There is nothing so wonderful (or fulfilling) as being able to spend the day with my daughter. Chasing her around. Making her laugh. Trying to teach her words.
Just a quick (maybe) update on my pay situation.
The federal labor department says all they can do is help me get help from the state labor department. The state labor department says I probably have a good case, but they can't do anything to help me. I have to sue, then if I win I can get the money owed me, court costs, lawyer fees and upto an additional 90 days pay. However -
"The Louisiana Department of Labor does not have the authority to enforce this law."
Of course, if I lose then my time and money is gone. I may still have one option left. The company does not know how to do a lot of the things I created while there, I tried to show them for my two weeks, but they never really believed I was leaving. They had total denial. A friend of mine said, "You can't reason with a man with no reason." I agree. Here is a brief synapses of my last two weeks, you decide wether the behavior is normal or not.
July 5th - Turn in my two weeks.
July 6th - Received e-mail requesting why, responded with lack of pay, being cussed out, the fact that my job description had changed (since they lost another person for not paying him on time I had to take over his duties, plus keep my own, then get yelled at for things not being done fast enough), etc.
July 6th - Received ranting e-mail explaining how everything was my fault or I was lying about incidents that never happened.
July 6th - Created list of 30 reasons he gave in e-mail why they where better off without me (he did not find the humor in it.)
July 7th - 19th - Continued working as though nothing happened. They behaved as though I was not leaving at all, that this was some sort of trick I was using, I continued to let them know I was actually leaving and they might want to try and learn some of the things I was supporting. They didn't.
July 19th - I was asked at the meeting wether I had a new job yet (unfortunatley no as a prospective job fell through.) He said "So we will continue on as normal for now then." I said "NO, I am leaving the company." I think at this point in time is when it finally clicked that I was leaving. I requested my check (for June 16th-30th that was due me on July 15th). I was told he did not know the status of it.
July 20th - Was told I did not know anything about business, everything was my fault and there was no way I would be getting any money from them. I answered 2 support calls as they still had a line being forwarded to my home number.
July 21st - Went to the office to get all the paperwork showing what they said they owed me and what they said I owed them. The numbers where amazingly close, with me only $79 in the red. Of course, though they knew I was coming, the paperwork was not ready. So I got an hour and a half of why everything was my fault. Followed by the fact that I had done such a wonderful job over the last 4 years that the company was ahead $40,000 this year and everyone was getting a $3/hr raise.
July 24th - Received e-mail asking me to work a trade show in Birmingham for him and come into the office and build a new distribution system for the company. They won't pay me what they owe me, but want me to do more work for them?
July 26th - They still have not changed the line which is forwarded to my house, I don't answer it anymore.
July 27th - After typing it all down, I can't help but believe I made the right decision.
Sure it's gonna be tough, but some things (probably most) are more important than money. |
