Back on Track and PLEASE show me the MONEY!!

Do you ever reach a point where you know that you've dealing with something that is all consuming or just plain been f*cking around too much?

Like, crap... back to reality...I guess...?

That is us right now. When all is said and done, we have been neglecting out home, finances, and work. Now its time to get back on that horse and make some progress.

Finances...ah....finances...

In a perfect world we would all make as much money as we needed, or more. In the current, not-even-close-to-perfect-world, that's just not the way things work out.

For instance, C and I have both been asking for, well deserved, raises for at least a year now. Have we gotten one? No. This is a prime example of why planning ahead of time, though with the best of intentions, and being as worst-case-scenario as you can be, still doesn't usually work. Ah...the best laid plans...

So here we are. Worst-case-scenario, we assumed, ONE of us would have gotten a raise at this point. Just one of us. Not asking for the world here. But no. We had a plan dammit! Now what.

We have things to pay, projects to attack, life events for Pete's sake!

And hell week starts again. The dreaded, the terrible, the awkward, the week we follow up on the raises we've been requesting. I hate these weeks. Mine is worse for the following reasons.

1. My manager is gone for the next two weeks, working from home, out of the office, potentially on a leave.
2. Being in HR I don't really have a rep to ask for advice.
3. Major dilemmas (which I will outline below)

a. Should I ask her while she is out of the office? Who knows when she'll be back? (conclusion: no, she has refused before to talk about these things in email. GOD FORBID there be a paper trail)

b. The all important question: when is it ok to go above your manager's head? (eeek I have no idea)

c. What if she tells me no? What then? Do I throw a childish fit? Do I quit on the spot (I wish, but not an option) In the past I've taken it with grace, and believed her promises that it would come one day. Not this time. I think I'll throw a fit.

Wish me luck.