Oh man, that was awesome! I must have you guys to thank for that quick response, because normally it takes me 5 hours of regretting my actual reaction before I think of the perfect com back. Anyways, here's the back story:
So my paycheck has been up to 4 or 5 weeks late each month for the past 7 months now, with the longest being 2 full months late. That means no paycheck for 3 months. I thought it was a 1 or 2 time thing at first, so I just went with it and tried to understand that the recession is affecting things. I was being promised a pay date that is already 2-3 weeks late straight to my face, then having my messages asking about it on that date just left on read and ignored. Plus the subsequent messages following up. Each month, for 6 months, I have had to literally beg my boss to pay me by telling her about how I missed my credit card payment and interest has gone from 6% to 26% forever until that account is paid off and closed. These are 2 CC accounts ive paid every single month on time for 19 years now. Then I had to cancel health insurance. Then I lost car insurance. Late fees for rent? Yup, got those too.
I'm a super calm and understanding person, but this has brought me to me absolute limit once every month or 2 this whole year so far, and I just snap and tell her all the truths about how fucking poor I am. Not only this, but she has promised a huge raise (100%) from my extremely low, below poverty level (in US) paycheck, for 8 months now. She set a date for April 1 for it to start….didn't happen. Now, finally 3 weeks ago she said OK, starting June your paycheck will be increased to what we talked about. Happy days! June pay day comes 2 days ago, guess what, no paycheck – it's going to be late. And no, you don't get a raise yet. We said starting june paycheck”. BITCH, this IS June paycheck! I'm paid on June 15 (or supposed to be anyways) for May 15-June 15. So I'm like alright, if you're going to be like that, then from what you're saying, i get new salary for half the month from June 1-June 15. I mean, thats what you JUST told me, right? I logicked her into a corner and she knew it, so she's like alright, maybe I can talk to the owner about this.
So then I need Business visa documents (from US living in Vietnam – also why I hav no gov't protection from wage theft, late wages, etc.). They have been delaying this for 3 fucking months. Ive asked every single week, and told them the due date was today for everything for week. I go to meet accountant and manager and they just straight up told me it is impossible to get those documents today. It's not enough time. BITCH WHAT!?!?!? You're fucking kidding me, right? That's going to cost me an entire months pay in late fees, extra plane tickets to another country and back, exit visa for being late to leave you exit, and I risk the very real possibility of having my passport blacklist in Vietnam, my home for over 10 years.
So I JUST got my paycheck for last month 4 days ago – yes 29 days late. I said OK, so i want to be clear that I absolutely do not accept you not paying me the raise I've been promised time and time again for my paycheck that hasnt been paid yet and was due 2 days ago. THIS was finally the month! I fucking NEED that money, and I've already allocated it to pay debts and bills. I was hoping to finally begin to catch up! But, you gotta choose your hill to die on, and for me that hill ended up being the raise for 50% of the pay period – an unbelievably FUCKED UP compromise.
So by this point I had passed FAR beyond the limits of my patience barrier. You know how at work (office/factory setting) you're kinda like extra cordial and guarded with your words? Yea, well at this moment the gloves were off. I asked “OK, so what date can I expect my paycheck? Do you have a date, because i can't just go a month hoping it might be my lucky day each day I woke up, only to have my dreams shattered again and again, and sprinkled with false promises along the way? Can you tell me why it will be late? Can you tell me the plan for how you will assure me that you can pay me on time in the future? This is a tiny amount of money compared to the size of our company – is our company going to run out of money soon? Why have 3 management level people quit in the last month? And why despite all these enormous red flags does our boss look my straight in the eye and tell my our company is doing wonderful, we have TOO MANY customers, we're going to be so big soon, yada yada….? What's really going on here?!?” She just sat in silence with a look or horror on her face, because honestly she's just the messenger and nothing is her fault – it truly is the boss. The boss just made my poor manager break all the news to me.
Anyways, so after thinking for about 20 seconds, she come out with the title comment: “I can't answer all of those questions, but we will pay you your paychecks as promised, but we just can't guarantee that it will be on time.” I didn't even skip a beat and responded, “Well I'll do all my work as promised, but I just can't guarantee that it will be on time.”
After about 20 seconds of silence, I looked her in the eyes and told her that we have both fucked up, and we are way better than this damned place. She just nodded sadly in agreement. Then I stood up and said I guess I'm going home now and working on my resume. Have a good weekend.
To top everything off, my girlfriend went to my boss's sister's wedding last weekend that my boss paid for everything. The words lavish over-the-top were used to describe it. She throws her wealth in the face of the people she's fucking over to get it. It's fucking insane.
Anyways, end of rant. Thanks for reading. And if anyone is looking for a Quality Engineer in Vietnam, give us a shout. I'm actually great at my job, i just suck at reading people and I trust people when they lie straight my my face with a big smile. Fuck me, right?
TL;DR: The filter came off, and I told my manager how it is. We both wanted to cry at the end of that meeting!