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Ever been ripped-off by your own boss...?

Dude, I own the F'n place!

You go and work your butt off for twenty years and save all the money you can. Then mortgage your house to the hilt while finding investors to back you. Then work 60-70 hours a week for more then five years to build your company and client base until you have a fairly stable business while taking home less then you are paying your employees. Put up with employees stealing from you and milking the clock all the while.

After you do all that, you can do what ever you want with your time.

Oh, so you're wasting your own money! Bravo! :D
 
Unfortunately, I'm salary. I get paid the same whether I work late or leave on time. Which takes this particular situation even further out of my favor...
So in that case, you have a reason to be disgruntled somewhat, especially since the time you had to spend on that delayed your work on other in-house projects, which meant you had to work late, taking personal time away from your family (if you have one).

How you handle this is up to you. It sounds as if this were a unique, one-time thing, so my general advice to you is to still be proud of the job you did such that the person wanted to pay, and consider it an act of kindness/generosity toward your boss, hoping it will earn you favor with him. If this turns into something that he asks for again, and you don't want to extend yourself out for him, then you should mention your workload, and that doing work for someone else will delay your other responsibilities. At that point, be VERY attentive to your bosses reaction. Don't consider the matter close yet, but try to judge if he thinks that you should do it anyway. If you can at that point, continue explaining that the last one-off job you did put you behind such that you had to work late hours to catch up, and you would prefer not to put yourself into that kind of time crunch again. Ask him if he minds that doing the one-off project will delay your normal responsbilities, and again be very attentive to his response. If he's understanding, then problem solved. Let him suggest a solution that you can both agree on. If he seems to think that it's your problem and not his, then you'll have to decide what to do from there. Suggest to him that you could do the work on a contract basis directly for the company, negotiating your own pay with them, and see how he feels about you moonlighting. If he's a reasonable person at all, he'll understand your position and should accommodate you. If he's not a reasonable person, then you'll have your answer and know that you should really seek employment some other place where your time and effort is respected.
 
Dude, I own the F'n place!

You go and work your butt off for twenty years and save all the money you can. Then mortgage your house to the hilt while finding investors to back you. Then work 60-70 hours a week for more then five years to build your company and client base until you have a fairly stable business while taking home less then you are paying your employees. Put up with employees stealing from you and milking the clock all the while.

After you do all that, you can do what ever you want with your time.
Greatest risk, greatest reward, eh? I hear you though, most people don't understand that the boss is the last person to get paid. Tough spot, especially in these times.
 
Dude, I own the F'n place!

You go and work your butt off for twenty years and save all the money you can. Then mortgage your house to the hilt while finding investors to back you. Then work 60-70 hours a week for more then five years to build your company and client base until you have a fairly stable business while taking home less then you are paying your employees. Put up with employees stealing from you and milking the clock all the while.

After you do all that, you can do what ever you want with your time.

We got it. You own your own business...congratulations and thank you for posting. I truly hope you take good care of your employees, even if that means going above the standard salary. Maybe take an employee out to lunch if he did an exceptional job one day or went the extra mile. It means a lot to most people. And if they think of something like that as a smack in the face, they're ungrateful workers.

I can tell you the owners are NOT struggling, so lets not even go down that road. These guys sneeze out scotch and steak lunches and crap out 5-figure checks on deals. Yes, even in this "terrible" economy we have. Maybe the 2013 Lexus will have to wait until next year's Christmas gift, but if we wait another year we can probably afford the 2014 Maserati, know what I'm sayin? Believe me, these guys are doing just fine from a financial standpoint.
 
So in that case, you have a reason to be disgruntled somewhat, especially since the time you had to spend on that delayed your work on other in-house projects, which meant you had to work late, taking personal time away from your family (if you have one).

How you handle this is up to you. It sounds as if this were a unique, one-time thing, so my general advice to you is to still be proud of the job you did such that the person wanted to pay, and consider it an act of kindness/generosity toward your boss, hoping it will earn you favor with him. If this turns into something that he asks for again, and you don't want to extend yourself out for him, then you should mention your workload, and that doing work for someone else will delay your other responsibilities. At that point, be VERY attentive to your bosses reaction. Don't consider the matter close yet, but try to judge if he thinks that you should do it anyway. If you can at that point, continue explaining that the last one-off job you did put you behind such that you had to work late hours to catch up, and you would prefer not to put yourself into that kind of time crunch again. Ask him if he minds that doing the one-off project will delay your normal responsbilities, and again be very attentive to his response. If he's understanding, then problem solved. Let him suggest a solution that you can both agree on. If he seems to think that it's your problem and not his, then you'll have to decide what to do from there. Suggest to him that you could do the work on a contract basis directly for the company, negotiating your own pay with them, and see how he feels about you moonlighting. If he's a reasonable person at all, he'll understand your position and should accommodate you. If he's not a reasonable person, then you'll have your answer and know that you should really seek employment some other place where your time and effort is respected.

All great advice. Thank you. This is most likely the whole case anyways, about it being a one-time thing. But we shall see.

And yes, I have a great supportive girlfriend, a sweet cat, and a 2 bands that rehearse 2-3x's a week and plays out about twice a month. I do appreciate my own time out of the office.
 
All great advice. Thank you. This is most likely the whole case anyways, about it being a one-time thing. But we shall see.

And yes, I have a great supportive girlfriend, a sweet cat, and a 2 bands that rehearse 2-3x's a week and plays out about twice a month. I do appreciate my own time out of the office.
Cool! Good luck...those are the important things, not work. I believe people should do a good job at work so they can leave and be proud of what they've done. It helps to enjoy the other things, rather than going home and being bitter about their job. It sounds like you are doing all the right things, at least in IMHO.
 
All I can say is if it was done during your normal 9-5 then you can't really expect anything. If you had to stay after 5 without additional comoensation to catch up on your normal work then you have a legit complaint.

If that's the case, I suggest you find a union gig. Your job responsibilities would be written in black and white and if your boss asks you to do something not listed, you can very nicely suggest he go f*** himself. ;) :hiding:
 
We got it. You own your own business...congratulations and thank you for posting. I truly hope you take good care of your employees, even if that means going above the standard salary. Maybe take an employee out to lunch if he did an exceptional job one day or went the extra mile. It means a lot to most people. And if they think of something like that as a smack in the face, they're ungrateful workers.

You missed the part of working for other people for 20 years. I know what it is like to work for jerks that do not appreciate your effort. I do my best to show them how much I appreciate them and I always say thank you when I hand them their pay check. A Saturday BBQ with beer, strippers and music does wonders for moral too.
 
Cool! Good luck...those are the important things, not work. I believe people should do a good job at work so they can leave and be proud of what they've done. It helps to enjoy the other things, rather than going home and being bitter about their job. It sounds like you are doing all the right things, at least in IMHO.

Thanks for your input man. You're absolutely right. There are WAY more important things than work. Its sad that there are people that take their hatred for work home with them, and some let it ruin their personal lives...I feel like I'm pretty good at completely forgetting I even work here once I'm out the doors. Thank God for music and good friends and family.

For the record, I'm not going to even ask for anything from doing this project for my boss. We'll see if he does anything nice or even brings it up, but other than that, it's completely out of my hands and not worth getting mad about.

I thought it would make an interesting (and somewhat controversial) thread topic, so there ya have it.
 
You missed the part of working for other people for 20 years. I know what it is like to work for jerks that do not appreciate your effort. I do my best to show them how much I appreciate them and I always say thank you when I hand them their pay check. A Saturday BBQ with beer, strippers and music does wonders for moral too.

Exactly! That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about! We used to do stuff like that all the time, but things have changed around here, and it isn't the (lack of) money...it's a lack of appreciation for the employees who do the grunt work behind the scenes. I think it's easy for someone on a commission basis to lose sight of that. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to let them know about it, either.

I appreciate your responses to my posts, HD. I wasn't trying to discredit the fact that you busted your ass to get where you are. Good luck man and thanks.
 
Totally understand how you feel, and why you feel that way.

However the reality is that your job is to do as your boss asks. Within your job description & within reason.

Technically speaking you're the hooker, A's the pimp. You don't get an extra cut just because your pimp moved you from his corners to his buddies (B's) corners to fill in for Rita while she has her 14th abortion this year.
You just head on over to B's corner and be the best darn hooker you can be. Your pay however stays the same.

Keep in mind A is loosing money while you work B's block for 3 days, so really the $500 is rightfully his to replace the money he paid you but didn't benefit from.
You don't honestly expect your pimp to pay you 3 full days for a measly $250 do you?
I'm surprised he did it for $500 really.


Solution to this so you never go through this again!

Become a pimp, get your own hookers and then you get to decide who gets what.
 
dmusic148 said:
I see where you might think you 'earned a cut,' but you did the project on 'A's' time, not your own.

My understanding now (the op didn't make it clear in the beginning) Is that he's salaried to do a job for company A. Then was asked to do a job for company B IN ADDITION to his own work in his salaried time. That is now a horse of a different color, and I thereby change my stance. It's not like he did work Instead of, but also.
 
Truktek2 said:
My understanding now (the op didn't make it clear in the beginning) Is that he's salaried to do a job for company A. Then was asked to do a job for company B IN ADDITION to his own work in his salaried time. That is now a horse of a different color, and I thereby change my stance. It's not like he did work Instead of, but also.

Makes no difference if he does both as long as his boss is not extending his normal hours to do it.

If the OP works 9-5 everyday, and that didn't change, then the work done between those hours is up to the boss. Again within reason and or his job description.