I am furious right now and I don't know what to do. I could really use advice or support or just other furious people to shit talk the MF that did this to me.
I worked for my former employer under a contract from June 2021-May 2022. I asked in February whether I could expect a new contract or whether I should start looking for other jobs and they said don't worry about it a contract is coming. May rolls around and still no contract so I ask about it again and they claim they had no idea that they were supposed to be working on a contract but they will get one around.
Contract arrives DAYS before the previous one expires with my salary being cut by what works out to be $8 per hour. Obviously, I responded back to the offer saying that I had expected to at least stay at my current rate and that the pay cut would negatively affect my ability to pay my bills and support my family. Radio silence for about a week.
I get a phone call later from the founder saying that “this isn't going to work out” but that they would keep me on for one more month under a verbal contract where I would get 50% of the fundraising earnings I brought in. Now I see that this is obviously semantics to make them look like a “good employer” who gave me a long window of time to transition. Foolishly I agreed thinking that surely nobody is awful enough to fire someone without warning and then ask them to work for another month for free.
Well I feel like an idiot because I spent a month working my ass off asking literally everyone for donations while also scrambling to get my shit together to figure out what to do next with my life. Not only have I still not gotten paid for that month, but after applying for unemployment, my former employer is blatantly lying to the state saying that I “quit for personal reasons”.
I sent an email asking why they would do that and they said that I “refused my contract”. Bullshit! I tried to negotiate and had my contract rescinded. Of course, all of the emails that prove this are on my work email address that I no longer have access to and the amount of money that I should have made (which they said they haven't paid because they don't think I did any work during that month which is again a lie) is just not very much money and a lawyer would not only cost more than its worth but I would also have to deal with the stress involved and dredge up the details of a very painful separation.
I LOVED this job. This was my dream job. I really wanted this to be my forever job. I literally cried for the entire month of June over this and I am so mad with myself for caring about this mission so much that I was blind to the red flags and naive to think that when given the chance people will do the right thing.
I just know they did this because in the state of Michigan, you can either pay into unemployment tax as a nonprofit or reimburse the state for unemployment wages paid out. I can almost guarantee that they chose the second option and are now doing everything possible to claim that I don't deserve the money so that they don't have to pay it.
I feel like an idiot for not sharing all of those emails to my personal email address for proof later on. I feel like an idiot for not recording every meeting and taking careful notes after every call to protect myself. I feel like an idiot for working on a verbal contract for a month and wasting all my time and energy fundraising for someone to take everything I've given them and then shit on me. I feel like an idiot for even asking for more money in the first place instead of just signing the contract and then looking for something else while getting paid. Mostly I feel like an idiot because this is now the fourth time in my life that I have trusted someone who turned out to be out for all they can take with no regard for the people around them and I don't know why I keep finding myself surrounded by the scum of the earth.
I'm so disappointed in humanity in general and I hate that people like this can continue getting away with stepping on everyone to get to the top, meanwhile the only person who changes is me. I get more and more bitter and hateful every time this happens and at this point, I would rather not interact with anyone and run the risk that they are horrible because honestly they probably will be. Now here I am struggling to pay my bills, and I don't know what to do.
I already tried to appeal the unemployment denial once. Should I reach out to the board and see if they have any sway in the situation? Should I reach out to a former coworker to see if they can send me the emails? Should I try with unemployment again? What I want to do is just fucking out them and tell everyone I know what they did to me and report them to the IRS and put their ass out of business and get my asshole boss audited and ruing their life. See how they like being completely powerless. But I know I won't do that because I just don't have the heart to destroy someone even when they don't lose any sleep at all over what they did to me. I just don't know what to do and if there really is anything to do. Everything seems stacked against me and honestly, the thought of getting another bullshit job just to pay my bills makes me want to throw up but soon I'm not sure if I'll have a choice.