Losing hours. =:^(

[Johnny L.A.]

I'm making about the minimum I need to survive. This, as I have said elsewhere, is only 45% of my previous salary.

Summer is a slack time at my new job. While there is currently a small backlog of installations to do, my job is estimating new projects and writing up bids. There are not as many people buying automated gates and video surveillance systems this time of year. Worse, we're losing out on some big projects to companies that are not licensed contractors. Some of the companies are what the boss calls "trunk slammers"; they're the ones "mowing your lawn in the morning, and installing your automated gate in the afternoon". The company I work for plays by the rules, guarantees its work, and puts an enormous amount of emphasis on quality.

Yesterday the boss suggested that if anyone is planning on taking vacation, now would be a good time to do it. Today he told me that if I wanted any time off, to please take it. I don't have any vacation though. I won't even start accruing it for a few more weeks. Any time I don't work, I don't get paid for. But I don't want the boss to grow resentful about paying me, when there's not a lot of work coming in. So I'm taking tomorrow off.

Well, sort of.

I got a call from a customer (a contractor) who's been waiting on a bid. He'd really like to get it. The boss and the guy working that account are both out tomorrow. I couldn't get the bid out until I got a quote back from the powdercoater. So I told the admin that I was going to go to the powdercoater to get a quote on the design I faxed over this morning. Since the boss and the other guy are out of the office tomorrow, I figured I could get the quote, come in to work Friday, and get the bid to the contractor. She called the boss, who was out of the office on a job, to see if it was okay. She said he said, "I like the way he thinks." (He's also complimented me on my CAD drawings.) After getting the numbers, I called the boss. He said I could come in and finish the bid and fax it off.

So I'm going in tomorrow, but only for a couple of hours.

It sucks being in this slack time. I'd like to have more time to do fun stuff, but I need the money right now.

[Alice The Goon]

I'm in the same position, as I recently started a new job through a temp agency and won't be hired permanently for another couple of months.
So I didn't get paid for Monday, a holiday, then got sent home early Tuesday. Had an appointment today, so lost a couple hours, then got sent home early. Probably will get sent home early tomorrow too.
My supervisor's on vacation this week, but when she gets back I'm going to have to tell her that as the sole support of my family, I've either got to have full-time hours or look elsewhere. This sucks, but hey, I signed up for full-time!!
You HAVE to make a living, right? So I wouldn't feel too bad if I were you if I shopped around for a new job.

[Greg Charles]

Wow, that sucks! I'm also making about 45% of my former salary, but I'm living in a place where I can get a decent meal for less than a dollar. It balances out. Good luck Johnny! Good luck to Trouble Maker too! (If you weren't so prone to cutting corners in your work, maybe you wouldn't be a temp.)

[Johnny L.A.]

I can get a decent meal for less than a dollar.
I've only discovered one pho house in town, and a plate of thit nuong costs $6.95.

I'm going to send an e-mail to my former employer's Arch Rival. (Well, one of them.) I don't know if anything is open, and they're in Canada; so nothing will come of it, since I've heard it's extremely difficult for an American to get work there. Still, I have a lot of experience in business credit data. I could try Seattle, but that's 100 miles away (Vancouver, BC is only about 35 miles away). My former manager gave me a lead in the company for which he now works. It's way down in Federal Way.

[Alice The Goon]

Good luck to Trouble Maker too! (If you weren't so prone to cutting corners in your work, maybe you wouldn't be a temp.)

Excuse me? :dubious:

[Alice The Goon]

Greg Charles, I'm waiting with bated breath to hear how I "cut corners" at work, and how that has anything to do with the fact that my employer only hires through a temp agency.

The fact that a complete and total stranger that I've never had any contact with, and lives in Vietnam, could know such an important detail of my life really fascinates me. Especially since I thought I was a HARD worker and didn't really "cut corners"...

So, what gives???

[dnooman]

They must have some good drugs in Ho Chi Minh City! :rolleyes:

[Johnny L.A.]

Well, the boss and I had The Talk. He says I'm doing very well. He likes my work. I'm a good fit for the position. I pick up things quickly. He's invested some money in my training (my -- which he admits -- low salary). Everyone likes me. But we've lost some jobs to the "trunk slammers". (One of them changes names every couple of years. He tried to report them once, but they have to be "caught in the act" and the authorities didn't follow up.) The company is not going under, but there is a cash flow problem.

So it looks as if we're going to try cutting my hours in half. (Although he said, "You''re working all day tomorrow, right?")

I made a bid for a video system for a bisiness, and they bought it. (No labour for us though; they want to install it themselves.) An automated gate for a private residence -- a $25,000 job -- that I've been working on (the CAD drawings, and modifying an existing bid) is a "go". (Except when the fabricator tried to order the metal, he found out that the mill listed some stock in their book by mistake. It doesn't exist. So now I need to re-calculate and we need to go back to the contractor to explain the estimate needs to increase a bit. I'll have to figure it out, but I'm estimating a couple thousand.) So there is some work. But I'll have to lose hours if they're going to make it through the slump.

I still have about $1,800 in my CA unemployment account, and the claim expires in October. Can I claim the rest of my CA unemployment after having worked in Washington? I've only worked three months here, so I don't know if I'm eligible for WA unemployment.

*sigh*