Okay, so many of you know from recent posts that I have put in my 2-week notice and we are getting everything ready for the move coming this Sunday.
A scary leap, to be sure, but one that we decided was for the best overall. Keeping the current economy and, by extension, the utter lack of viable jobs available, we really had to pick between the lesser of two evils…
- Continue working for a man who refuses to pay me on time – sometimes up to a week or more past scheduled pay days. Who also screams at the top of his lungs in rage fits about things that have absolutely nothing to do with work. Who also both calls me, other employees and all the tenants horrible names (fag, the n-word, pigs, etc.).
- Get out of this stress-filled hostile environment and trade it for the stress of finding and gaining employment anywhere else, hopefully soon.
It’s a pretty icky choice no matter which way we turn. And I’ve had a lot of people tell me I’m insane to leave even a late-paying hostile job in these hard times. Ordinarily I would wholeheartedly agree with that, however there is also the fact that I want to get Seth and I out of both this hostility as well as this horrid neighborhood where we aren’t even safe walking down the street to the store or taking a walk anywhere. Seriously, there is rarely a night we don’t hear gunshots and see helicopters circling around overhead.
Besides, I think I might have a pretty strong case of discrimination and/or harassment against this man for the whole “fag” incident. I hear that California law really frowns on that sort of stuff. Not to mention the labor laws here that say that for every day your employer is late in paying you beyond your scheduled pay date, it’s an extra $100 per day they have to pay you. This last pay period I was supposed to be paid on the 1st (I am salary and my pay dates are the 1st & 15th of each month, according to my contract) and he held on to my check until the 6th. He does this every time.
Ever since he found out that I became aware of the “fag” comment and subsequently submitted my 2-week notice, he was doing everything he could to make me change my mind. Even going so far as to have his accountant (who actually used the f-word about me to him and he didn’t even so much as reprimand her for it) try to convince me not to quit.
I think he knows how serious this situation really is and how potentially damaging to him it could be. So he thinks if I change my mind (which will never happen) and stay, then the heat is off of him.
Whatever the outcome, I just want to get us the hell out of here and on a fresh track. We had a very hard time getting on our feet when we moved here last year, so at least we know what to expect this time. And we are ready for that. Like I told Seth, I will get a job picking up dog poop in the park if I have to. I have never shied away from work and refuse to pass up any occupational opportunity.
But what do you think?
Do I have a case?
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