Fun Monday - Complaints, please.

Jill continues her hosting duties for December Fun Monday - and decided it was time to get stuff off her chest.... her challenge? Post your biggest gripe of the year. Anything goes.

Where to start? Where to start? I consider myself a pretty peaceful and content person, but there are a few things that make my blood boil. Cruelty to animals and children. People and animals left out in the cold to starve and die. Injustice. Injustice makes me so angry - and the problem with it is that there is so little that can be done about it. Even if I had a million dollars, I couldn't feed everyone or protect the children and animals or even punish those who think it is their right to abuse people, power, trust. Even many, many like-minded people can't seem to change some things.

The thing that is making me angry this year, on a personal note, is the devaluation of the state worker. Once upon a time being a state worker was something to aim for, a prestigous job with good pay, good benefits and a good retirement - so people who were lucky enough to land one stayed in their positions and took care of the state's business as if it were their own.

I've been a state worker for a long time now. And the longer I work for the state, the poorer I become. There hasn't been a raise, cost-of-living or otherwise in over six years (not that I make that much money to start with). The cost of health insurance is going up (again). Retirement benefits are dropping. And every year, the lay-off ax hangs above our heads like the sword of Damocles, ready to fall at any second.

I feel fairly secure in my job, in that there is no one else here who knows or is able to perform the full scope of my duties. But there comes a time when even perceived stability has to be re-evaluated.

I found out that my boss is retiring in four years. Once he's gone, all bets are off. That gives me four years to figure out what comes next. And decide what I want to do when I grow up.