This is a developing situation, so it's somewhat hypothetical, but I'm posting because of the direction I'm afraid it's going in.
I've worked with this events company every summer for the last 5 years or so. For the last 2 years, I've been in an office leadership position, hierarchically the #3 position. However, due to the #2 quitting halfway through my first year and their replacement being under-qualified the second year, I've effectively been doing part of that position for the last 2 years.
This year, my #1 emailed me to say that he was also leaving as well as the company's president and asked me what my plans were in terms of returning. The idea that the president, #1, and #2 were all leaving meant that if I were to return, I'd be the only one in this department with prior experience. So between that, the historical unreliability of the #2 position, and the fact that I had been compensated 30-60% less than my peers while having objectively more responsibilities, I knew that I had to negotiate strongly. I laid out my terms for coming back, and it took over a month for them to come up with an offer I found reasonable. I mostly got what I wanted and even offered to cut the duration of my work with them this season by a couple weeks so they could budget me better. To sum up, he said I would get a specific rate, 8 hours a day, 4 days a week minimum, and would get paid the same rate after every 8th hour.
I felt pretty good after accepting their offer and assumed that I would be coming into the season with the same set of responsibilities but with significantly higher pay. One important distinction about my employment compared to the other two office positions is that I was an hourly worker who made OT while they were salaried. I assumed this to be the case again as there was no explicit mention of any change on that front. I also expressed during renegotiation when they asked if I would prefer to be salaried that I actually would rather be hourly.
The week before I started back, I called and checked in with my outgoing #1 who was training the replacements. When I asked about when he would schedule me using the timesheet app I'd always used, he vaguely said something about the company accountant wanting me to do things differently and to for now stick to an informal verbal schedule. I thought it was kind of weird, but I let it go.
When I came in on the first day, I asked him again about how I was going to schedule/log my hours, and he gave another vague answer, basically “Let me check with (the accountant).” Two days pass, I'm still coming into work, and I haven't heard anything. Then something else happens that makes me concerned.
During a discussion about event workers needing to contact us after hours, I said something to the effect of “Well I'm hourly, so I don't think this is going to apply to me.” The outgoing #1 says “You're not hourly?” I was somewhat taken aback and repeated what he said about me getting paid after a certain hour, and he just said that I was getting paid a certain number per week. This confused me.
While at work on the third day, I sent the accountant an email asking for three things: how he wants me to log my hours (while also explicitly stating my rate and minimum hours per week as agreed on during negotiation), if he needs me to resubmit any payroll documentation, and if he could send me a copy of my employment contract.
He responded 2 days later by asking me to use timesheet app I'd always used to log my hours but to let him know if I was getting close to exceeding 32 hours per week. He also said that I didn't need to resubmit any payroll info other than an emergency contact. However, he didn't confirm my rate nor did he respond to my question about a copy of an employment contract.
I responded by asking whether I was hourly or salaried because the #1 said I wasn't hourly, yet I'd been hourly every year I worked there and didn't hear anything explicit about that changing during renegotiation. I've not received an answer yet, though it's only been since the weekend started, so I should be getting an answer soon.
All this being said, I'm feeling uneasy for some reason. I feel like there's a lot of ambiguity right now that I wasn't expecting. I'm just wondering if any of you think something weird is happening or if I'm just overthinking it and there's a reasonable explanation. Thank you.