Long (I originally wrote “short story” but had to change it, LOL) story:
I've worked at a successful farm for almost 7 years. Averaging 20-30ish employees. We pasture raise all different animals for eggs and meat across hundreds(?) of acres of land. The grass grows better behind where the animals go, so I love it, for what I do there.
We sell super premium meat and eggs, that I could never afford, or even consider buying because they're at least 3x store brand prices. We have a public store, ship all over, big events at the farm.
About my work exp. prior to the farm: college with bachelors in tech stuff, 10 years in photo tech industry, network adminstrator, 4 years prior farming.
Some of my recent titles have been “weekend manager and tech guy,” – among others over the years. I know the whole system and can fix or build almost any water/electric/wood/truck/tractor problem. My favorite part is interacting with the variety of animals – moving lots cows in pasture, etc. I train the new staff on everything.
I built an automated system for monitoring/controlling our lights, feedlines, water, temp sensors, etc, for the animals. The CEO keeps forgetting it exists and has broken it a few times, not intentionally, but it has sucked for me and the animals.
I've always felt underpaid(I'm not in it for the money, it's farming.) At the same time I've been more than comfortable living my simple life, in a tiny house, on my paid-off mountain forest land, 15 minutes from work. I'm at $20 an hour.
So now… been feeling like I'm volunteering at work. An extreme example: they needed someone to come in after dark to catch 100 laying hens.
The birds had been dropped off 3 days prior with something like 1500 other birds. I did it, and drove my personal car to the birds (asleep out in pasture, in open houses inside huge electrified net fences). I've done this kind of thing a lot of times. I caught 100 sleeping birds, individually by hand, loaded them into 8 crates, which fit into my insert cool car here, and drove them outside the big net fences. It went super smooth, no animal stress, and I did it in just under an hour.
My problem there is: I made less than 15 dollars for doing that, not including gas.
Shit kinda hit the fan this month. We get paid every two weeks. I forgot to leave my hand written note of my hours in the office. Normally the CEO texts us all a reminder Sunday night, that our hours are due. Instead, on Tuesday she texted me asking if it was ok to roll my hours into the next paycheck. I said it was fine.
I basically live paycheck to paycheck. I have money invested that I can always tap into if I need it, but that's not the point. I can go a month without getting paid, living lean.
Yesterday was the big day when I'd get my month of pay all at once, but when I grab my check – its only two weeks of pay. Told the CEO right away. This morning they apologized profusely (with other staff around…) and said it was all set and taken care of now. BUT when I go to get the check from the office IT ISNT THERE.
So I go ask the CEO where it is. They're totally surprised as to why I'd need it right now, and when I need it by – I just said I needed it as soon as possible and to text me immediately when its ready. I'm not mad at this person, nor do I think they're purposely screwing with my pay, at all. I'm blown away that they hadn't considered how me not having any income for a month might affect me.
There's more to this story, but thats the jist of it.
Am I seeing a normal workplace attitude here? It doesn't feel spiteful, nor do I think its an issue with the farm not having the money. How should I approach conversations with this person going forward? Is it healthy for me to even make the mental space to deal with this person?