Irritant

It is like a medium sized splinter under your skin on your index finger, just in that spot where you hit it every time you use your hands. It is too deep to pull out, you have to wait for your body to react enough to push it out where you can reach it OR you have to dig, poke and prod with a needle until you make a big enough hole in your skin to get it out. Red, inflamed, irritating. Yeah, just like that.

My current splinter? Salary. Specifically, what I'm being paid relative to other individuals in the company with similar levels of experience and seniority with the company. If I'm being paid $x/hr, there is a guy with approximately 2 months more experience who is being paid $x+2/hr. I've talked with a number of EMT-Is in the company, who have all been open and sharing with me, and the salary inequities are startling and upsetting. There is a woman who has 3 years of experience who is making $x+.50. Only 50 cents more than I got as a new EMT-I out of school.

In talking with a supervisor and some senior employees, everyone suggests that I should go to HR and ask them to evaluate what I'm being paid. And that if I'm not happy with what they suggest, I should go to the director of the ambulance co. So here's where I have the two painful options, my yearly evaluation is in November and they usually try to address salary issues at that point, so I could wait and see what they come up with. But evaluations are frequently not completed on time, and my official "evaluator" is out after just having a baby. Or I can dig and poke and try to get money from the company now so that any pay increase I get next month (which are usually percentages) will be based on a new salary, or they'll stiff me entirely because I just got more money.

I don't know what I'm going to decide, but I do know that it is annoying and I'm bumping into that sore spot every time I go to work.