Thursday, November 30, 2006
About that job...
I checked my email today. I don't check this gmail account very often,because I used to not ever get any messages, ie, there were no readers. But there are people out there! Maybe I'm not alone... ;) Thanks, everyone who wrote. I tried to write back to you, hopefully i got to several of you.
Did I tell you about my alleged job? It started the first week in October. I worked two days, got the flu, and missed three days. When I called about coming back in, they laid me off. They said that they would pay me 20% until they hired me back. Two weeks ago they called, on Tuesday, at about 2:30 and said that it was really busy (people were lined up to get in there) and they needed me. Great, I thought, now I've got to do all these things to get ready to go back to work the next day. Then they called at 7:30 that same night, and CANCELLED. "Sorry, false alarm." What the... ?
Last Monday I got a call from a lower-level manager, inviting me to the office holiday party at a restaurant the next night. I felt like I couldn't say no, even though it is a pretty big insult to be "invited" the day before. I was a bit nervous about being able to eat the kind of food that they had, and it did turn out to be low on vegetarian protein content, but I dealt (I had pre-eaten at home). When we got there, the manager who had done the invitation calls said that one couple had "cancelled." They hadn't cancelled- they had gone out of town for two days. They hadn't even gotten the invitation!! What a jerk. And guess what, everyone who had a partner had brought them, but I hadn't known that we could bring our partners. Mine couldn't have stayed out that late, anyhow.
So then yesterday when I left the gym, I noticed a message that I am going back to work next week. That's good. This morning or last night, I got an email from work that I should send in my hours. We had the folks coming to work on our internet connection late this afternoon. At about 5:00, I realized that I hadn't sent in my hours (and I had already missed one commitment and was trying to run out the door to another), so I called to tell him that my net connection was down. The email had said to get the hours in by the end of today, and that they'd have checks tomorrow as a one-time thing. I guess a lot of people must have expressed worries about paying their rent.
So when I called him, he told me that they aren't paying me the 20% anymore because they can't afford it. (Note that there were 27 people at the dinner last week, at roughly $30 each, and that works out to a lot of money). I said, but noone ever told me that! He was like, I thought (we) had. I was in total shock. I was like, even though it wasn't enough to pay rent, it was still money (ie, I needed it). I forget what he said then. But I said, I guess I'll see you Monday.
I feel like my trust in them has been broken. We had an oral contract, and they had been paying me all that time and everything! For a month and a half. How can I trust them again? How can I trust them to actually pay me when I do work 30-35 hours per week there?! Good thing I still planned on working on the 5th and possibly 6th workday, at housecleaning, so I can save money (if I'm still working at the real job). But even if they don't pay, and all i have is cleaning, $80-150 per week doesn't get very far. I should have a social security application process update soon for this blog.
After the phone conversation, I cried for like an hour. It was PMS, plus this extreme disappointment. My boss is someone I've known since 1999, from activist meetings. AND I cleaned his house for 2 years, and took pictures at his wedding... Can I really trust a business that is run so poorly that they can't even communicate with me? A business that can't afford to pay me $350 per month or whatever if was, to wait for my job to start again? A workplace that can afford to have about 40% of the workers be managers? Did I mention that the only woman manager was fired a month after the place opened?! (let's blame the woman for all our problems! great!)
What do I do, do I try to find another job? Do I work there, and after a few months try to organize a union? Would people there really have solidarity with one another? Some people, including one person that i know of who is not a manager, took paycuts. As far as I know, I will be getting my full pay. You cannot imagine the shitfit I will throw if I get shafted in one way or another by these people. And you know it IS going to happen. I wish I could just have had an uneventful 2 years working there, save up $10,000, and move on. But it has all started so poorly that I can't see that happening.
PS- Turkey day was really awkward, i went to dinner at some old friends' house. a woman who was my good friend but stopped returning my phone calls 4 months ago was there. nice to rub some salt in old wounds. i mostly tried to ignore her, but she did say something like, "so you didn't move to the farm after all?" no duh! I figured that out in July-August, and she would have known if she had returned any of my phone calls back then.
email me at haydees@gmail.com
Did I tell you about my alleged job? It started the first week in October. I worked two days, got the flu, and missed three days. When I called about coming back in, they laid me off. They said that they would pay me 20% until they hired me back. Two weeks ago they called, on Tuesday, at about 2:30 and said that it was really busy (people were lined up to get in there) and they needed me. Great, I thought, now I've got to do all these things to get ready to go back to work the next day. Then they called at 7:30 that same night, and CANCELLED. "Sorry, false alarm." What the... ?
Last Monday I got a call from a lower-level manager, inviting me to the office holiday party at a restaurant the next night. I felt like I couldn't say no, even though it is a pretty big insult to be "invited" the day before. I was a bit nervous about being able to eat the kind of food that they had, and it did turn out to be low on vegetarian protein content, but I dealt (I had pre-eaten at home). When we got there, the manager who had done the invitation calls said that one couple had "cancelled." They hadn't cancelled- they had gone out of town for two days. They hadn't even gotten the invitation!! What a jerk. And guess what, everyone who had a partner had brought them, but I hadn't known that we could bring our partners. Mine couldn't have stayed out that late, anyhow.
So then yesterday when I left the gym, I noticed a message that I am going back to work next week. That's good. This morning or last night, I got an email from work that I should send in my hours. We had the folks coming to work on our internet connection late this afternoon. At about 5:00, I realized that I hadn't sent in my hours (and I had already missed one commitment and was trying to run out the door to another), so I called to tell him that my net connection was down. The email had said to get the hours in by the end of today, and that they'd have checks tomorrow as a one-time thing. I guess a lot of people must have expressed worries about paying their rent.
So when I called him, he told me that they aren't paying me the 20% anymore because they can't afford it. (Note that there were 27 people at the dinner last week, at roughly $30 each, and that works out to a lot of money). I said, but noone ever told me that! He was like, I thought (we) had. I was in total shock. I was like, even though it wasn't enough to pay rent, it was still money (ie, I needed it). I forget what he said then. But I said, I guess I'll see you Monday.
I feel like my trust in them has been broken. We had an oral contract, and they had been paying me all that time and everything! For a month and a half. How can I trust them again? How can I trust them to actually pay me when I do work 30-35 hours per week there?! Good thing I still planned on working on the 5th and possibly 6th workday, at housecleaning, so I can save money (if I'm still working at the real job). But even if they don't pay, and all i have is cleaning, $80-150 per week doesn't get very far. I should have a social security application process update soon for this blog.
After the phone conversation, I cried for like an hour. It was PMS, plus this extreme disappointment. My boss is someone I've known since 1999, from activist meetings. AND I cleaned his house for 2 years, and took pictures at his wedding... Can I really trust a business that is run so poorly that they can't even communicate with me? A business that can't afford to pay me $350 per month or whatever if was, to wait for my job to start again? A workplace that can afford to have about 40% of the workers be managers? Did I mention that the only woman manager was fired a month after the place opened?! (let's blame the woman for all our problems! great!)
What do I do, do I try to find another job? Do I work there, and after a few months try to organize a union? Would people there really have solidarity with one another? Some people, including one person that i know of who is not a manager, took paycuts. As far as I know, I will be getting my full pay. You cannot imagine the shitfit I will throw if I get shafted in one way or another by these people. And you know it IS going to happen. I wish I could just have had an uneventful 2 years working there, save up $10,000, and move on. But it has all started so poorly that I can't see that happening.
PS- Turkey day was really awkward, i went to dinner at some old friends' house. a woman who was my good friend but stopped returning my phone calls 4 months ago was there. nice to rub some salt in old wounds. i mostly tried to ignore her, but she did say something like, "so you didn't move to the farm after all?" no duh! I figured that out in July-August, and she would have known if she had returned any of my phone calls back then.
email me at haydees@gmail.com
Labels: work
Comments:
Post a Comment
