Bernie called. Not only does he want me to come up three days again this week, but he's afraid he's paying me to do "busywork" on those days I'm working from home.
He thinks that he might need me later, so he'd rather not pay me to do busywork now.
His idea? He should not have to pay me for the days I don't drive to Boulder this week but I should hold myself in readiness to work a couple of days after my last day and if I do, he will pay me then.
Isn't that nice? He's telling me he needs me too desperately to let me go, but that he doesn't feel I'm valuable enough that he should actually employ me.
"Busywork," for those of you wondering, is the stuff I do cleaning out the spam filter, rebooting the network servers in St. Louis, filing, trying to start and stop providers of various services as they go in and out of favor with him, getting the mail, answering the phones, cleaning the databases, answering questions from suppliers, etc. In other words, the stuff that has to be done to keep the place going but that he doesn't care about because he can't bill anyone for it.
So I told him no, I do not have flexibility on my end date and that no, I have decided that I am not available to do contract work for him after I leave.
You know what? There is no graceful way to say, "No, I will not keep working for you because I do not like you and I don't like you trying to get out of paying me today while you're telling me you want me to be available to you later when you feel you need me and you feel like paying me.
Also, he's in the middle of fighting with Scooby, the Database Boy about the hours Scooby is billing us for (far fewer than Scooby's spent on these projects, I'm sure) and I'm reminded of how last fall whenever DiamondGirl would submit a bill for the free-lance work she was doing for him, he'd call her and make her take hours off.
The R.C. was right. Two weeks was too much notice to give this guy, for my personal sanity. He needed two weeks because this month's invoicing hasn't been done and the new person will need trained on everything, but it was too much. I should never have agreed to stay on after the first of March.
At this point, you've worked for him for so long that I think you can make it through this week and next week. Really. Then will be the time to change all your contact numbers so he can't find you *g*
posted by: Dail on 03.12.07 at 07:45 PM [permalink]He's such a loon. :) But he has my cell # and I have him programmed into the address book. If he calls, I just won't pick up.
posted by: Anne on 03.12.07 at 08:21 PM [permalink]Do you have one of those cell phones where you can program different rings for different callers? You could use the "Theme from Jaws" or "Psycho" for Bernie....
He is gonna be hurtin' so bad in two weeks....
posted by: Jonathan Dresner on 03.12.07 at 11:48 PM [permalink]Hee! Custome phone ring! My phone will do that.
I don't actually wish bad upon him, you know. I wouldn't do that to my karma. :) And I wouldn't do that to the new employee, either. I hope he finds someone whose work style dovetails with Bernie's where mine created friction.
posted by: Anne on 03.13.07 at 08:19 AM [permalink]