Wherein Dumber's boss jumps into the fray

[Eireann]

More in the ongoing saga of Dumb and Dumber.

Dumb's boss is now involved. Dumb's boss is not happy. How dare I object to being paid less? How dare I question their decisions? How dare I point out that they don't know jack shit about how we do the work we do?

He also bitched at me for complaining and not offering a solution.

I offered a solution.

He shot it down and bitched at me for complaining and not offering a solution.

I clarified my suggestion and offered it again.

I haven't heard from him since that time.

Were it not for the fact that I'm not the only one (not by a long shot!) who is pissed off with Dumber, I wouldn't have mentioned her. But. I went into detail about the problems I have with her, pointing out that I am mentioning this because previous complaints have gone unanswered and unacknowledged. I called her incompetent, pointed out that she expects us to fall in line with everything she says when there is simply no reason to do so (in addition to causing stress, it wastes TIME), and in general, slammed the hell out of her.

So, he's not happy. He sent some veiled threats to me, even. I think he's pissed off that he's involved at all. I pointed out all of the problems involved in the "limit" decision and criticized it from all sides. He fired back that this is how things should be, blah blah blah.

This... is a real mess, everyone.

[Geek King]

This... is a real mess, everyone.

Only for them. You've already said in other posts that you're one of the few people who do what you do willing to still work with these people. You, and the other few willing to still work for them, have them over a barrel, and they're trying hard not to let you know it. You are not direct employees, you're subcontractors. That always gives you the option to say no.

Stick by your guns. You know this new payment schedule is wrong and unfair. Don't let them get to you. Let the problem percolate up the chain of command as your work cutoff causes bigger and bigger issues. They're getting mad because the heat is really on them. Their decisions are starting to burn them, and they can't take being wrong gracefully.

Stay strong. I suspect the boiling point is on the way.

[Eireann]

One supplier is just trying to keep things quiet and maintain the status quo. I pointed out today that the more we give them, the more they will demand. I know people like this. The supplier said, "I think we'll be okay this month..."

Uh, well, maybe we'll be okay, but that's a far cry from being in an acceptable working situation.

I told Dumber the other day that I would take my complaint as far as I had to take it. I have a feeling that Boss is pissed off at being part of it at all; I think Boss just wants to ignore the whole situation and let other people handle it.

I told Boss that we should be allowed to simply divide the work amongst ourselves according to what we are able to take at any given time - and if someone has less work, it's with the understanding that this person is aware of it and would take on more if it were possible. But being penalized for taking more work than someone else? It's ridiculous. We're not machines, and the work that we do simply does not follow preset guidelines. Sometimes we're completely dead. Sometimes we're swamped. They have no right to decide that they know better than we do how to perform our work, especially when they don't know a damned thing about the work we do.

[WhiteRose]

...what do you do for work?

*points to self* never found out...

[Eireann]

I'm self-employed. I work for these idiots on the basis of a business license... and if they try to stop giving me work, since I have all those very handy emails admitting what they've been doing, I think I'll just have a little chat with all the major papers in town.

[Dips]

Although it seems to be a mess, it sounds promising. The boss was perfectly willing to let the situation go as long as it didn't affect HIM. Now it's affecting him.

What he wants is for the problem to stop affecting him. He's desperately hoping he can make it go away by getting you to accept more work without more pay, hence the attempt to bully you.

As far expecting you to offer a solution, that's bullshit. You aren't employed by them and they aren't paying you to be a financial consultant. If they can't afford the work you do within their budget, then the work isn't going to get done.

You, as a contractor, are a business owner. They are your customer. How they manage their budget has nothing to do with you as long as you get paid for your work.

Think of yourself as a store and your work as widgets you sell. You set the prices, the inventory and the store hours. You can. You own the store.

And the Dumb Company is a customer who wants to buy widgets. But they want to buy 100 widgets for the price of 80. Of course you tell them "no" as is your right. So they buy 80 widgets for the price of 80.

But what makes the Dumb Company insane is that after they use up the 80 widgets they start sending employees over to blame you because they ran out of widgets. How does that even make sense?

Being a nice store owner you took it upon yourself to help your customer by being honest with the employees who are coming to you for extra widgets and pointing out that their buyer (Dumber) didn't pay for them. Then you were even nice enough to go to the buyer's boss and let them know why there's a widget shortage.

And the assclown boss comes back at you and demands that you stop complaining (about what amounts to attempted theft and blackmail) and come up with a solution? What does he mean by "solution?" Does he expect you to allow his employees to steal from your store?

The solution is simple. If you want more widgets you buy more widgets. If you don't want to pay for more widgets, you make do with fewer widgets.

That's how things work in the real world and I hope that makes sense.

[Eireann]

Much as I hate to say this....

I owe Dumber an apology.

Yes, that's right.

I assumed that Dumber was the one who came up with this brain-dead scheme in the first place. Turns out, Le Bossman did. Dumber didn't tell me this, and this is the first time I have had any respect for her. You know - none of that "Don't blame ME! I didn't come up with this idea!" So, now, it's time for me to apologize. Le Bossman sent me an email letting me know that he thought of it.

Le Bossman talks about the economy. The economy sucks. The economy is terrible. People in the company are working for less money (sometimes, 20%). Le Bossman just (JUST!) wants us to reduce our daily rate so that it doesn't add up to something huge. Le Bossman thinks we are doing a crappy job of dividing the work, so Mr. Testicles must step in to sort things out.

Mr. Testicles was told, by me, that this sort of work is not assembly-line performance, where you have to meet a certain daily quota. Sometimes, as I pointed out, we can take more work. Sometimes, we can't. And it's unfair for one, or two, of us to be penalized due to someone else's inability to meet this limit.

Not to mention the fact that they'll have to do more work, keeping up on exactly how much we've done for the company, providing us with constant updates.

Another thing that bothers me here, is that if I give way and let them roll over on me, I am convinced that they will NEVER repeal this idea. Ever.

I was talking to an acquaintance recently, and she said in horror, "You work with them [the company]? They are horrible! They don't pay anything!"

I have been emailing various companies around town, looking for work from them.

[Dips]

Mr. Testicles. Heh.

When I saw him trying to bully you, I wondered if he was the architect of the whole scheme. Nice of him to throw Dumber under the bus, huh?

There's a video posted on here about the vendor client relationship. I'd bet money that Mr. Testicles and Dumber have used some of those same lines in trying to get you to work for less than your going price...

http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=48460