We had our "holiday brunch" today, in the basement of our building.

My company is so freggen dumb.

When Katrina struck, I was blown away when they pledged to double-match any employee contributions to the relief effort. Every dollar turns into three -- huge, right? Yes. Oh, Shropson-Pest, you are so generous! You are so kind! Bless you, you really care about people! General sounds of applause and pleased gasping, blah blah blah. Some millions of dollars donated (because they are gigundous and international and have thousands of employees and billions of dollars, natch), blah blah.

A few weeks after the "We R Teh Best" announcement, the employees were informed that things like holiday parties and bonuses and such were going to be scaled down, due to the expense of the double-matching-gift program for Katrina relief. K.

Now, I'ma be careful here, because I wish nothing less than every good and generous thing for the survivors of Katrina. For the survivors of any disaster. Please do not misunderstand me.

My issue is with this HUGE company waving its dick around like it has money enough to wipe its ass with, and then forcing its employees -- the people who give it a dick to wave in the first place -- to, essentially, help pay for the waving when they A) WEREN'T GIVEN A CHOICE and B) DONATED THE MONEY TO BE MATCHED IN THE FIRST PLACE. These people have already given what they could; they come to work (I'm not even talking about myself here; I don't really consider myself to be a dedicated employee of Shropson-Pest) for peanuts, day in and day out; they look forward to ONE time during the year when their workplace and their co-workers have the potential to be fun and out-of-the-ordinary and relaxed... these people are the ones who lose their extras because Shropson couldn't stand behind THEIR pledge, eat the loss, and take home a few million less in profits for 2005.

And, like I alluded to earlier, no one will balk because it was Katrina. Shropson has an easy out in "We did it to help the victims! Don't you care about them?! We all need to sacrifice!".

So I'll just put/keep it here. I think it's shady, and dishonest, and not classy at all.