When Jen had her five year anniversary with the Richardson School District they sent her a $50 cheque. For five years of service she received a $50 dollar “bonus”. At the time I thought that if your only going to give $50 why bother? I mean if your thinking about quiting teaching at year four the fact that if you can grit it out for one more year for that extra 50 bucks probably isn’t going to change your mind. At some point I would think you would say if your not going to make it really rewarding then lets just not bother. But then again it is a school district and teachers continually get the shaft so what else can be expected. It’s just another day in the life of teaching. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all sour, it’s nice that they took the time to even recognize the five years and I think we used the money to go out and have a nice meal together.

In June of this year I had my 5 year anniversary with TI. They do things a little different being a large company and all. Instead of just giving you a bonus at five years they go through this elaborate process of sending you a letter of congratulations and how it means so much to the company that you have worked there, were it not for our people etc. etc. Part of this package is a form to order your “anniversary” gift and I just have to say the majority of the stuff is pretty cheezy. Gold chains with the company logo, cheap looking

watches, gaudy looking rings, that kind of stuff.

I went over the list a number of times and finally settled on a set of walkie-talkies. Now this sounds equally as cheezy but they are the “higher” end ones that have features like a six mile range, 22 of channels, all digital interface, that kind of thing. They market them to people who do lots of outdoor group activities, like hiking, where there is the probability that the group might get separated. I’ve seen people using them in the mall quite a bit. Mom has one, dad has the other, now you can get in touch without having to agree to meet at the

food court around 3:00. My walkie talkies arrived in the mail a little while back and to date I’ve not yet had the opportunity to use them. The batteries are charged and they are ready to go but still, never actually used them.

So, as this story gets even longer, I was in Target the other day buying a new phone. As some of you know we only have a cordless one and the battery is always going dead right in the middle of a conversation. If figured it was time to get a backup pone. So here I am in Target trying to find the cheapest corded phone that looks half-way decent when low and behold, right there in front of me is the exact same walkie-talkie set I just received for five years of service. Just take a wild guess on how much these babies cost…….wait for it…….$34.99. I couldn’t believe it. After five years of service the best TI could do was come up with the equivalent of a $35 bonus. Here is a company with 34 000 employees, a cash reserve of 3.9 billion dollars, and a market cap of 30 plus billion dollars and they could only spring for a $35 set of walkie talkies for a “way to go on five years” recognition. Even the school district managed to do better.