My paycheck did not deposit. My employer has asked for an additional week to pay me for this week in addition to next weeks wages. He also informed me he will pay me an additional weeks pay if I will stay on. My first phone calls were to the other plumbers at the shop. They didn’t get paid either. They intend to sit it out and see what happens. This is their first time dealing with a negligent employer. I know better. The owner of the shop showed up to work this past Monday with another quad cab GMC Sierra Denali, a 90k truck.

My next two phone calls were to the general contractors I am to meet this morning to go over change orders and arrange heavy equipment for excavating, and inform them I am no longer in my current job and they will need to call the (former) office to get it sorted. I do not replace pipes that transfer shit and other human waste for funsies.

Looks like it’s a three day weekend instead. Time to get my posting numbers up. Monday I’ll be calling other plumbers to see if there’s a spot available elsewhere.

  • bubbalu [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    Take him to small claims. Some states have add’l damages for late wages, although that’s typically for direct employees instead of contractors. IDK your status.

  • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    Are you a member of a union? If you are you should get in touch with them immediately. Scummy employers often miraculously find extra money behind the couch when they get a threatening letter from a union lawyer. At least that’s what happened when I was in that situation once.

    Scaring the bastard into paying up will be your best chance of getting your money. If he can’t make payroll he’s definitely going bankrupt very soon.

    • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      I wish I was union. There’s not much to speak of as far as union presence in the backwaters of south Texas.

      I have a lunch meeting with a client of mine I do side work for who is an employment lawyer. Looking forward to what she has to say about it. It’s only going to cost me lunch.

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    I’d see if the GCs wanna hire you directly, people don’t want to be in business with folks who are going bankrupt

    Your company is going bankrupt by the way in case it isn’t obvious

    • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      Oh hell yeah it’s going bankrupt. I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I think there were signs I just overlooked… I’ve more or less been given carte Blanche to do what I need to do without having to justify expenditures for the most part, but lately they’ve been pecking me to death over stuff like buying ice and water for the day on the company card. The company card has changed twice. The company gas card has changed twice. I’ve gone to buy pipe and fittings at supply houses and our shop accounts have had 60+ day balances and had to use the company credit card instead.

      I got asked once to go ahead and pay for a 1,200 dollar order and they would have a check to reimburse me that afternoon. I’m not that stupid fortunately.

    • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      I’m fortunate that I’m good at what I do, and I have been at it long enough that I can get hired on mostly anywhere. I’m pretty well rounded; lots of residential work, fair bit of commercial, I can read prints, I have my med gas cert, and I’ve been at it a long fucking time. I learned from some real old school ball busters who’ve all gone tits up by now, but the knowledge they gave me is what allows me to walk off, and find new digs elsewhere.

      I’m starting somewhere else Tuesday. Already hired on.

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    for real. not making payroll is fucking nuclear and his reputation should be torched. definitely collect any documentation/pictures of timecards, save copies of communications with him/others and try to avoid voice conversations… make him put his communication in writing.

    I have had two employers pull shit like this. each time I was new to the area, so I didn’t have a context for their shadiness and took them at their word. even when it was literally several years later, i made sure everyone knew how scummy and incompetent they were for the rest of the time I lived in that part of the country.

    when I was a known quantity in the community as a reasonable, friendly, highly competent worker and their name came up or they appeared at some function, I would point them out to everyone and tell the story. people love that kind of gossip and of course the way they treated me wasn’t some outlier, but I wanted to make sure their reputation never recovered over time.

    people like that need their teeth kicked in.

    • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      I’ve been playing coy. Only phone conversation was when I originally called to ask why I hadn’t been paid. Everything else is via text, including his promises to pay me this weeks wages in addition to next weeks and asking to stay on while he sorts it out. Even got a text where he promised to pay me half my check tomorrow.

    • Wheaties [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      Genuinely baffling. You’re a capitalist! The system is already rigged in your favor! Fucking with payroll may hurt your employees immediately, but down the line it hurts you the most.

      • subversive_dev@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        7 days ago

        There’s a certain type of bottom tier capitalist I call a “hustler” type - always cooking up a new scheme, moving money around, and taking out loans they can’t afford. As long as they can keep juggling all that, everybody gets paid. The second that changes, all creditors have to get in line and of course they are much more afraid of banks than workers