witzend
Well-Known Member
Those of you who know me know that I have Muscular Dystrophy, and those of you who have met me probably realize that while I look fairly normal, I move pretty slowly. I'm on SSD and am able to supplement my income in a very limited way by doing some bookkeeping.
I have been doing bookkeeping for this guy, E, for about 4 years now. Three years ago I started my own business and work for him and a few others here and there as a contractor. E is a totally abusive boss. He's purposefully vague in giving direction so that he always has someone else to blame. He works at most maybe 20 hours a week and expects everyone else to pick up the slack - me included even though I know sh-- all about industrial fan repair, he micromanages like no one you have ever seen and make sure that no matter what you're doing you're not doing it his way even if you have accomplished whatever it is that he needs to have done. Things need to be done over and over and over again to prove to him that you did it his way. There's never a right answer to any question because he has already thought out every way that you can do it wrong and immediately tears into you. I do his payroll.
He one employee, who has been working for him for about 9 years. D is not the sharpest tool in the shed as far as computers go, but he knows the stuff on the fans, and he's honest. He takes after E's example of not wanting to put in a 40 hour week. But then again, D might come to work in the morning, and E will say "We're doing night work, so we've got to be downtown at 4 this afternoon." What? The phone doesn't work both ways? He couldn't call D and tell him to come in later? There's never a schedule. There's never any idea of what they will be doing one day to the next. It doesn't bother E too much because we work out of his 8000 sf house so all he has to do to take the morning off is not walk to the North wing of the house.
E pays him $2,700 a month for highly skilled labor that he would need months to teach to someone else, let alone the knowledge of the past 9 years that D has in his head. That's a hard living in this area - a one BR apt is about $700 plus utilities. E is terribly disorganized and ADHD. He acts as though I am his muse or something. Nothing can get done and nothing can get mailed or ordered unless I am there holding his hand. While he yells at me because "that's not the way he does it". E is obsessed that D doesn't put in a 40 hour week. For months E has been paying this woman $600 a month to counsel him on how to grow business. Let me tell you, I have a lot of ideas, and have offered, but he wants none of it. There's always a reason not to. The obvious one is to hire someone younger with more energy who is good at computers and let me get back to just doing the payroll and bills. That way when D finally poops out, there's someone to take his spot. Hire someone for 90 probationary and if it doesn't work out, hire another one, but HIRE SOMEONE!
Instead, E bought himself a $60,000 boat to put on his riverfront property (where we have our offices, so E's wealth is rubbed into D's nose on a daily basis) with the new $20,000 dock and got a time clock for work. For one employee. D was morose to say the least. E told me that D would get a small hourly raise, and that he would pay a little extra for working nights. I set up the payroll this month to go that way. He only pays monthly. E's paycheck is four times what D makes. I coax D into it, explaining in detail how it will work. I even did it only at what would be D's currently hourly rate, and was able to convince D that there were some months that he could make an extra $100 bucks because some months are more than 4 40 hour weeks. So, D is going home on time, putting in a basic 40 hour week, working nights sometimes, and even a little overtime. He should actually come out a couple of hundred dollars ahead his month. When E figures this out, he tells me, "Well, why don't we just keep him punching the time clock to track his hours, and we won't put him on hourly for a few months after we see how it goes." Honest to god, if I were D and I had been punching a time clock for a month and watching every little minute after being coerced into it under the pretense of a small raise then didn't get it, I would literally push E off a roof the next time we went on a night job.
I'm so angry that I got played into this drama. These people are so unaware of their own self-interests! The work that D does would be recognized anywhere as a union trade, and he could make easily 3 times what he earns from E. But he calls himself "a broken man", and he is. D is of little use to E any more because D doesn't trust E, and he has no ambition because any idea or initiative is shot down as not good enough, and he doesn't get paid enough to take that. Yet, D hates unions and feels that if the government would just give a few more tax breaks to Corporations everything will turn around. Well you know who is a one man corporation? E. You know who give D his political advice? E. E, on the other hand is evangelically christian. You might even call him a "Dominionist". What I would not call him is a Christian, because I'm pretty sure that Jesus wouldn't behave this way.
I finally had enough this morning. I sent E an email and told him that I couldn't believe he was actually going to cheat D out of at most $100 a month and he made me lie about it, just so he could make sure that D was in the office 40 hours a week by watching the time clock. E won't EVER talk to D, he'll just make me write the paycheck the way that he wants it and hand it to D. Then D sees it and is mad at ME because I told him he would make a little more money, and of course I know what is going on. I told E that if he did that to D I would have to tender my resignation notice. I can't tell you indignant I had to get before I got angry enough to write that letter.
E wrote back that he was going to give D a raise, he's sorry he upset me, he just wanted to wait until after this month, blah blah blah, he thought it would be easier because he hired his son as a temp and paid the son union wages to do work at a public school and forced D to take that week off so that D couldn't earn the union wage. Of course, he didn't put it that way, he just said he "thought it would be simpler, because I have to fill out a Certified Payroll report before we can invoice." No it's not more simple! It's awful! Ack! That's my weekend starting... I still don't know how much he is going to pay the guy come next week.
I have been doing bookkeeping for this guy, E, for about 4 years now. Three years ago I started my own business and work for him and a few others here and there as a contractor. E is a totally abusive boss. He's purposefully vague in giving direction so that he always has someone else to blame. He works at most maybe 20 hours a week and expects everyone else to pick up the slack - me included even though I know sh-- all about industrial fan repair, he micromanages like no one you have ever seen and make sure that no matter what you're doing you're not doing it his way even if you have accomplished whatever it is that he needs to have done. Things need to be done over and over and over again to prove to him that you did it his way. There's never a right answer to any question because he has already thought out every way that you can do it wrong and immediately tears into you. I do his payroll.
He one employee, who has been working for him for about 9 years. D is not the sharpest tool in the shed as far as computers go, but he knows the stuff on the fans, and he's honest. He takes after E's example of not wanting to put in a 40 hour week. But then again, D might come to work in the morning, and E will say "We're doing night work, so we've got to be downtown at 4 this afternoon." What? The phone doesn't work both ways? He couldn't call D and tell him to come in later? There's never a schedule. There's never any idea of what they will be doing one day to the next. It doesn't bother E too much because we work out of his 8000 sf house so all he has to do to take the morning off is not walk to the North wing of the house.
E pays him $2,700 a month for highly skilled labor that he would need months to teach to someone else, let alone the knowledge of the past 9 years that D has in his head. That's a hard living in this area - a one BR apt is about $700 plus utilities. E is terribly disorganized and ADHD. He acts as though I am his muse or something. Nothing can get done and nothing can get mailed or ordered unless I am there holding his hand. While he yells at me because "that's not the way he does it". E is obsessed that D doesn't put in a 40 hour week. For months E has been paying this woman $600 a month to counsel him on how to grow business. Let me tell you, I have a lot of ideas, and have offered, but he wants none of it. There's always a reason not to. The obvious one is to hire someone younger with more energy who is good at computers and let me get back to just doing the payroll and bills. That way when D finally poops out, there's someone to take his spot. Hire someone for 90 probationary and if it doesn't work out, hire another one, but HIRE SOMEONE!
Instead, E bought himself a $60,000 boat to put on his riverfront property (where we have our offices, so E's wealth is rubbed into D's nose on a daily basis) with the new $20,000 dock and got a time clock for work. For one employee. D was morose to say the least. E told me that D would get a small hourly raise, and that he would pay a little extra for working nights. I set up the payroll this month to go that way. He only pays monthly. E's paycheck is four times what D makes. I coax D into it, explaining in detail how it will work. I even did it only at what would be D's currently hourly rate, and was able to convince D that there were some months that he could make an extra $100 bucks because some months are more than 4 40 hour weeks. So, D is going home on time, putting in a basic 40 hour week, working nights sometimes, and even a little overtime. He should actually come out a couple of hundred dollars ahead his month. When E figures this out, he tells me, "Well, why don't we just keep him punching the time clock to track his hours, and we won't put him on hourly for a few months after we see how it goes." Honest to god, if I were D and I had been punching a time clock for a month and watching every little minute after being coerced into it under the pretense of a small raise then didn't get it, I would literally push E off a roof the next time we went on a night job.
I'm so angry that I got played into this drama. These people are so unaware of their own self-interests! The work that D does would be recognized anywhere as a union trade, and he could make easily 3 times what he earns from E. But he calls himself "a broken man", and he is. D is of little use to E any more because D doesn't trust E, and he has no ambition because any idea or initiative is shot down as not good enough, and he doesn't get paid enough to take that. Yet, D hates unions and feels that if the government would just give a few more tax breaks to Corporations everything will turn around. Well you know who is a one man corporation? E. You know who give D his political advice? E. E, on the other hand is evangelically christian. You might even call him a "Dominionist". What I would not call him is a Christian, because I'm pretty sure that Jesus wouldn't behave this way.
I finally had enough this morning. I sent E an email and told him that I couldn't believe he was actually going to cheat D out of at most $100 a month and he made me lie about it, just so he could make sure that D was in the office 40 hours a week by watching the time clock. E won't EVER talk to D, he'll just make me write the paycheck the way that he wants it and hand it to D. Then D sees it and is mad at ME because I told him he would make a little more money, and of course I know what is going on. I told E that if he did that to D I would have to tender my resignation notice. I can't tell you indignant I had to get before I got angry enough to write that letter.
E wrote back that he was going to give D a raise, he's sorry he upset me, he just wanted to wait until after this month, blah blah blah, he thought it would be easier because he hired his son as a temp and paid the son union wages to do work at a public school and forced D to take that week off so that D couldn't earn the union wage. Of course, he didn't put it that way, he just said he "thought it would be simpler, because I have to fill out a Certified Payroll report before we can invoice." No it's not more simple! It's awful! Ack! That's my weekend starting... I still don't know how much he is going to pay the guy come next week.
