Long time lurker, first time poster. This will be long winded, so apologies in advance.
I’m a 29 year old married male who has been working full time since I moved out at 18. I’ve been in the automotive field for 6+ years and have quickly gotten VERY good at what I do. My wife and I are expecting our first child any day now. My wife works from home and has a $95k/yr job. We have no car payments. Just our mortgage and utilities.
I’ve been at a powdercoating/wheel shop for about 3 years. Started at 18/hr, about a year and a half in I was at 22/hr. I’m still at that pay, however I’ve since become the manager. I’m not only in charge of all the powdercoating (a type of painting for those who don’t know), but I’m responsible for making sure everyone else has work to do, making sure jobs/projects are done by certain deadlines, and I’m a point of contact for pretty much any/all questions/concerns coworkers and customers may have.
Fast forward to now. Shop moral is hella down. My coworkers and I all get along, but we all agree that our boss has gone off the deep end. Huge misuse of shop funds, all kinds of crazy personal purchases – $400k house, $60k BMW restoration, $32k paved driveway, $15k detached garage renovation- all of which were this year aside from the house (which was last year). Ever since he started making these lucrative purchases he has been micromanaging the hell out of us, either in person or via phone/text. We all work 8-10/hrs day. Our boss is maybe there 1/3-1/2 that. Regularly shows up at 10-11am, works for an hour, goes home for a 2-3hr lunch, comes back for a few hours. In general he is very disorganized and is regularly makes us switch tastes multiple times a day.
There were 8 employees at the start of the year. Now there are 3, one of which is a new hire. We still pump out the same amount of business and that is largely in part to me. I bust ass and usually have 5-10 projects going at once to make sure our clients all get their stuff on time. Also worth mentioning there is no AC and I worth in North Carolina. So it’s gets HOT.
Today our boss dropped the bomb on us that he owes $33k in taxes and doesn’t have the money to pay them (don’t know why that’s our business). I also heard him say to the new hire “I don’t have enough to pay you this week, can I just give you what I have now?” I guess he was paying him under the table to start? Idk.
I’ve had 3 conversations with him about getting a raise since my responsibilities and work load have HUGELY increased since my last raise 16 months ago. Not to mention that since everyone is quitting, I’m having to pick up more and more slack with each person that leaves. I get the runaround each time. But I feel trapped because I have a kid on the way and don’t know what to do. I started my own LLC in March doing car work/customization, and while I have a client base and am gaining reputation in the area, it’s not bringing in full-time money yet. Part of me wants to ride this out as I’m his most valuable asset and am the only employee who knows how to do everything at the shop, but with the recent news about the taxes I’m afraid that raise will never come and I’ve hit my ceiling. The prospect of being a full-time stay-at-home dad for my child is sounding very pleasing right now. And while I do that I can slowly work to grow my business.
Sorry for the long post but I was hoping someone else has been in similar shoes. I feel like the answer is obvious but there’s a part of me that still doesn’t know what to do with the impending baby. I want to do what’s responsible for my family, but also want to make sure that I do what’s best for ME. This is a very taxing job physically and sometimes I’m afraid I’ll be too tired to help my wife with the baby, which isn’t fair to her. It’s tough to talk to my wife about this right now because she is 38 weeks pregnant and doesn’t wanna stress out, which I completely understand.