My wage claim case is finally approaching a hearing date.
When I interviewed for the position (at a mental health office) the owner was late and we discussed compensation, hours, and responsibilities. She wanted me to be an independent contractor so she could save on taxes – I said I don’t think I qualify – she insisted. The job title was office manager.
Started work that day and emailed the accounting person to introduce myself “to help in the office”. I was only supposed to be handling mail and scanning of documents she stated that in the future she might have more responsibilities for me and I stated that’s fine and we can re-discuss compensation then because I gave a certain hourly for what I wanted for those responsibilities.
Shortly after I was told I needed to be at two staff meetings where she introduced me as “back office support staff” and asked me to take over the phones for the office since the person that had done them was leaving. This took my hours from 15 to 20 hours a week to a lot more. I was told to be at certain meetings she wanted me to attend, networking events, meetings with other businesses to partner with, and start doing office scheduling and personal tasks.
At one point I was supposed to go out of town for a work trip and rather than actually having the days off I was still texted and expected to do work from the iPad, which I documented, my roommate for the trip saw. She even texted on the Fourth of July to ask some questions that could’ve waited, she was then very surprised that I included that time within my hours.
My last week, which I didn’t know it would be my last week, she asked me to attend a meeting with someone the owner wanted to bring in to help restructure the business. This woman told her very clearly that she needed to change my status to an employee. That evening after 8 PM (not a normal business hour) she called with a conference call with the accounting person and new phone person at this point she named me clinical administrator.
I was told to meet with the woman again to discuss how to restructure and what we need to do, this woman had not been hired yet. After another long meeting with the woman and several employees, I had a decent amount of information to take back to my employer and we met on a Friday morning.
I told her I needed to discuss and was asked to go to their home, the owner was going out of town. This day I was invited to the SO’s birthday and to go out of town then that weekend. I was starting to feel really uncomfortable. I was asked how many hours I was at, as of that morning it was 36 hours, not including our meeting time. We discussed things about me being an employee and I was told to come up with a proposal to be an employee rather than an independent contractor. At this time a card was ordered for me to use as petty cash so I did not have to put the expenses on my personal credit card.
We discussed tasks moving forward what I would handle and others. The owner confirmed that I should handle shipping a handbag and work on the insurance paperwork they did not want to do. I stated that I had no experience with insurance and it would probably take me longer than it would take someone else because I didn’t know what I was doing. “that’s fine.”
I went in on Saturday to get the needed signatures. Sunday morning I noticed there is an announcement in the back office that the owner would be out of town and no one would be there to handle what I normally handle. I reached out and told them I was confused because I thought we had discussed this on Friday. They wanted a proposal from me before having me do anything else – put things on hold/my services were no longer needed. I stated I was in the middle of a couple of tasks and asked if they would like me to finish them up or leave as is. They asked that I finish them so I went in on Monday. I finish the tasks as well as put out some fires due to their lack of management.
Midday the owner stops responding to me, not even when I asked if there was more printer ink because other employees need to print things. I tried again to get in touch again when I was almost finished. When I left I had planned to go home and upload my final hours. When I got home I no longer had access so I emailed to let them know where I left the keys and the office iPad.
I was told I would be paid as normal via payroll, I let them know that since she let me go there was a labor code stating that I need to be paid within a certain amount of time and payroll would not meet this. Their attitude changed, following emails stating I only worked for her about half the time I did, that I was overqualified to be an assistant, claimed my hours were inflated so she would not be paying me and that I was blackmailing her (I still have no idea how).
A couple of days later payroll did not come through, I was told it would need to wait until after they got back from vacation.
A three weeks later I got an email from the accounting person stating they wanted a breakdown of what I did every day of my last week, I let them know that since I no longer had access to the back office or to the iPad that I mostly worked from that this would be rather difficult. I was asked for reports for the meetings I had been in, I replied that I was not asked for any reports previously. I stated that I would like the owner to contact me directly. I emailed to let the owner know I would be filing a claim with the labor board.
When I was prepping for the wage claim conference I found out that around the time I was let go – before I filed the wage claim – the owner contacted another employee and told him I accessed information without their consent or knowledge and they would support him filing a police report against me. After he brushed them off, they pushed again and he again said no.
Two other employees stated that the owner claimed they inflated their hours when it came to final paychecks and one had already filed a complaint with the labor board regarding working conditions. The owner had one employee tasked with responsibilities outside his job description, she ended up sending him a W-2 and 1099 for the same time period.
At the wage claim conference, the owner stated that I was brought on as an HR expert which I replied I have no HR experience and that is not on my résumé. They claimed that a Facebook post was posted around the same time I was “supposedly” working one evening as evidence that I inflated my hours and was supposed to be out of town. That all of the HR research I was “supposedly” doing was just one page that they found in the office mailbox. They had no evidence or anything except this one piece of paper.
My anxiety has gotten really bad as the date to submit evidence gets closer.
I have declarations from 3 employees, a lot of texts and emails.
TLDR: it’s a shit show