A "friend" (so I thought) and former co-worker had started his own consulting company and pc store, needed another person. I joined on, ended up getting certified in Novell NetWare, learned to install servers, started working with pc databases, etc.
The short answer: he had a few consulting employees, but insisted on treating them like independent contractors. I ended up making far less money than thought would be the case, hurt my marriage and family.
The worst thing: there was a dispute with a client, who thought I was a contractor not an employee, and sued me individually along with the firm. Wouldn't you know the s.o.b. "friend" let me dangle in the breeze? It cost me about $5k in a settlement to avoid a costly lawsuit in court, and turns out the whole issue was because of a communications screw-up by the owner's girlfriend / office manager (which he wouldn't believe).
ASAP I went looking for another job, was lucky to find the one I'm now in, say my blessings every day, and will never speak to that b*st*rd again.
-Ben
>Apparently, for the person I was researching this for ... they found it
>extremely difficult to say no. They were not financially stable and
>needed the job. They feared they would not be able to get another should
>they get fired ... they feared being unable to collect umployment should
>they get fired or quit.
>
>For some people who are not strong willed or strongminded, coping with
>this stuff is very hard.
>
>Lucky for you, you have the attitude and the balls to do with your life
>what you need to do and what you have rights to do.
>
>I too, do what I need to, and I left an abusive workplace a long time
>ago to better myself. It wasn't easy though, the psychological damage is
>pretty great, especially if you are on friendly terms with a family
>owned business and they let you into their personal lives. When the
>abuse starts it hurts.
>
>Hopefully more and more people will stick up for themselves, but like
>anything ... it all takes work. :/
>
>Cheers,
>Erika
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: William H Bowen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 1:41 PM
>To: CF-Community
>Subject: Re: Interesting Read - WORKPLACE ABUSE
>
>
>> For many of my clients this is true of their family lives as well.
>We're
>> lucky if we have a partner to live with who is more than a task
>> companion, more than someone else (outside work) to engage in power
>> struggles with.
>
>Guess I should consider myself lucky. What the hell happened to people
>making time to be in love with their spouse? To be friends with them? To
>
>talk to them, laugh with them? I mean, I work in a fairly high stress
>environment, as far as sudden deadlines, new one-off projects go...and
>sometimes its costs me time at home, but I also reserve the right to say
>
>no. I reserve the right to leave early sometimes.
>
>Does everybody have these opportunities? No, but I daresay there's
>probably a hell of a lot of people out there that would be much better
>off if they said *no* once in a while. Are people really that convinced
>that they'll be fired if they tell their bosses *no* every so often?
>
>
>
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