hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[Britesea]

BOO on your employer! That's not cool at all!

 

[wyoDreamer]

I know how you feel.

My company hires new people at the same rate I make, then expect me to train them to do the job. I have over 20 years experience doing this work in one way or another.
A year ago I got a negative review because I didn't do any training: 1.) they don't offer any training. 2.) I asked about training twice and was told nothing was set up yet. 3.) I was doing training ON MY OWN TIME and had permission from my boss to use the company equipment after hours if I needed to.

Boo to bad company management.

 

[hqueen13]

Ew, @wyoDreamer that sucks! Not cool at all.
SO on top of discovering that they're hiring at just under $1 more than I currently make, I did some digging this weekend. I finally ordered the racks that hold the hanging files that fit into the file cabinet. I finally had enough spare change in my business to place the order, and so I was able to get that taken care of. The BF helped me get everything shuffled around, and in doing so I happened to notice that I STILL magically had my pay stubs ALL the way back to when I was hired. In 2007. Imagine that! I was hired in 2007 making $1.43 LESS than I am making now. My pay has only increased $1.43 in THIRTEEN YEARS. So I crunched some numbers. Yall should know by now that's what I do.
IF I had been given a 1% raise every year, I would be making what they're hiring someone new to be making. IF I had received a 3% raise every year, then I would be making SIX DOLLARS MORE per hour than I am currently making RIGHT NOW. To say I'm irritated is an under statement. The boss is away this week on vacation, and that's probably a good thing for him... This will give me plenty of time to think about how to talk to him about this. Of course, he might not want to hear such a carefully crafted message! The only other good news is that we're actually on track to hit our goals for this month, which is a really wonderful bounce back after 3 months of being down from the pandemic. That also makes me feel less bad about having this conversation. If we were still gimping along really badly, I probably would not want to have the conversation. But since we're close to hitting targets again, I feel like I can go ahead and bring it up.
The BF asked me if I was going to give him an ultimatum. I told him no, but that I would be letting him know that it he doesn't come up with a plan (that DOESN'T include "getting another project done"), then I'll have to consider my options long term. I could probably go to any number of other practices right now, especially since they all shut down during the pandemic, and talk to them about getting things fired back up again. Several audiologists have left our practice, and have gone to others in the area (we have one of the most saturated markets in the country for some reason), and could probably pretty easily get a foot in the door since I have a connection already. SO we'll see what happens, but something needs to change.
We had a pretty good weekend otherwise. RO went out of town finally, and so I spent some time with the little horse, and made some progress. He let me catch him today, after 3 days of trying, so that was positive. (To be fair, and explain things, I really didn't push to absolutely catch him the other 2 days, I was pushing for progress and connection, if it hadn't been hot, and RO hadn't asked me to put the horses in yesterday, which I didn't do, I wouldn't have attempted to actually catch him today, or if he had let me, I would have immediately turned him loose again... but at any rate, it is what it is now). The dang pig managed to chew on the swat container and get that lid off, and chewed on the fly spray bottle, and got that lid off, too, spilling it everywhere! How she didn't break the fly spray bottle, I don't know, but I was pretty irritated with her.
Yesterday we went over to the BF's brother's house for dinner. Unfortunately he didn't start dinner until 6pm, which was annoying, and we didn't leave until 9:30, which is WAY past our bed time, especially on a Sunday night. I'm glad I had some extra coffee made up and saved from the weekend! We did have a nice time, though, his parents behaved, which was good. We ended up playing Cards Against Humanity after dinner, which I knew of but had never played before. It was HILARIOUS, and even funnier playing with his parents. Since it can get raunchy, and sometimes ends up being some pretty dark humor, it was funny. We also discovered that his dad's sense of humor isn't funny to anyone else at all. I ended up winning the game, which I'm not sure what that says about my sense of humor. We laughed pretty hard, which was a good thing right now.
Other than that, not much happening. I'm going to talk to RO about what kind of support he wants me to give the new horse, and how much of the work they're willing to do, but I'm going to suggest that I go over there a couple times a week to really work him through this non-catching thing, and get him to trust people a bit more. So we'll see what RO says. Not that I want to leave the house a lot again, but it would be more income, and that's a good thing. I'm quite happy with the additional income right now, though, so we'll see how that plays out.
I do need to get some stuff done around the house this week, so if I don't have to go out extra, that would be fine by me. I need to finish putting away the winter clothes. That is always such a big chore because they're so bulky and take up so much space that a lot of them need to be put into space bags and things like that. They just don't fit into the trunks the way the summer clothes do. But since KN will be here again on Saturday night, I need to unbury the bed so that she has somewhere to sleep! I also need to finish the filing work that we started. We have stuff in the hanging folders now, but it's not labeled, and that would be helpful, so I need to get the label maker out and finish that. The longer term part of the project is to pull out the older files out of the file cabinet in the room, and shift them into the archived files as well, but that will take me a bit longer to accomplish. Hopefully I can work on all of that this week, though, we'll see how it goes.
Well, there's that answer... LOL I'm headed back to RO's this evening to let the horses out again. He just texted and said he didn't know what time he would be back. That's some extra that he'll owe me, though, since I'll muck the stalls (I can't leave them unmucked anyway, that's just rude), and I might spend some time hanging with the little horse again, we'll see how hot it is and how all that goes. Extra cash is extra cash though!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I love that game! We play it with DD and SIL - pretty flippin' hilarious!

Hope your boss understands your feelings about your pay structure over the years. That's really quite … wrong! Hope convincing him to see your side goes really well for you!

 

[Britesea]

Years ago, I tried the same thing with my employer. Not demanding anything, but pointing out that his business had doubled in the time I had been there, and in a one-girl office my work load had increased significantly. He said he would think about it. The following week, he called me in and fired me- citing one time that I had not told him he had a message waiting for him as soon as he walked in the door. Poor baby, he had to walk over to my desk and ask me. Granted, maybe I should have told him, but when he came in, I was working on a project he had given me, and I didn't remember the message (which was actually sitting on his desk).

So, be prepared, in case your employer does something like that.

 

[hqueen13]

Wow, @Britesea that's pretty crappy! I doubt he'll do that, because I can take down a LOT of information with me if he sends me out like that. I have access to quite a lot of information within the business that no one else really has access to, so if he chooses to send me out, it would go with me.
And, if he does choose to do that, it would be rough for a bit, but thankfully I've got contacts in the area, so I would put myself out there pretty fast for that. He can send me out, but I'll just go talk to the competition and share what I've spent 13 years gaining knowledge on. And honestly, at that point, it will give me time to build my business, which is way more lucrative per hour than working for him is, even if he gives me a raise. So while it would hurt for a short period of time (and I'd probably end up adding debt again, which would be REALLY annoying), I'm sure I would probably come out of it ahead of where I am now. That's kind of what happened when he let me go the first time when he took over the business, it gave me a chance to start my own business which I wouldn't have even thought of it I had been employed full time. And since he let me go once already, I don't think he'll be that keen on doing it again, thankfully.
It's hot and sticky still, we had the threat of storms yesterday, and it looked like black clouds were rolling in, and it started to rain, and then just disappeared. It was strange. A little gentle rain would be nice. I need to check the garden and make sure that nothing needs attention. My potatoes are blooming, which is good. The onions are looking good, though I need to figure out when they will be ready for harvest. I feel like probably not yet, but I need to figure out how I'll know when they're ready. Probably the same time as the potatoes and I won't know what to do with everything all at once. The tomatoes are looking good, there are a few blooms, and there are lots of blooms on my cuke, which is finally hanging on to the tomato cage that I put up for it. The beans and zukes are coming up good, too, I can probably remove the netting on those now that they are big enough to keep going on their own without as much fear of being eaten by bunnies or groundhogs. Now I just need to keep up with the weeds... I've done pretty good so far, but it's so stinking hot I'm not interested in being out there, especially when I was already hot and sweaty in a barn. I need to weed the one garden bed that we expanded this year, too, because it's not looking so good, either. If I can stay on top of it this year then I might be able to plant some things next year without struggling too much. I have learned that's the best way to manage new beds, expand and keep them mulched deep, and stay on top of the weeds, then plant and keep weeding the next several years until they are pretty clean. It's a slow process, but it's worth it in the end. We are in our third summer here, and the beds that we fixed up the first year are finally mostly clear and take very little work to maintain now. Next step is to get more flowers and things into them. I think my goal is to add one bed per year, which so far has been pretty steady. Next year I want to add beds around some of the trees in the yard to make it easier to mow, and to add more space for flowers. I also want to fix up the bed next to the driveway, but we need to amend the soil because it's SO bad, and it's going to take a lot of work to combat the weeds there. I want to dump a lot of manure on it, because the soil that it has is so bad. Eventually I'll get there... I probably need to talk to a professional landscaper about what is possible and put together a plan, that's more than what I am knowledgeable about.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sounds like your garden is coming along nicely! Hope that your boss doesn't do anything dumb, but sounds like you are a very informed employee so hopefully he'll do the right thing!

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks, FEM!
I hope my boss doesn't do anything dumb, either, but we'll see... I plan to text him once he's back in town and see if we can arrange a meeting on Tuesday morning with just he and I to catch up on a bunch of stuff. Hopefully not in the office, either, but we'll see what he says.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I did a session with a woman for her dog who just passed, it was a traumatic situation, and so I offered to work with her, and didn't really want anything from it because she was a friend. She offered to pay me anyway, which I was grateful for. I should have enough money that I can get Storm's teeth done again, and have the vet out to get his lyme titer checked, and we should still have enough leftover to be able to get that attachment for the tractor that the BF has been bugging about. Then I think I will focus pretty much everything else on working on the debt to get it back down a bit again. Hopefully I can at least cover the interest on it so that it quits creeping up. I'd like to do more than that, but we'll see how things roll over the next few months. I'm gonna keep doing what I can to make extra as much as possible without making myself crazy. As they say, make hay while the sun shines.
Of course, we had some carpenter ants show up in the kitchen the other day, and that does not make me happy. And the freezer part of the fridge is not keeping things as cold as it should, either, which isn't good. So hopefully we can get some money increased around here because we need to be able to take care of a few things. I technically owe myself, and the BF money from the business for "Loans" that we made to the business buying things. So if I can make enough while managing the credit cards in the biz then I'll start paying that back so that we'll have some extra to work with to try to take care of some of those things. I don't really want to buy a new fridge right now, but it was only a $400 fridge in the first place (which now costs $700 6 years later ) so I don't know that it's worth even attempting to fix. It might be a good thing to call a few repair places, but I honestly am not hopeful that it will be worth it. Fun times having to replace all the major stuff in the house within the first few years... We'll need a new roof within a year or so, and REALLY need to get to the wiring stuff, too. And of course we haven't touched the hot water heater/boiler situation, either. The to do list doesn't feel like it gets any shorter, but I guess that's what we get for buying an older house. I wouldn't trade it, but some additional cash to work with sure would be helpful!
Not much else to report. It's hot and humid. We keep having a lot of threat of storms, and then nothing happens. I've been watering my plants and stuff, so maybe that will encourage it.

 

[Britesea]

Maybe you'll be lucky and find a used refrigerator for cheap. I got one for only $80 from the contractor we were using to fix up the rental (it was one he had to pull out on one of his other jobs). Even if it doesn't last as long as a new one would you might be able to limp along until you can afford a better one.

 

[hqueen13]

@Britesea yea, we'll have to see what's out there. Part of me wants to get something really cheap, and the other part of me just wants to try to scrape together the funds to get something decent. This was a cheap fridge that his mom bought us when we moved into the farm house. And it hasn't lasted at all. The 25 year old fridge in the basement is still running strong, but the door racks are broken, and it doesn't have a shelf anymore on top of the drawers in the bottom. It works great for holding drinks and stuff, but not so good for food. But at least we can use that freezer, though, so that's helpful. That's the only reason we haven't had to run out and buy something right away.
Monday was WAY more adventurous than I would have liked. The BF called me and said he was on his way home and the pickup died. On the side of a pretty busy road (most people probably do 60+, it's got wide shoulders, thankfully, but not a fun place to be). He was trying to figure out what was wrong, and I told him to let me know if I needed to grab his tools and come get him. A few minutes later he texted and said a coworker was bringing him home. He got home and we found that the only place that had the part that he though he needed was closing in 30 minutes. We grab tools, race out the door and head to the auto parts store. Thankfully it was in the direction of the farms that I needed to go to so not a big deal. Get there JUST before the place closes, and grab the part. Go down to RO's and take care of the horses and muck there, drive down to Cowboy and Coyote and take care of the horses there, and then head to where the truck is parked on the side of the road. Get there just after 6. (still haven't had dinner) The BF starts working under the truck. Spills fuel all over the ground, and himself, which means the road gets sticky with tar, and he's laying in it. Still can't get the truck to start. It's now after 7:30. (still no dinner, and now I have to pee) I finally ask him if we have road side assistance on the truck policy. Look that up. We do. Arrange for a tow. Tow expected in an hour. Sit in my truck with BF leaning on the outside because he's gross dirty and not going to sit in my truck like that. Notice that the hazards are sounding funny on my truck, and realize the battery is dying. Hook my truck up to pickup truck to try to jump it. Won't jump. BF's brother is finally actually on his way (after saying before we even got to the pickup that he was leaving work and would head our way). BF's brother arrives, and together they push my truck backwards away from the pickup, so he can pull his truck in between to jump me. Get his truck hooked to my truck, and have to wait over 5 minutes for the battery to get enough juice to start. Finally get it started. Tow arrives, and BF's brother leaves to make room for the tow. Get the pickup loaded on the tow, and the BF decides to ride with the tow, and so we pull out. I have to put some gas in my truck because it was on E, and then head home. The tow driver does a crappy job parking the pickup, and I find out from the BF that the tow driver was NUTS apparently driving. I guess they work on commission, and he was on a mission to get to the next thing apparently. We owed $12, and the BF didn't tell me until afterward that all he had was a $20. I had change that I could have given him so he didn't have to over pay the guy, because of course the guy didn't have change. So now the pickup sits, and we have the $250 part ordered to see if THAT's the problem. We didn't get home until almost 10 that night, and still hadn't had dinner. I've pretty much spent the rest of the week exhausted.
Yesterday, I had to be at RO's for most of the day because the vet was coming in the morning to extract Oliver's tooth, and then the farrier was coming at 12:30 to trim everybody. The vet did a great job getting Oliver's tooth taken care of, it was very badly damaged and broken, but she got it out. I was supposed to have a meeting with work to review a book we're reading, but I could only be on about half of that call before the farrier got there.
Tomorrow is going to be nutty as well. I have 3 farm stops in the morning, and then I have to work at the veggie farm for the day, and then I'm going to zip through my 2 evening farm stops, and then go run some deliveries for the farm since Saturday is the holiday. We'll see how long that takes me. I need to make sure I've got snacks with me because it's going to be a LONG day. I think I'm going to stop and grab an extra breakfast sandwich on the way there in the morning after my barn work is done just to make sure I've got enough to fuel me through the day.
The only good news is that RO already owes me $360 for the work I've done, and he'll likely end up owing me a couple hundred more because it looks like it's going to be HOT for the next several days, so the horses will probably be inside in the stalls during the day to avoid the worst of the heat.
This morning I had to rinse Oliver's mouth out with some solution to help make sure the missing tooth heals up good, and I went to catch them, and he remembered the smell of the stuff from the day before. The vet had rinsed his mouth out before he was fully doped up, and he remembered it. He gave me a bit of trouble catching him, and then he was very unhappy with my shoving the syringe in his mouth trying to rinse it out. She also didn't have a good dosing syringe, so I'm using a 30cc syringe and having to do it twice, which isn't very helpful, but we'll make it work. I was debating whether or not I could get away with adding something sweet to it to help it taste different, but I also don't want to make it not work, either. I did feed him a treat after I finished, which at first he didn't want to take at all, but finally took from me. Hopefully he forgives me a little bit because it's going to be a pain if he is fussy for the next week rinsing his mouth out. I'll have to go convince him all over again that I'm not a meany person, and that touching his mouth is not a bad thing. So it goes.
I hope yall have a nice holiday if you celebrate, or a relaxing weekend if you don't!