I want to cry…(Update p3)

[49ER]

you know, it’s always possible, now that you’ve submitted the appeal, that they will overturn it without you having to have a “hearing” or anything now. I had that happen with Unemployment once, I just submitted it, with my responses to the questions on it, and with that, they were satisfied, and I was reinstated immediately. If I were you, I would also ask for continuing benefits until this is resolved, and find out about the possibility of Unemployment Compensation in the meantime, although, the drawback would be if you are disabled and cannot job-hunt or do work of any kind, that prevents you from being able to draw it…Possibly there are state benefits, medicaid, and food stamps. Look into every option out there, at least for the time being, and Drag0nfeathers is right–FIGHT! They are counting on you NOT doing that, a lot of times that WORKS for them, but show them it won’t work with YOU! 😀

[Christine]

K, so here’s an update on stuff. Also some INSANITY about where I’ve gotten with the wages I’m owed from my last job.

My disability is still nowhere to be seen. They would have gotten my appeal on Monday (13th). So it should still be some time before I hear anything. God, I hope when I do it’s some good news. Until then, I’m living super cheap because I won’t be able to recover any wages (see below). At least my painkillers kill my appetite too 😆

After all the fighting I’ve done with my past employer (let’s call him “Nick”) about the wages he owes me, it’s over. I’m not getting anything else. I can see that any more fighting is a lost cause, the investors behind this magazine have stepped in because Nick has mismanaged everything so badly. I had to argue with one of them on the phone just to get her to LISTEN to me, to say that my last paycheck bounced. Then she flat out called me a liar until I told her I had a legal copy of the returned check IN MY HAND.

Friday was the deadline I’d given Nick to pay up at least half the amount he still owed me. He ignored my calls, texts, and e-mails all week. Friday morning when I called him, he picked up and talked and talked and talked about how I’m not getting anything else yadda yadda, that he’s been in serious trouble with the investors for paying me anything extra after he had me sign a form saying he didn’t have to. (He lied to get me to sign it and I’ve retracted my signature.) So, he told me that I could at least come in, and he could give me a check to cover the bounced one and the fees it incurred, plus $150 cash. With all of his blustering and sob-storying, I could see that that was the best I would do, so I agreed to come in.

10 minutes later I’m about to leave the house, and that’s when the monkeyshines start. A lady calls me–the one who gave me the rash about the check. I told her I would bring the bounced check in to prove that I’m short the wages, she agreed. About 2 minutes after I hung up, Nick called me back, totally flustered. Apparently he got the rash from the same lady when he went to request the cash and a company check. So now I can’t come in at all. No cash. No check. I say, Nick, you can’t do this, I need to come in. He’s not having it–he won’t even let me speak, kept cutting me off, “I’m very busy.” Bull! I told him, no, you’re blowing me off, I have to come in anyway to give that lady the check, I want to speak with him briefly. That he REALLY won’t have, he tells me that if I come to the office I’ll be escorted out, that the guard in the lobby has been warned about me. Talk about a Jekyll and Hyde, he just invited me to come pick up the check and a little extra, now I’m banned from the building?

I wouldn’t back down, obviously because this is a load of crap. Nick is so scared of me coming in and making a scene–at least that was kind of flattering. While I was arguing with him, btw, he told me that even if I took him to court I wouldn’t have a case because of the document I signed agreeing that I had been fully compensated (the one he lied about, remember?). THEN he tells me, “Besides, I voice-recorded that meeting, so I have that as evidence too.” That IS SO F***ING ILLEGAL IT ISN’T EVEN FUNNY. And why would he voice-record it unless he knew what a raw deal he was giving us, and that we would probably fight it? What a snake.

Finally I got him to agree to let me come in and meet with him in the building lobby briefly. I did, and at least got reimbursed for the bad check and the fees it incurred. Nothing else though. He thought I would be furious I’m sure, but really, after months of this I’m just no longer surprised. I gave him a copy of the bad check, and a proofed copy of our first issue. I’m actually glad my name wasn’t on it, there were so many errors. The proofed copy I gave Nick looked like it was diseased. I told him, I’d rather settle this outside of court, and that I’d also rather have a fishing pole than a fish. The whole time this has been going on, he’s been asking me about my arm and when I can come back to work. The prospect of working for this idiot is vilely distasteful, but the 5-7 applications I’ve been sending out each week are getting me NOWHERE. If he’ll offer me a job and actually pay, sadly, I don’t have any other options at the moment. He told he he’d like me to come in on a storyboarding meeting. Didn’t really mention paying–we’ll sort that out before I do a thing 😡 That’s August 3rd. So, I have till then to decide whether I want to take him to court, or go down this road with possibly coming back to work for him. We’ll have to see.

Any advice on this would be wonderful, as it has been, thank you! Generally it’s just a really hard lesson learned. I thought I was protecting myself with all the contracts and documents us designers signed up-front assuring us we’d be paid. Apparently the only document that has ANY sway is the one we signed saying we were fully compensated. LOL. Court is messy though, and I’m not likely to get what I need–my money–anytime soon. And I need it NOW. Sadly, I’d probably recover my wages faster if I went back to work for this guy than if I took him to court. I have to look at my options–I can expend a lot of time and energy recovering a relatively small amount of money (and destroy my only current job prospect in the process), or I can be patient and see if returning to my high-paid, potential dream career is a possibility. It’s not the best choice, but right now, and in this economy, there’s not a lot of choice out there.

[49ER]

I am a little lost with this last update, but if the lady in the (payroll office) called you right when you were about to leave to bring in a copy of the bounced check, and then “Nick” calls you back, and then some story by him changes, perhaps you still need to go over his head to the payroll office. If he is being micro-managed because of other mishaps, from what I understood on the post, perhaps that is why he was not authorized to pay you that day. But it seems like he may not be in any authority to pay you or deny you payment. At any rate, you have a bounced check, so I would contact the lady who called you again, and ask her if “Nick” gave her your copy of the bounced check, and if your funds are now available for you to pick up. If she has not received it, try to make arrangements to go to her, or whoever is micro-managing “Nick” to get your money. That is the best I could advise, as I understand this post.

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