Edit: LIVEABLE wage.
Today was really rough. I had a meeting with my boss and it really did not go well at all. Let me first say that I'm an interior house painter and we are usually working in the same town I live in. Around a 15-20 minute drive.
Well this week my boss wanted me to go to this house that's an hour and a half away.. and we would be there for 2 weeks. I physically cannot afford the gas it takes to go there. I don't spend any money on anything except gas and bills, and our rent just increased by a whopping 300. As well as all of our other bills and goods bc of well inflation. Moving out is not an option because my parents are not around. We are on government assisted food stamps, and that is how we eat.
So the meeting with my boss was after I sent him a text saying , hey, I really don't make enough money to be driving to this job site. Would it be possible for me to carpool with insert coworker who works near me? Can you put us on the same job? He didn't answer but rather gave me a random address. I asked if he even saw my last text and he said yes, but we will get to it when we get to it.
So I had a meeting with him today. Immediately he told me that it was unprofessional, how I spoke to him over text. I tried stating that I wasn't being unprofessional. I was stating it blatantly that I do not make enough money for it. And here is another option I can do that will help me to get to work bc I WANT TO BE THERE.
He told me I should never talk with my coworkers (even tho I'm friends with all of them outside of work) about how I'm not going to be able to make it into work bc of gas money… that I should have just gone to him first. But this makes no sense. Because I did go to him first. I then later talked to my coworkers telling them how I don't make enough for it and I'm really stressed out. But SOMEONE switched up on me and told my boss I'm bitching about the job site.
He told me that he's struggling with the inflation rate… even though the man is rich and owns 3 houses and 4 cars.
Later in the conversation be told me how he's being “so generous” by allowing my SO (we do the same thing at the same company) to use the company vehicle to help with gas. But this is just holding a kind thing he did over our heads! We didn't even want the company vehicle! (I still have to use my own vehicle, so I'm not too sure what that even had to do with me) AND he won't allow me and my SO to work at the same job site. nobody knows why! It's not like we have sex at work! We don't even talk to eachother at work!!
He told me that he's running a business and he doesn't schedule things around my time and blah blah blah.
I keep busting my ass at work doing more then I should and doing OTHER PEOPLES JOB. But I still make 10x less than everyone else and it's no longer livable.
TLDR: boss is being an ass and I didn't get a livable raise like I deserve.