Corporate

Dear Officemax,
I don't hate you, I just can't stand the way you operate. Upon initial hire in high school you set my wage at $7.25/hour. Pretty good considering minimum was $5.25. After a year of dedicated-ish work I got a whopping wage to $7.55/hour...only to go off to college a month or two later...but hey I still got one. Of course during that final summer I picked up a second job at a call center with a $12.50/hour salary.

After a semester of hard work and more than solid GPA you rehired me for winter break for...$8/hour (store manager decided that seeing as to how I had the highest IQ in the store I should probably get paid the same as the other associates whom I was consistently correcting.

Now, after an additional 6 months of education I am rehired..but anticipating the minimum wage spike this summer to $7.25 (that number sounds familiar) they (corporate) refuses to allow me to come back at $8 instead it's minimum wage or bust...Now as a fully trained associate it seems to me rehiring me for the summer (aka back to school our busiest season) at my old wage would be a steal considering they would have to spend money to train someone else. With time against me I had no choice but to accept the job. But no I will not work harder than before..and guess what I find out today...

They are building two floats for the gay pride parade in Chicago. We are in a recession, they are switching everyone over to lower wages, crappier insurance, and no longer sponsoring a retirement savings plan. But we have the marketing budget to throw money into trying to pick up the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgenders and get them to come to officemax. Screw that. My roommate last year is one of my best friends, he's gay. Who cares. He shops at Officemax. Why do we have to funnel money into creating floats for their parade when it should be going to it's employees? Why does everyone have to make this out to be a huge deal? Most people like the opposite sex, some like the same. Aren't we over this? Did you know companies get ranked as to how "gay friendly" they are? We are ranked one of the highest. Does that mean gay people are going to start shopping here because they see two huge rubberband balls with our name on it marching down the street? Hell no. If you want more of their buisness bedazzle some shit. (that's a joke don't freak out on me) but you will be risking the hetero male market and butch market. Stop trying to cater more to minority groups and just make good quality office supplies. Isn't that what you are supposed to do?