"I Make a Lot of Money Too"
Partner is being audited. Oh, that reminds me - Office Manager believes Partner is being audited because someone who used to work for him as a secretary turned him in to the IRS. Let's just stop and think about that for a moment. How much do you have to hate someone to do that to them? What must that woman have felt towards Partner to want to cause that much stress to him? It's also believed she gave a difficult client his own file, which he went through and took out letters where he agreed to pay more, above and beyond the initial retainer for additional work. So she really put effort into screwing this guy over. And over.
Anyway. So after I trained my replacement, Partner kept me on for a week or so to help him work on his audit. This involved reviewing of old credit card and bank statements, and making a lot of charts and tables and calculator-usage on my part. On one hand, the truth is, it's kind of interesting to see how someone with a different lifestyle lives. To see what they're willing to spend money on. Partner has a gardener! He actually wrote out checks to "Gardener Bob" each month. He sent somebody chocolates from Harry & David. Partner went to Japan! It's interesting.
However. It's kind of hard, when you're scraping together enough money to pay rent each month, to see the little things someone is wasting money purchasing. The Chronicle is online. There's no good reason to have a subscription and buy it each day. Partner orders in dinner half the time, and goes out for dinner on the other nights.
Once, on a really hot day, he came strolling into the office drinking a Jamba Juice, and stopped in front of my desk. Looking at my little cup of water, he said to me, "Oh, I should have gotten you one too," and it took every ounce of restraint to avoid responding, "Yes, that would have been nice of you."
After a few days of creating these charts, and looking at Partner's financials, it really started to get me down. See, that's the thing with temping - on one hand, it's nice to once again be involved in society, but on the other hand (you have more fingers), it's tempting to act as the people around you do, and you have to remind yourself that even though you're working among them, you're not actually like them because you don't have a steady paycheck.
On my last day there, Partner and I were in his office, and I was showing him everything I'd done and was about to send to his accountant. At one point, Partner put his head in his hand and complained, "God, this is so complicated!" I, having worked for forensic accountants in the past, probably have a better sense of just how much more complicated it could actually be. So in a mild attempt to cheer Partner up, I told him, "Hey, it could be worse - you could be in the middle of an acrimonious divorce." Partner's response?
"Yeah that's true. I should be glad. No kids, no divorce ... and I make a lot of money, too."
Yes, he really said that. Out loud. That he makes a lot of money. So why the fuck were you only paying me $16 an hour, leaving me to take home about $10.33 an hour? I had to walk away. I was trying so hard to be professional and polite and leave a good impression so I could use Partner as a reference. I didn't want to blow it by outting myself as a jealous bitch. But holy shit you guys. I totally fucking was.
Anyway. So after I trained my replacement, Partner kept me on for a week or so to help him work on his audit. This involved reviewing of old credit card and bank statements, and making a lot of charts and tables and calculator-usage on my part. On one hand, the truth is, it's kind of interesting to see how someone with a different lifestyle lives. To see what they're willing to spend money on. Partner has a gardener! He actually wrote out checks to "Gardener Bob" each month. He sent somebody chocolates from Harry & David. Partner went to Japan! It's interesting.
However. It's kind of hard, when you're scraping together enough money to pay rent each month, to see the little things someone is wasting money purchasing. The Chronicle is online. There's no good reason to have a subscription and buy it each day. Partner orders in dinner half the time, and goes out for dinner on the other nights.
Once, on a really hot day, he came strolling into the office drinking a Jamba Juice, and stopped in front of my desk. Looking at my little cup of water, he said to me, "Oh, I should have gotten you one too," and it took every ounce of restraint to avoid responding, "Yes, that would have been nice of you."
After a few days of creating these charts, and looking at Partner's financials, it really started to get me down. See, that's the thing with temping - on one hand, it's nice to once again be involved in society, but on the other hand (you have more fingers), it's tempting to act as the people around you do, and you have to remind yourself that even though you're working among them, you're not actually like them because you don't have a steady paycheck.
On my last day there, Partner and I were in his office, and I was showing him everything I'd done and was about to send to his accountant. At one point, Partner put his head in his hand and complained, "God, this is so complicated!" I, having worked for forensic accountants in the past, probably have a better sense of just how much more complicated it could actually be. So in a mild attempt to cheer Partner up, I told him, "Hey, it could be worse - you could be in the middle of an acrimonious divorce." Partner's response?
"Yeah that's true. I should be glad. No kids, no divorce ... and I make a lot of money, too."
Yes, he really said that. Out loud. That he makes a lot of money. So why the fuck were you only paying me $16 an hour, leaving me to take home about $10.33 an hour? I had to walk away. I was trying so hard to be professional and polite and leave a good impression so I could use Partner as a reference. I didn't want to blow it by outting myself as a jealous bitch. But holy shit you guys. I totally fucking was.
Labels: People watching, Pounding the pavement, Rage Against the Green, Temping, Unemployed, Work
posted by Green at 9/15/2010 10:15:00 AM
6 Comments:
Will you come to my neck of the woods and tell my church people off and I'll come to your town and let that asshole have it? That way we both get to rage at people who deserve it and we'll both feel much better.
Oh wait, neither of us can afford airfare. CRAP!
You start to understand how the former secretary might have gotten the idea to call the IRS 800 number...
>>The Chronicle is online. There's no good reason to have a subscription and buy it each day.<<
How about to help pay the salaries of the newspaper reporters, editors and writers who bring you those stories?
Keith, please believe me that as someone out of work I feel for others who don't have work, and don't want anyone else to be in the situation I'm in (although technically it helps that so many others are, since that's why there have been all the extensions of unemployment).
But even with that, I don't think it's a good reason to buy the newspaper. I don't agree with the way the news is discovered/written about/delivered these days, so maybe that's part of why I'm negative about it. But even without that aspect, it doesn't seem right to kill trees in order to deliver news when we know it can be delivered online instead.
Well, does he set his own salary? He's just an employee too, right? Does he have any control over what he makes really? I mean, I guess he has control over what he bills, but doesn't the firm decide on his pay rate? (I don't know how this stuff works.) Maybe he came from a background where he never thought he'd make this much money and he's surprised about it too. I'd try to give him the benefit of the doubt. The former secretary could have had a good reason to do this or she could have been nuts in some way herself. Maybe she had a crush on him and he didn't like her back. You never know. People are a mess. Or he could just be a jerk.
Green, that's all well and good, but the people writing those stories still need/want to be paid for their work... I'm sure none of them would be covering the news and researching and writing the articles & columns they are if they weren't getting a salary for them, and print subscriptions, while falling, are still generating money to help pay for their work that you're reading. That's why newspapers and magazines are starting to put up pay-to-view walls on their websites, where non-print-subscribers are required to buy per-article or monthly access before being allowed to view articles. I wonder if you'd be berating the guy for subscribing to the print edition of the Chronicle if, like The Wall Street Journal, they charged $8 per month to view the newspaper contents online.
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