Pulled the trigger, now I wait

First off - leg is feeling back to normal. Kind of gradual return to normal yesterday and still good this morning. I'm thinking some nerve in my hip/back. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday stretching and making sure I got out of my work chair often.

Second - I finally pulled the trigger and sent an email to my boss asking "if the company has plans to re-implement the annual performance/salary reviews? It's been a few years :)"

It didn't take her too long to reply, but I gotta say I was pretty disappointed with her reply and how she handled it. Basically it was saying "oh! I feel so bad you had to ask. Then went on to tell me how they haven't done much with raises and how concerned she was with income/cash flow being lower this year. Is there an amount you would feel comfortable with now?"

Ummm....well what do you say to that? Especially knowing (since I do payroll) they have given some raises (and most were what I would consider decent, other than one). In the almost 17 years I've been there she/they always decided the raise amount, not me. I took what was given (some were good, some were pretty crappy). I was uncomfortable enough even having to ask in the first place and then she drops it back in my lap to tell her how much, after the sob story of cash flow. Well, now I'm doubly uncomfortable. I would rather she have just said let me take a look at the budget and see what I can do.

It was just a few minutes before my end of day, so I didn't reply. I knew if I did I would have replied some stupid amount that was too low and I wanted time to think and process about it. Plus, don't tell me the company can afford a $1000 a plate dinner for 4, yet you're worried about income and hard to give raises right now and can't afford a few thousand over a year.

Honestly, I was thinking kind of low, like an additional $3,000 per year is what I would probably get, so that's kind of what I probably would have said if I answered right away. But, like I said those that have gotten raises in the past 2 months (and I'm guessing they also had to ask) got at least a 7% increase (except one at 2.8%). I asked dd and another friend what they thought. DD was like say 15%, at least 10%. I'm thinking to myself, no that is too much (based on boss's reply tone). I think I'll kind of split the difference and ask for 8%. Then friend emailed back and had the same figure I was just thinking of. If I had gotten (what I would consider modest) approx. 2.5% increases the past 3 years I would be at about that salary now, that I'm asking for.

So, I got up a little bit early so I could finish putting the February financial reports into a pdf file and I emailed that to my boss and then right after replied to her email reply about the raise and put the number out there. So, guess we'll see.

When our receptionist (one who got an almost 8% raise this past month) now makes $70k a year...well.....I am underpaid to be an accountant. If budget is tight, I'd rather see raises be the priority than bonus's. I'd rather get a salary increase every year or two than a bonus, if there is not money for both.

And then my 6pm call with my mom to get her to take her meds. Just take them while we are on the phone! Then she kept trying to tell me she already took some of them that morning, so didn't need to take all 5 now. No, you didn't. I have to keep saying it, keep asking. She just says "oh, yes, I will" or she starts talking about something else. She was all upset last night about something that happened there where she lives, but can't really remember any of the details as to why. Something about she and several other women were sitting somewhere chatting and this lady was talking to them for awhile, but she wasn't supposed to be and so one of the staff figured it out and had her leave. Mom was worried now this lady was going to steal from her or figure out which apartment she lives in (so when she got back to her apartment she removed her name plate off her door!). As near as I can figure, I'm guessing it was someone trying to get them to buy something she was selling and staff then told the lady no. Mom kept saying she was going to talk to the staff lady more about it in the morning. Which of course I'm sure once she woke up this morning she has now completely forgotten about it. Finally, during our conversation I just said "can you just do me a favor and take the pills right now, while we are on the phone? I know you are upset about this lady and I don't want you to forget to take your pills". I knew in her state of mind, all frazzled about this woman, she would most likely hang up and instantly forget to take the pills.

Last evening, checking in on the camera she was watching tv all evening and appeared to have found the channel with the old game shows, so that was probably a good thing for her to watch and enjoy.