It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Image from Photobucket, edited by me in pixlr

This is basically how my day went.

It was the first day of Spring (even though it is still pretty cold), but then I also got called into a meeting with my supervisors today to be informed that if my performance didn't improve I could be fired. They said that I needed to take more initiative, "make the job my own", and "take ownership of the position". I sort of saw it coming, and I wasn't too upset, but I was angry and pretty pissed at the situation. The way I see it, as long as I'm doing the main parts of the job, and things are getting done, all of that extra stuff doesn't matter.

I'm not worried about losing the job, I'm worried about losing the income. There's no way my mom could pay for the new apartment on her own, and I've gotten used to spending money like it's going out of style, not to mention all of my bills, student loans, ect. that I have. I'm worried about letting my family down after they sent me to an Ivy League university, and are so proud that I'm not flipping burgers or working as a cashier at Walmart. I'm worried about how this could affect my chances of getting good references for my next job.

To me, a job is a way to make money to live off of. I'm not personally invested in my job, I just work there to make money, so I don't really care about all that "making it my own" or "taking ownership"crap.

What happened to the days when you went to work, did what you were told, went home, and got paid, no strings or inflated expectations attached?