So, long story short I just wanted to vent. There's probably nothing I can do as all they're doing is legal in my country (not US). I though at first I thought that NGO helping people in need when I was joining won't be a capitalistic hellhole, but it fu**ing is.
Basically I had a rough situation and I was contacted by their founders with job possibility. They've stated that they can't pay my normal hour rate as they're a non-profit foundation but in exchange they won't require from me 8 hours a day and will be flexible with days off etc.
So, what they are? They're a mother-empowerment NGO helping mothers to sue for discrimination (maternity leave wrongful terminations etc) and they also have a job board with cooperating companies which have implemented their anti-discrimination policies.
The anti-discrimination policies? Well, they're supposedly so “well written” and progressive that they remain a.. company secret. I couldn't even take a look into them.
Of course, that's a fuc**ing lie. They are non-profit on paper, as their “publishing” part (where they post mostly blog content, free ebooks etc) is non-profit, but the rest of their business is totally-so-for-profit. To be honest, these two founders are the most stereotypical capitalistic people I have ever met.
They take grants for campaigns and all the shit, use all means available to cut costs (ex. using Google Grants ads) and even denied tools that I need to optimize my work ($25 a month tool lol) due to lack of funds. That lack of funds however is only in the NGO part, as they're funneling all the grant money immediately to their sister company which is “cooperating” with NGO. The cooperating sister company owns the job board, owns the all anty-discriminatory policies, owns all the ad space and helps to realize branding campaigns for those companies which cooperate with them.
The team I work in consists only of women. They've been all basically tricked to be free copywriters and negotiators, as their day consists mostly of creating content and searching paid content deals for the “NON PROFIT” foundation. They're paid in nice words – and they even have to keep a fu**ing evidence of hours spent as they're obligated to work 8 hours a day. Every task done every day detailed with detailed – up to minutes – time spent on it. I have negotiated myself out of it so I don't have to do it. Unless, of course, they will change their minds.
Now the neat part for which I wanted to vent is that I am waiting for my paycheck – I've submitted all the required documents last week and asked for a quick payment due to financial problems. The financial problems? About $10 dollars on my account. And as it's eastern european country, I am being paid about 625$ a month for managing their ads (and the Grant ads program which has its own rules and doesn't translate my agency experience to it), managing their website (technical aspects of it, quick fixes, negotiations with software house) and managing their SEO. Basically 3 roles in one.
I was informed that I will be paid at the last day of payment deadline as that is “their policy”. There's a big may holiday going on right now, and the deadline is 7 work days – which basically translates to the fact that I will be paid in 8 days from now, as there's holiday going on which doesnt count as working day.
Another irony of it all? Well, since I haven't called a free day today, they're expecting me to be working today, which I've learned also today. Yeah, no, fuck you – I ghosted them.
They've told me that they want to completely revamp their website soon, but as nobody else than me is technical they will not place an order to the software house for it unless I will take a role of supervising the software house work – they're scared that they will pay extra for not. I have agreed to do it before all those things got to my knowledge, because their website is 2k11 tech with multiple security holes and load time problems. I plan on giving a “renegotiation of terms or I quit” when they will make their order and first payment to the software house. Fuck them. It's one of my worst experiences of work, ever. Non-profit my ass.