Just as the title says, I've been working with a cleaning and contracting company the last few months owned by a “friend” of mine. When I started I was leaving another job with good pay and benefits because I was also opening my own company doing home inspections. She had reached out to offer some advice for getting started and a few weeks later I asked if she could use some help even part time. She said no problem, come work full time and take the day off if I have an inspection to do, no issue leaving around 5:30 to pick up my kid etc… So at the time a pretty decent arrangement even tho I was making alot less money. It let me do my own thing on the side.
Well the last few days I could tell something was off, I mostly work with her GF who is the 'manager' and I kind of felt like she just decided one day she didn't like me. Maybe because I was getting to chummy with the owner who was my friend, or because she spends 12+ hrs a day working 6+ days a week and feels like anyone who doesn't do that is lazy. (she mentioned how this doesn't bother her because when she started she had been working 3 jobs) I don't really know, but I'm fairly certain she influenced this decision.
So anyway I come in this morning, owner asks to have a talk with me and basically tells me she's letting me go because working there is a “disservice to me” because I can't do as much networking for my own business, and sounds like she was upset I'd mentioned my business to clients who were realtors, even tho she was the one who told me to so. I told her that's fine I wouldn't do that anymore if it was an issue, but she essentially told me she wants someone who's 100% dedicated from the get go to her companies vision and enjoys the work… Mind you it's mainly cleaning houses, which I don't mind but honestly don't love. I do truly enjoy the contracting work as it helps me learn my trade that much more and I like to be left alone to just get stuff done.
Now the kicker is from day 1 I've been told how great a job I was doing, how I got sooooo much more done than the last batch of employees she had and how she wants me to be managing people within the year as she hires no people. So basically because I have my business, which she said was not an issue, now it's a problem I guess?
I already had 2 paychecks screwed up because the funds weren't in the account to be paid, one is still on hold until the end of the month now and I didn't complain, I wasn't pushy and I didn't make a big deal of it. I always did what they asked me to do and then some, I made progress on jobs that have been sitting with nothing being done for literal months now because of her old crew and this is what I get for it I guess.
Yes I want to run my own business, this absolutely resolidifies that plan, screw working for other people any longer, but we'd discussed many times that if she continued to give me raises/incentive to be there I didn't intend to leave but that I wanted to at least finish my internship and get my license as I'd put alot of money into being trained for it. And beyond that wanted to help her business grow and expand.
I really want to just fucking give up, my car was stolen two weeks ago with all of my tools and some of theirs, I'm driving a crappy beater my inlaws sold me because we apparently didn't have rental and was planning to use the payout from my vehicle to get something I really liked and keep this as a work vehicle… Now that's probably going to have to wait… I assumed doing a good job, a better job than any of her other employees had done would be enough but I guess not… I'm just sick of dealing with this crap… But tbh if that's what she's looking for I don't really want to be a part of it… She claims she wants me to be able to dedicate time to building my business (I guess I'll get that now) but we'd discussed already that even the fastest growing inspectors take a couple years to get up and running with enough business to do it full time and I had even offered to put her stuff first at least until we had a full staff again.
She had already let her entire staff go because her and her GF said they weren't actually working half the time and were stealing, but this really makes me rethink that… It's entirely possible they just weren't killing themselves for someone else's dream, or that they don't have as much cash flow as they claimed or some combination of those things… The worst is I kind of realized this over the last few weeks when her gf (the gm) was in a pissy mood every day, sucks at explaining how to do the work and gets upset if something isn't done perfectly when it hadn't been explained yet, that the old crew probably wasn't quite as bad as they let on.
Anyway, I'm just annoyed, and angry and anxious over everything I've dealt with the last two weeks… And I won't ever… EVER give a company a commitment like that again. Never, no one's but my own. If I'd been screwing up I'd understand, if I'd cost them money I'd understand, if it was a money thing I'd understand but to me it feels like her gf decided she had some issue with me and this is the cop out explanation I got to justify letting me go. I told her if she still needs help (I know they do) that's fine they can sub contract me for whatever rate I decide on… I'll tell you now it's a hell of alot more than what I was being paid.
Sorry for the long rant I'm just burned out from everything lately, and now have to explain this to my wife later. I'm going to apply for unemployment, my state is usually pretty good about it and I made it abundantly clear I was not quitting and if I was leaving it was because I was being let go.
Tldr; went to work with a friend who had recently let go of an entire staff, was told me having my own business wasnt and issue and in fact she wanted to help me grow it and was let go this morning because I wasn't 150% dedicated to her company even tho I was told almost daily how great a job I was doing.