2004-02-06 - 1:11 p.m.
WEEK #3: MO' MONEY, MO' PROBLEMS
So listen to this. A few months ago, I got suckered into doing some work for this business that a relative of mine works at. The relative is like my dad's cousin, so it's not someone terribly close to me, but it still counts enough as family that I would have felt weird about turning her down. And it counts enough as family that I'm going to be vague and never mention what the business is while I insult and ridicule them in the following paragraphs, in case it were to get back to them somehow.
As I was saying, a few months ago they contacted me about helping them with some stuff. That's the main point that I think should be kept in mind. THEY called ME.
So we're talking some turkey and I listen to their proposals and all whatnots. Since I'm not going to be a regular employee for them, I wasn't going to get like an hourly salary or anything. And it's not a whole lot of work. So I told them they could pay me $100 a month and that'd be fine.
Well. The next time I went to talk with them, my dad's cousin... I guess she's my second cousin? Anyway, she goes "I talked to another business, and they only pay a guy $50 a month to do this". Which... why is she saying that? She's my relative. She's not the boss, so my money is not coming out of her pocket. Why is she trying to get me less money? This is why I try to avoid my family whenever possible.
But anyway, good for that other business. Good for that guy who's getting $50. I asked for $100. I was told that I'd get $100. I never agreed to $50, but when I left that day, I knew all of THEM would be thinking $50 because they're butts and they're cheap.
So earlier this week, after a whole month of me helping them out with stuff, I sent them my first bill. They made me send them a bill. I wrote down $100 damn dollars, just as we'd agreed to. Then I came home this morning from class and I have a message from the boss at this business. "Oh joy," I think, "they want to know why I charged them $100 when they expected to pay me $50."
I hate these kind of conversations, so I waited for Charity to get home so I could complain to her and curse my family and yell at myself for ever agreeing to help these people in the first place. Then I picked up the phone and made the call.
Well! It turns out I was wrong. They weren't concerned with the difference over the $50, they don't want to pay me ANYTHING. I got some sob story about how business has been down, which in this case means maybe they can't afford their country club dues. And, what, the bottom just fell out of their business in the last two months? I think not.
Anyway, they just don't know if they can justify paying me anything, let alone $100 every month. On the bright side, at least they were planning to give me the $100 and not $50.
The boss explained how she needs to make several decisions about financial matters, and she'd let me know what they planned to do about me and my continued employment there. Then we hung up. So the way things look right now, I did some work for them, I'm probably going to get nothing for it, and this whole thing has just been a big freakin' waste of my time.
Which... it's not really that big a deal. It wasn't that much work, and it's only $100. But come on. THEY called ME! What gives with these damn people.
the end
