I work for a very small company (less than 10 people including the owners) and this morning I was severely chastised in front of my co workers for taking a personal call. They hinted that they are planning on firring me after 10 years of working for them. I have worked for them in some capacity since I was 14 and now that I am in my 20’s with a BA from UCLA I feel that I really don’t need to put up with their shit anymore. Not for $14 an hour, not when I am in a management position, and for some of my grievances, not at all ever. I am actively looking for a new job at this point and depending on their reaction to the letter I send the I will most likely resign at the end of the week.
I sent my employers a much tamer version of this letter, but I need to just get this out there. I removed the names so this stays relatively anonymous. Feel free to flame me or sympathise as you see fit.
Dear Employer
You are absolutely right, my phone conversation this morning was indeed abusive. In my defense many of my duties are close to mindless and I assumed that as long as I was able to work while I was on the phone it wasn’t a big deal. But I do understand your feelings on the subject and I sincerely apologize. You mentioned that you felt I had been abusive for a long while now, and I do wish you had mentioned something sooner, as I was not aware that I had been taking advantage of you and would have corrected my behavior immediately. It was not now, nor has it ever been my intention to take advantage of your generosity.
That being said, you are correct about my dissatisfaction with my employment at the gallery, and I agree that we should have a talk about the abuses in our relationship. From the first day that I took this job, I felt as though I was not being treated as an equal amongst the employees. You refused to give me a work space for the first year of my employment, and I feel that because my work i more than anyone else in the gallery needed a dedicated work space. It is horrible that another employees mother had to die in order for me to get a place to do the job you hired me to do.
- My main but far from only concern is that you have bounced exactly half of my paychecks, including my most recent one, since I started in this new position last September. You were supposed to have cash in hand for me when I showed up this morning to compensate me for the September 1st bounced check, but as of now I still have not received compensation for that paycheck or the now $181 in bank charges incurred thus far. This is also not only unfair but illegal.
This is effecting my credit score at this point as well as my personal finances as my bank will no longer release money from checks to me until 10 business days have passed. At this point there is nothing you can even do to correct it, when I spoke to my bank yesterday after my last paycheck bounced I was told that I had been placed on a probationary hold that will last for 6 months from the point that I am able to maintain a positive bank balance. If another deposited check bounces my bank will close my account.
None of this is through any fault of my own, but rather a direct response of my bank to the numerous bad checks you have written me. This has caused me a large amount of personal and financial stress and embarrassment that has indeed affected my work. I know that if you had an employer bounce check on you, you would not have stood for it. I feel that I have been very patient due to our long standing relationship, but I need to be certain that the money I have earned will be available to me on the day that it is paid. It is no longer something I can tolerate as the financial stress of having to live entirely off a credit card has been making me physically ill and causing me to lose sleep.
- When you first hired me you asked me to give you any ideas that I had to improve my department, I spent a solid week working in my off time on a proposal for how my department could be improved. You put off the meeting 5 times before the actual first meeting was scheduled, and then you addressed almost none of the issues in my 10 plus page proposal. Follow up meetings were scheduled, none ever took place. Yes, other meetings did occur, but the issues of how to improve my department were never again addressed.
3)You placed me on an hourly salary but told me that you would treat me like a salaried employee. I was not paid for my vacation days, and I have never been given overtime compensation of any sort. I am getting none of the benefits of either a salaried or hourly employee. The convention in particular was an issue as I worked well over 80 hours that week and got paid only straight time. This is not only unfair it is illegal, but because of our history I let it go.
3a) On the subject of the convention, I made less or equal pay this year than I ever have in the past. I would think that my pay raise would apply across the board and that I would be making more money, particularly on time consuming trips such as comic con. I have in the past typically received some sort of bonus for working the show, and while it was never agreed upon that this would be the case, I was hurt that no extra compensation was given to me for my efforts at the show. In addition I was expected to be a salesman, but at every turn felt that I was not being allowed to sell. I was placed in the position of having to sell Gris and speed racer art which doesn’t sell well and is very expensive when compared to what is normally sold. I still managed to sell over $2000 a day, even though I would spend at least 3 hours out of every day running errands at comic con.
- I have never been given my employee review and have all but been told that I will never be paid more than my base salary of $14 an hour. When I was hired I was told that there would be a commission and bonus structure put in place, but every time I asked about them in the fist 6 months I was told that they hadn’t been figured out yet. You also told me that I would be eligible for a raise after 6 months but when I asked you about it you told me that I had taken my raise immediately upon my acceptance of the job and that you were not able to offer me any more money. I assume that this will not ever change, as you have shown no evidence of becoming more financially stable and continue to bounce my paychecks.
In light of all of the above I think you can understand why I feel you have never taken me seriously as an employee. I worked very hard for you when I first took this job, and will admit that I have become more relaxed in my attitude. I wanted to prove to you that I was no longer the child that you hired to work part time to sweep the lot, but it has become abundantly clear that you will never see me this way. As I have become more and more unhappy, I have become less and less productive and have probably become, in your words “abusive” towards your relaxed environment. I do not see any of the above problems ever being rectified, and I do not see myself ever becoming happy working for you.
It is important to have a meeting about this as soon possible. Once again I apologize for taking a long personal call on company time. It will never happen again. Please get back to me at your earliest convenience; I need to have this settled by the end of business today.