This year has sucked big for working but somehow we were able to make ends meet but will little profit in our bank account to show for it. All of the money being spent on our bills which are continuing to mount and cause me angst and anxiety while I continue to search for work.
I place open ads for work on Craigslist and get people like LEON to write to me asking to see my resume for an Accounts Receivable position temp he has available because the person in the job is out on a 3 month maternity leave and may not return. The job pays whatever and what will I need to do the job in way of compensation and then he says this after I court him for two days trying to make sense of what he wants. He’s a big dumb olf-ie kind of lug and yes, I can tell that over the phone and while I can’t imagine working with the likes of him, I feel I am doomed to try because I need work or lose everything I own.
Leon asks me, “you won’t be working with other part-time people when you work for us on this job now, will you?” like this question is even supposed to be tolerated at any time during the interview process. I said, “you have no right to tell me what to do on my off hours when not working for you”. He grunts (yes he actually grunted over the phone) and says “well, we don’t want a conflict of interest” and I said, “my last client is going out of business due to the fact he is a 26-year-old kid without a brain in his entire head and did not listen to anyone when making his terrible business decisions.” All of which is true because unfortunately for me I have not been able to replace my last client with another and thought for sure that his business would remain afloat because he had investors that were enabling him with loads and loads of money whenever he needed it.
My last client relied all too heavily on the fact that he had this sweet deal and decided in order to get out of the pickle he was in when over his head with a client who reneged on going forward with a film intended for the summer of 2009 and now slated for the winter of 2010; the client overextended himself by $20K on the company Amex bill. You can’t screw around with Amex. Amex will screw you back and they did, twice shutting down the account and freezing their company accounts in order to get their money. My client apparently was only paying them the minimum but unaware that Amex was also charging him an extra $400 bucks in fees so he was just treading water month to month.
Apparently when the main investor went to use his Amex card he came up with egg on face. Musta been a rude awakening for the man who made a fortune in shipping when he whipped out his Amex card to pay for something and was then refused.
None of this was my fault but as the bookkeeper I am incensed that the kid did not confide in me and instead of telling me when I asked why the account was in arrears he rebuffed me saying it was not my business and he would take care of it. His solution: to cut the company and run. Idiotic and now I’m in a tight spot because that client was keeping us alive and now I have to find a real full-time position in less than 5 weeks. I’m praying that the job in Fort Lee NJ works in my favor – I’ll have to drive there or take several trains and 1 bus to get there but it’s worth it if I am a steady employee. What is the Ft Lee concern: my travel and will I leave in the long run because the travel is a pain in the butt and go into NYC for the remainder of my career. What can you say to all that nonsense?
We are in a depression, people. You take what you get and do the best with it. Carpool, drive your car daily, try and work things out half the year drive and the other half – take the trains and go 3 hours in one direction to get to work. What can I say? A job is a job and its money to us and that is what we need to survive.
Oh and Leon – go stick your temp maybe perm job in your ear! Oh and the 26-year-old owes me a paycheck which I have not been able to deposit while my bills pile up around my head because his investor hasn’t given him any money to do so and the kid has not had enough sense to stop the automatic withdrawals set up to pay the monthly overhead and bills. It’s ridiculous and I fear that I will not be able to go forward until he closes if payment is not imminent.
—Bonju Patten
November 21, 2009
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: buses, cars, difficulties, driving, employers, jobs, trains, work . Author: bonjupatten . Comments: Leave a Comment