Jobs Galore
Up until today I had been in a sort of employment limbo.
As I mentioned before, I was doing landscaping work under a woman named Arlene Farmer who ran this little company called "Doing It All Enterprises," until she started getting shady. Here's the story:
Towards beginning of the summer, Vicki's friend Kerri told her about the landscaping job that she had gotten through an employment agency, and that her boss (Arlene) was looking for some more help, so Vicki joined the crew and started working. At this point I was still working at glorious Pizza Hut for about the third month (about three months too long). After a few weeks, Vicki told me that Arlene might still need more help, so I got on the bandwagon and quit Pizza Hut to start working full-time for Arlene. As I understood it at the time, my help would probably be needed full-time for a few weeks, then on-and-off as work started to dwindle at the end of the season.
The first couple of weeks working with Arlene were fine. I was getting good excercise, good money, and Arlene seemed like a very friendly and caring sort of person. Then things started to go downhill.
Maybe three weeks in, Vicki told me that Kerri had told her that Arlene had said (yeah, I know, it may not be 100% reliable) that I worked too slow and she would have to let me go if I didn't improve. That could me by surprise; I thought I was doing all right, especially for someone with no real experience. I felt that I went slow because I was thorough, as Arlene had told me the first day I worked, "My customers like me do it meticulous, so that's what I'm known for."
Things went on, and around this time, Arlene started her "I don't have enough money routine." Every week on payday, and sometimes other days, she would complain, saying "You guys are killing me, I don't have enough money to pay you," and so on. She always did pay us although one week she didn't pay me overtime that I had earned (that week, she asked Kerri if she'd work for no overtime, Kerri said yes, but she never asked me). Now mind you, Arlene makes at least $50 an hour when we work. I'm not sure if that's $50 for each of us, or $50 for a two-man team, but that's still at least $30 profit for each hour that we work. Now, if you subtract transit times and gas, etc. she's still making at the very, very least $15 every hour (probably closer to $20-25)... from each of us!
Add that to the fact that at least two days a week, often more, Arlene would leave to run various errands while we worked -- running to the bank, the DMV, to talk to a client about an estimate, etc. So many days Arlene was profitting $30 an hour for driving around while we worked out in the hot sun for between $8 and $11 an hour. But that was okay. We complained about it to each other... it was sorta like a bonding experience, bitching about Arlene. A lot of days we'd go get ice cream at this great place called the Big Moo and just complain about our boss.
We did discover what may have been a big cause of Arlene's supposed financial situation. The woman didn't send her bills to her clients for like a month after the job was done, and it sometimes too months after that for her to collect! That, or she just has an insatiable crack addiction or something that she is trying to feed.
Despite all of Arlene's complaining, she soon hired one her client's sons, Ben. Ben was a pretty cool guy, a little quiet but a video-game fan like myself, so we got along well enough. Anyways, the first couple of days that Ben worked, he went painfully slow... and what did Arlene say: "I like the work he does, he's very meticulous." That pissed me off a bit, given that I had heard that I was about to lose my job for that. On top of that, another complaint that we all had was that Arlene rarely ever complimented us on a job that we had done. Often, the clients, if they were home, would say "thanks" and "beautiful job" and all, but never Arlene. Arelene had nothing but criticisms, generally. We never seemed to do anything well enough on the first try.
After a few weeks of this, Arlene told us that she was running out of work (so why did you hire another person?), and there's was a week where we probably wouldn't have any work before going back on part time. Now of course, Arlene had told Vicki that she would need her for the whole summer, full-time. Still, we weren't too worried at this point -- by this point, we were used to Arlene either lying or exaggerating or just having no idea what she was talking about. We were going to take that week off to go back to my home in the Albany area, though Vicki got real sick and we ended up staying at home.
When we called Arlene before going back on Monday, she said she'd have to "find work for us." We would later find out that Kerri, Ben and Arlene's cousin, Tom, had worked that day. We had both started before Ben and Tom, so we didn't know why they should get preference over us. But wait! There's more! We would later discover that Arlene apparently said, "I thought I made it clear to them that they were done."
...
Both Vicki and I clearly remember, the last thing that Arlene said to use before we left on the previous Friday was: "Bye guys, enjoy your week off." Maybe I'm dumb, but I fail to understand how anyone could interperet that as "I'm sorry, I'm not going to need you anymore."
Nonetheless, Arlene found us some work for the next two days. On the third day, Vicki called her up to confront her on all this bullshit. She got absolutely nowhere. Arlene insisted that Vicki had "betrayed her trust" by not telling her that was going back to school (Vicki and Kerri both remember making it clear to her), she maintained that I was still slow, went on about how her sister was dying of cancer and she could have to drop her business at any moment -- whatever that has to do with anything. She was also upset at us for not being available during our "week off." She had asked if we'd be available to work Monday or Tuesday on our week off, but I had had to take Vicki to the doctor on Monday and then be with her on Tuesday. Nevermind the fact that asking us to work those days completely contradicts her whole story of getting rid of us.
Oddly, we ended up working for her that day and the next, and things went on as though nothing had happened. I got a chance to work with her cousin Tom. A friendly enough guy, if a little... well, thick. He had apparently just gotten out of prison for some dispute with his wife. He was taking care of two kids, he needed the money, sure. Kerri had told us that almost every day that she worked with him, he would complain all day about the hard work, say he didn't make enough money, and sometimes just take random breaks for like a half hour (on top of just plain being slow). He also apparently asked Arlene for a raise from the $9 he already made -- which was more than I had made to start and as much as Vicki had been raised to. Not to mention, Arlene told Vicki during their conversation on the phone that she only paid Tom $7!
On payday, Arlene spent at least an hour arguing with Tom about how much she owed him. He insisted 33 hours, though Arlene had recorded only 29. Arlene was right, but even after she showed him the math, he still insisted he deserved more. Oh, did I mention that Arlene also told Vicki that Tom was a good, fast worker? As far as I could see, he was slow, complained too much, ran his mouth instead of working, and hassled Arlene over pay. If I recall correctly, he also showed up significantly late a couple of times. I don't know why she'd want to pay an extra dollar an hour for that over me or Vicki who worked at least as fast and didn't give her a hassle.
As it stands, Kerri and Tom are still working for Arlene, I don't know about Ben. I called her at the beginning of this week, since Kerri and Vicki had gone to Virginia for the week and I thought I might be able to get some hours, but no luck. Back to the drawing board.
---
Thank god for Monster.com. I applied to seven or eight places, and within the past two days I've secured one job and gotten three more offers. As of August 18th I'll be employed by ADT Security, making $9.30 an hour. Nothing to jump for joy at, but not too shabby either. I've got to check into these other opportunities and then take a drug test for the ADT people tomorrow, but at least I have some security. Now if I can just get the $20 I have now to last until the week of the 18th... :)
Peace,
Schmitty
As I mentioned before, I was doing landscaping work under a woman named Arlene Farmer who ran this little company called "Doing It All Enterprises," until she started getting shady. Here's the story:
Towards beginning of the summer, Vicki's friend Kerri told her about the landscaping job that she had gotten through an employment agency, and that her boss (Arlene) was looking for some more help, so Vicki joined the crew and started working. At this point I was still working at glorious Pizza Hut for about the third month (about three months too long). After a few weeks, Vicki told me that Arlene might still need more help, so I got on the bandwagon and quit Pizza Hut to start working full-time for Arlene. As I understood it at the time, my help would probably be needed full-time for a few weeks, then on-and-off as work started to dwindle at the end of the season.
The first couple of weeks working with Arlene were fine. I was getting good excercise, good money, and Arlene seemed like a very friendly and caring sort of person. Then things started to go downhill.
Maybe three weeks in, Vicki told me that Kerri had told her that Arlene had said (yeah, I know, it may not be 100% reliable) that I worked too slow and she would have to let me go if I didn't improve. That could me by surprise; I thought I was doing all right, especially for someone with no real experience. I felt that I went slow because I was thorough, as Arlene had told me the first day I worked, "My customers like me do it meticulous, so that's what I'm known for."
Things went on, and around this time, Arlene started her "I don't have enough money routine." Every week on payday, and sometimes other days, she would complain, saying "You guys are killing me, I don't have enough money to pay you," and so on. She always did pay us although one week she didn't pay me overtime that I had earned (that week, she asked Kerri if she'd work for no overtime, Kerri said yes, but she never asked me). Now mind you, Arlene makes at least $50 an hour when we work. I'm not sure if that's $50 for each of us, or $50 for a two-man team, but that's still at least $30 profit for each hour that we work. Now, if you subtract transit times and gas, etc. she's still making at the very, very least $15 every hour (probably closer to $20-25)... from each of us!
Add that to the fact that at least two days a week, often more, Arlene would leave to run various errands while we worked -- running to the bank, the DMV, to talk to a client about an estimate, etc. So many days Arlene was profitting $30 an hour for driving around while we worked out in the hot sun for between $8 and $11 an hour. But that was okay. We complained about it to each other... it was sorta like a bonding experience, bitching about Arlene. A lot of days we'd go get ice cream at this great place called the Big Moo and just complain about our boss.
We did discover what may have been a big cause of Arlene's supposed financial situation. The woman didn't send her bills to her clients for like a month after the job was done, and it sometimes too months after that for her to collect! That, or she just has an insatiable crack addiction or something that she is trying to feed.
Despite all of Arlene's complaining, she soon hired one her client's sons, Ben. Ben was a pretty cool guy, a little quiet but a video-game fan like myself, so we got along well enough. Anyways, the first couple of days that Ben worked, he went painfully slow... and what did Arlene say: "I like the work he does, he's very meticulous." That pissed me off a bit, given that I had heard that I was about to lose my job for that. On top of that, another complaint that we all had was that Arlene rarely ever complimented us on a job that we had done. Often, the clients, if they were home, would say "thanks" and "beautiful job" and all, but never Arlene. Arelene had nothing but criticisms, generally. We never seemed to do anything well enough on the first try.
After a few weeks of this, Arlene told us that she was running out of work (so why did you hire another person?), and there's was a week where we probably wouldn't have any work before going back on part time. Now of course, Arlene had told Vicki that she would need her for the whole summer, full-time. Still, we weren't too worried at this point -- by this point, we were used to Arlene either lying or exaggerating or just having no idea what she was talking about. We were going to take that week off to go back to my home in the Albany area, though Vicki got real sick and we ended up staying at home.
When we called Arlene before going back on Monday, she said she'd have to "find work for us." We would later find out that Kerri, Ben and Arlene's cousin, Tom, had worked that day. We had both started before Ben and Tom, so we didn't know why they should get preference over us. But wait! There's more! We would later discover that Arlene apparently said, "I thought I made it clear to them that they were done."
...
Both Vicki and I clearly remember, the last thing that Arlene said to use before we left on the previous Friday was: "Bye guys, enjoy your week off." Maybe I'm dumb, but I fail to understand how anyone could interperet that as "I'm sorry, I'm not going to need you anymore."
Nonetheless, Arlene found us some work for the next two days. On the third day, Vicki called her up to confront her on all this bullshit. She got absolutely nowhere. Arlene insisted that Vicki had "betrayed her trust" by not telling her that was going back to school (Vicki and Kerri both remember making it clear to her), she maintained that I was still slow, went on about how her sister was dying of cancer and she could have to drop her business at any moment -- whatever that has to do with anything. She was also upset at us for not being available during our "week off." She had asked if we'd be available to work Monday or Tuesday on our week off, but I had had to take Vicki to the doctor on Monday and then be with her on Tuesday. Nevermind the fact that asking us to work those days completely contradicts her whole story of getting rid of us.
Oddly, we ended up working for her that day and the next, and things went on as though nothing had happened. I got a chance to work with her cousin Tom. A friendly enough guy, if a little... well, thick. He had apparently just gotten out of prison for some dispute with his wife. He was taking care of two kids, he needed the money, sure. Kerri had told us that almost every day that she worked with him, he would complain all day about the hard work, say he didn't make enough money, and sometimes just take random breaks for like a half hour (on top of just plain being slow). He also apparently asked Arlene for a raise from the $9 he already made -- which was more than I had made to start and as much as Vicki had been raised to. Not to mention, Arlene told Vicki during their conversation on the phone that she only paid Tom $7!
On payday, Arlene spent at least an hour arguing with Tom about how much she owed him. He insisted 33 hours, though Arlene had recorded only 29. Arlene was right, but even after she showed him the math, he still insisted he deserved more. Oh, did I mention that Arlene also told Vicki that Tom was a good, fast worker? As far as I could see, he was slow, complained too much, ran his mouth instead of working, and hassled Arlene over pay. If I recall correctly, he also showed up significantly late a couple of times. I don't know why she'd want to pay an extra dollar an hour for that over me or Vicki who worked at least as fast and didn't give her a hassle.
As it stands, Kerri and Tom are still working for Arlene, I don't know about Ben. I called her at the beginning of this week, since Kerri and Vicki had gone to Virginia for the week and I thought I might be able to get some hours, but no luck. Back to the drawing board.
---
Thank god for Monster.com. I applied to seven or eight places, and within the past two days I've secured one job and gotten three more offers. As of August 18th I'll be employed by ADT Security, making $9.30 an hour. Nothing to jump for joy at, but not too shabby either. I've got to check into these other opportunities and then take a drug test for the ADT people tomorrow, but at least I have some security. Now if I can just get the $20 I have now to last until the week of the 18th... :)
Peace,
Schmitty
posted by Kultcher at Thursday, August 05, 2004
3 Comments:
Tisk tisk. Naughty naughty.
It looks like Kultchers weblog
Is gettin' kinda spotty ;-)
No updates in a while :-p
Yeah, I know, I'm a terrible person.
Been busy with the new job and all that. I've been in an a very motivated mood of late -- I even bought myself a planner. Updating the blog is actually on my to-do list. I actually have a post I wrote before I got back on the net, which I'll upload presently.
Peace,
Schmitty
And another thing...
I like to think I make up for quantity with, well, quantity. I may not post a lot, but my posts takes forever to write. The Rolling Rock Town Fair story was like 10 single spaced pages in word. So there.
Peace,
Schmitty
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