So, about 3 months ago I returned from a trip overseas for work that I was doing for “Company B”. I had been there for about 8 weeks when I finally decided that I could finish the project from the US office and get back home to my wife and my own bed. The day I returned to work I was quite surprised, not only had everyone but the office assistant/ translator been fired but I was going to get a “promotion”. This promotion included me taking charge of everything including sales! I was also offered a generous increase in salery and use of the company car. But, I barely had a grip on how to do the job I was already doing and I was winging it pretty good so, to have to manage all aspects of the company with no direct support from the HQ office was just asinine. I expressed this thought with the Senior VP of my office who had not been fired but transferred to the HQ office and he just said that I would have to do the best job I could. Well, Ok. I put a great effort into learning all I could about sales and forecasting and marketing, and every other aspect I knew about but had no pervious experience with. I began talking to former client reps that I had become friendly with about the possibility of showing their company our other products. I questioned former colleagues from “Company “A”’ about revenue forecasting, licensing contracts, and worldwide distribution channels. I did this all while maintaining the day to day needs of the remaining two projects that I was working on, “Project X” was quickly coming to a close. While “Project Y” was about 1/3 complete and I knew once we got close to finishing it I would be able to start on that company’s next project as we had been in talks about 6 total projects over 2 years. In October of this year (2006) I was in the final week of closing out “Project X” and I was still going strong researching all I could about every other aspect of this business when the shit hit the fan. I had normally been paid once every 2 weeks, pretty normal for most companies now a day, but the on 2nd week in Oct I got my check from the office assistant on Friday night and went to the bank on Saturday to cash it. I was told by the teller that I would not be able to cash this check due to no funds being in the account. This was not the first time this had happened but the first time I dismissed it as a clerical error. Now, I’m not going to bring up every little thing that has annoyed me about this company since I’ve been here such as computer and phone issues, flight and hotel mix up’s or non-arrangements that have left stranded me in countries that I could not speak the language, blatant lying to me about the working arrangements in our production offices that have altered time schedules so bad that we were let go by a client. I mean I could go into detail about every one of these as it has been a pile of problems that led up to this payment issue but it is the payment issue that made me snap. Once I left the bank I immediately called the office assistant to let her know that we had money problems. (Note: this account is separate from the HQ account so the company as a whole was not screwed, just my US office) I let her know that she would have problems with her check to which she replied, “Yeah, well.. I know, I was hoping the money would be in the account by today. I’ll ask HQ about it on Monday. This to me is bullshit and yet another lie because she was hoping the money would be deposited from our HQ bank to our US bank on a Saturday which is actually Sunday at HQ. I call shenanigans on that one but continued to try to get to the bottom of it. I told her we needed to contact HQ right away and scheduled a conference call with her and the HQ accountant late Sunday night (Sunday night US time/ Monday morning HQ time) She agreed and told me that she would explain the outcome of the meeting to me on Monday morning, fine. Monday morning I come in and ask what went wrong. She begins to explain to me how our office has not provided any revenue and that HQ was concerned. To which I told her I didn’t give a shit about that, I am trying to do my job and create revenue, by myself, and would not be able to do so without getting paid to do so. She looked confused at this logic. I then bluntly asked when the money was going to be placed into the account. She began to explain that the HQ accountant was not authorized to place any more funds into our US account and that in order for us to get paid we had to get our development check from “Company A”! Yes my first project was with the company I had just left in order to take this position. So yes, “Company A” fired us 3 months prior due to our schedule for work to be completed being a complete lie, as I explained a few paragraphs ago ‘ blatant lying to me about the working arrangements in our production offices that have altered time schedules so bad that we were let go by a client.’ So HQ decided that we were held accountable because “Company A” had not sent our final development check, which was legally owed to us. This just pissed me off to no end and I’m not the kind of person to just up and quit a job when A) I have no immediate job lined up and B) I would not want to leave my remaining project hanging with no way for it to be finished and ultimately burn a bridge at this high profile company. So I began to write e-mails off to every officer of the company that could do something about it – well ok, I wrote e-mails to the only people I knew in HQ could speak English! But this included the CEO, CFO, Senior VP who was previously my boss in the US and the Director of Operations in our other production house. It was addressed to my newly appointed Director who I kind of reported to. So, instead of writing about the e-mail I’m just going to alter the original e-mail so I can post it here. Here it is: Hi Mr. Director,
I know that you have only recently taken over as the head of our Operation in America recently but it is my unfortunate position to inform you of our current financial state of affairs.
It is now Oct 16th and I have not been given my check for this pay period due to no money being currently in the account. I had been explained to me (by Former boss and Senior VP) when I started working that checks would be given on the 1st and the 15th of each month. The following is a list of how payments have been given to me for the last few months.
July 15th – This check bounced and I had to pay penalties to my bank because Former boss put a hold on all checks. I am unsure why a hold was placed on the checks but he did finally pay me for the amount of the check 3 days later. This effected 3 employees here, Sales Guy, Production Assistant Boy, and myself.
Aug 1st and Aug 15th – Was paid to me prior to my departure for (overseas office) so that I could take care of my bills while I was away on business for (our company).
Sept 1st – My check was sent to my Wife so that she could pay my bills while I was still away on Business at (overseas office).
Sept 15th – I was told on Friday when I got my check to please wait until Monday the 2nd to make sure there was enough money in the account before I cashed it. This effected both (Office assistant Girl) and myself.
Oct 1st – This check was given to me as I left work on Friday the 29th because the 1st was a Sunday and banks are not open, I went to cash it on Sat the 30th and was told that there was not enough money in the account to cash it. Money was finally placed into the account on Monday the 2nd and I cashed my check on Tuesday the 3rd. This effected both (Office assistant Girl) and myself.
Oct 15th - As this pay day fell again on a Sunday I figured we would wait until Monday (today) to make sure that there was a deposit made. I have been informed by (Office assistant Girl) that she has talked to (HQ Accountant guy) in accounting and that he has informed her that there will not be a deposit placed into this account until (Our Company) receives a check from (“Company A”) in regards to the (“Project W”) final payment. Neither I nor (Office assistant Girl) has any control over what another company does, or does not do. Why (Office assistant Girl) and I have to be personally responsible for this lack of accounting on (“Company A”), or any other companies, part in no way diminishes our contributions to (Our Company) and the work we’ve done in the past 15 days. If there is any further explanation I would be very interested to hear it.
Mr. Director, as you can see, this has been an ongoing issue and one that is very difficult to deal with as it affects our personal well being. Since you have just be placed in charge of things here for the US office I would just like to ask that there be a set day on which we can expect our check and also that when we do receive checks that there is money in the account so that it can be cashed accordingly.
I thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.
~Me
The response I got was from not Mr. Director but the CFO who, from what I understand is really running things over there. He also included the entire financial team on the e-mail and had it written in both languages (English and the HQ language) Dear Me,
I will take care of this as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience. Is there a chance that the US office employees receive monthly salary rather then bi-weekly salary? Currently US office is the only office receiving bi-weekly salary and thus causing some confusion. To which I replied: Hi Mr CFO,
Thank you for looking into this matter as it is becoming more than just an inconvenience.
I would be open to the option of Monthly salary but currently I have a staggered bill schedule and do need to make payments on them as of 2 days ago, I’ve since used personal savings to cover those costs thus far. Although I can arrange to begin a monthly salary starting in December once I have taken care of the immediate needs.
Please take into consideration that I do still need a funds to be delivered to the US account as soon as possible so that I can cash the current paycheck.
Thank you again for your attention to this matter and I will be available to discuss the start date for an alternate monthly salary at any time.
~Me This was his response: Me, It has been arranged. We will start to give out monthly salary starting December then. (HR team please note) So, this e-mail tagging had gone on for 3 days and it took another 2 days to get the funds into the account. I have not had any issues since but the end of this month will be the first full month payment and I am wondering if they are going to screw that up. It was sometime the week after this that I began to question my loyalty to this place and stress I was putting myself under to take on more tasks to do a job that would really only smear my name through this incestuous industry because ultimately we would never finish it correctly. Office assistant girl continued to lie to me about schedules and conversations she had with HQ and ultimately about what she was doing day-to-day. So I began to slack off and became somewhat despondent. I was maintaining that level of work needed to “get by” with our final project, “Project Y” and started playing PC video games after lunch every day. Then I began to surf the internet more and more each morning and have started playing PC games before and after lunch now. I’m involved with 4 online group based contests that I update my user accounts on average of an hour each every day. I literally have slowed down to an hour or two of work each day. Labels: Fired, money, pay check, quit, Stupid Job, Sucks, Video Games, Work |
