I have mine, show me YOURS….

So, I’m a bit irritated with my boss and the accountant—or experience bookkeeper, as I should call her—that comes in occasionally to help out with the complicated taxes and whatnot. They seem to insist on devaluing my degree. In the last week, they’ve both done it. Tom has done it a number of times. I realize that it stems from the fact that they do not have college educations, and so there could be some insecurity there. But I’m getting a little annoyed.
The other day, Tom and I were discussing the difference between purchase order numbers and job order numbers. We use job order numbers but we CALL them purchase order numbers. Tom seems to think we use purchase order numbers. We were discussing this only because I was filling out a credit application for a new vendor that asked which we used… well, I happened to mention that, while we use p.o. number, we use them incorrectly. He asked how and I proceeded to explain. Purchase order numbers relate to the specific purchase made. Job order numbers relate to the job you are ordering for. Because purchase order numbers get confusing and redundant—unless you’re huge like Barnes and Noble—there’s no reason to use them… job order numbers work better. But, since “P.O. numbers” is a more widely held colloquialism, that’s what we CALL it. Tom got all huffy and started explain in the most backward logic how I was wrong, that he’d been in the construction industry for 30 years, and that my little “college” must have just taught me wrong. He even laughed at me like some condescending redneck—the same way he does when he tells me that of course Sarah Palin reads the newspaper, but obviously that stupid bitch Couric was tricking her by asking her which ones… but I digress.
Right. It’s much more likely that an entire college—STATE COLLEGE WITH 37,000 STUDENTS—dedicated to BUSINESS is wrong but some back woods construction worker who stumbled his way into forming his own business knows better. Ok. I’ll buy it. I couldn’t hide my huge ass grin when not five minutes later he was on the phone telling someone the “job order number” was 1900! Frucking admit you use the words interchangeably because you don’t know/care what they mean, but do NOT make up some bullshit and try to act like I am stupid—with my “little” college degree… the “little” credential  you didn’t manage to get in your 53 years on this earth.
Then, yesterday, I’m talking to Marbury—just shooting the shit—and I mention to her that the longer I work here, the more I realize, that I’m underpaid. I made it into a joke. We were laughing about Tom getting into a huff and firing people(because he’s known for doing that randomly and then hiring them back a few days later… like I said, backwoods hick)… and I said something about thinking that I doubt Tom would fire me, no matter how mad he got, because he knows what a bargain he’s getting! With my degree, I’m worth way more than he’s paying me. And Marbury launches into this shpeal about how my degree is only useful if I’m a CPA and only then if I continue to take classes, basically asserting that I’m not underpaid. ‘Bookkeepers make this much’… I wanted to slap a ho! First of all, I’m not just a freaking bookkeeper. I built this company’s damned website. I lease apartments. I answer phones. I handle personnel “changes”. I handle Tom. Second—and perhaps more importantly—if she had BOTHERED to attend college, she might have figured out that you aren’t only required to take accounting classes! Marketing, management, communication, economics, political science, philosophy, sociology…. These are the classes that have helped me to  1) deal with Tom, 2)build the website, 3) know that floor plans are just as important as pictures when advertising apartments…. I could go on for frucking hours…. I mean seriously!!!!!!!!!
Get a degree and then talk to me about what it ISN’T worth! I know it shouldn’t bother me nearly this much, but it really does. I have spent so much time in the last three months working my ass off for this company that I haven’t had time to write, to exercise, to diet, to think, to breathe, to live. I’ve done nothing but prove that they made the right choice in hiring someone who had no experience but all the practical knowledge anyone could ask for… and now that I’ve proven that, to have the degree I worked so hard for degraded and soiled with their crap-ass remarks, especially when they never bothered to put forth the effort.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a in no way saying if you don’t have a degree, you aren’t worth shit or that you aren’t smart or anything like it. Frankly, one of the smartest women I know dropped out of high school and didn’t bother getting a college degree until after she was 40. No big. I’m simply saying; don’t shit on my accomplishment if you haven’t done the work. Or, as my grandfather more eloquently put it…
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
“I have my credentials, show me yours…”