer a threat, or someone higher up has decided it's not worth the expense of protecting us from him.

As for this fajita extorti^H^H^H^H^H^H^H cookoff thing tomorrow - well, don't get me wrong; I plan to bring some beer and I'll be hanging out with my very fun friends and I expect to have a really good time. However, there's just no question that we "volunteers" are getting pretty royally shafted by our employer.

It's a fundraiser. The state is providing some fajita meat and fixings, "volunteers" are preparing fajitas on competing teams using our own specialty recipes (none of which, despite my most valiant efforts, is likely to involve spam), judges will declare one team a winner, and the fajitas will be sold for $2 apiece to the wondering crowd. "Volunteers" get two fajitas free for their efforts.

But the only fixings provided are meat, flour tortillas, cheese, and sour cream. Last time I checked, grilled onions and peppers were kind of a staple for fajitas; so is hot sauce, and guacamole, while I suppose you consider it optional, really ought to be served as well. You need spices and ingredients to make marinade for the meat. All these are to be provided by the "volunteers" at our own expense. Oh yeah, and charcoal and lighter fluid and grilling utensils and paper plates and aluminum foil and stuff like that.

One of my teammates, who's been a "volunteer" in the past, says that the state generally doesn't provide enough meat, either - as indeed they have not this time - so he and others have chipped in some more to make up for that shortfall.

And as icing on the cake - oh wait, no; icing would be extra - it starts right after work, so we "volunteers" need to get there at least an hour early in order to start setting up and cooking. Probably earlier. Guess who has to take comp time for it?!?

Cheap-ass bastards.