My Stupid Boss - Comments

Serious Boundary Issues

I work in Healthcare as an independent contractor, but thats only on paper cause the manager/owner treats everyone like employees. First of all, he has no receptionist in the office, so that means that all of us therapists are expected to answer the phone and book appointments when we are not in session. That wouldn't be so bad if the business phone wasn't a mobile phone, so here we are trying to answer the mobile business phone while on the road, running errands, or on our days off. Plenty of times the manager has called in the morning to come to my home and drop off the phone so I can book appointments. The only advantage to answering the phone is that I can book myself first, but it is such an inconvenience if I want to get anything done. He told the staff that if the phone isn't covered amongst the therapists, then he will have to hire a receptionist and it will come out of OUR pay! Also, he won't give us our own keys to the office, even though there are times that we are booked when he isn't there. He keeps a spare set in a plant pot outside.

We also have to do chores around the office when not booked. I don't have a problem with that except if I'm only in the office a couple hours a week, I'm surely not gonna scrub a toilet I probably used only once, or take out trash that I didn't help accumulate, doing it all for FREE.

Mind you, as an independent contractor, I set my own hours and can take time off when needed. Last year I had surgery, and told the manager that I would be gone for a month of recovery. The day before my surgery, he calls to see if I can come to the office to be in a group photo of the staff. I only agreed to go because I thought that he was going to add the picture to the company website, which he was supposed to do a couple of months before. After we take the picture, I'm saying goodbye to my co-workers and he says "If while you're recovering from surgery, you get really bored, I can drop the business phone to your home so you can answer the phone." This would be without pay, and I'm not able to work, so I can't book for myself anyway. I just looked at him in disbelief when he said that.

The day after I came home from the hospital, he called to see how I was doing. That was fine. A few days later I got a get-well card in the mail from my co-wokers. Again, manager "jokingly" says I should answer the business phone for them while in recovery. A week later he called me again, and asked if i would be home cause he wanted to come by to deliver something. I told him I was gonna be out for a few hours, but I would be back around 5pm. One that day, a Friday, My husband was having a going away dinner with his fellow Marines, as he was gonna deploy on that Sunday. My sister flew out to stay with me during my recovery cause we don't having any family out here, being military and all. So me, my husband, and sister go to the dinner that night, and when we come back, manager calls and asks if he can come on Saturday instead. Saturday was my hubby's last day at home before deployment, so I told manager to come on Sunday after we take hubby to the airport.

Manager comes Sunday afternoon with flowers and says that he has been getting resumes from therapists cause several businesses in the area are going under. The group picture we took before my surgery was actually for a Christmas card that he wants to send to our clients. He offered to bring me some of those cards to send to my clients, and I agreed. So that Tuesday, he calls in the afternoon and comes by with the cards, and asks how many "crunches" am I able to do. (bad joke). So i take the cards and he says to call him if I need more. So that Thursday, he calls at 8:30am. My sister is asking "whats wrong with this guy?" and should she tell him I'm resting. I just let the call go to voice mail. He says "Hello, it's about 8:30am, I guess you're out and about" ( not likely ) "I wanted to come over and give you some more Christmas cards, so give me a call.."

Well, needless to say I'm pretty annoyed by now. I go about my day, and that afternoon my sister drove me to the store, cause naturally I couldn't drive myself. I get a call from one of my coworkers asking how I'm doing and when will I be back. She also says "(Manager) was so sweet to bring you the flowers." I just got the feeling that her calling me was Manager's idea to "check up" on me since I didn't return his call that morning.

So after doing my shopping, my sister and I are about to drive off when I get another call from Manager. He asked if I'm at home. I told him i wasn't then he had the audacity to say "where are you?" I told him I'm about to get on the freeway. He wants to come over again to bring more cards even though I never told him that I needed more. So I told him I have enough cards to send to clients and remember that I've only been out of surgery for two weeks and I will let him know when I'm able to go back to work. He says "Oh, yeah I forgot." (bulls**t)

Another week goes by and I get a call from Manager at 7:30a on a Sunday morning and he leaves a message saying, "Hi, it's (manager), welcome to Sunday...There's a client who wants to come in at 9:00a and I wanted to see if you are better now to work on them, give me a call."

By now I'm livid, my sister is upset too. My husband called from Kuwait that day and when I told him what was going on he got pissed and wanted to have words with manager. I told him I would handle it. That afternoon I called manager and told him that part of my recovery was staying as stress-free as possible, and him calling me at 7:30am to come into work, after I already told him that i needed to get my doctor's approval for returning to work, was stressing me out. My husband told me I needed to break it down and explain how he is affecting my health. So I told manager that my going to work before I was recovered was jeopardizing my health, and my chances of carrying a baby (cause I had uterine fibroid surgery). His response was very insincere, and he basically said sorry cause that was the thing to say, I could tell he didn't give a damn about my well-being at all. my hubby said that if he called me again to tell him I quit.

Once I was recovering and getting ready to go back to work, my sis and I went to the office supply store so I could buy a new appointment book. We happened to run into Manager there with his daughter. I introduced him to my sis (maybe now he'll believe I actually had surgery). I told him I would call him over the weekend. On that sunday I told him that I was ready to come back to work, and that I had contacted my clients and let them know when I'd be back. I also told him that my doctor said I should work on no more than 3 clients a day.

Well over the next several months, manager was only booking me one or two sessions a week. On the occasions when he had to book me more ( after he already booked everyone else, including the two people he hired AFTER me) he would say "Well, you said you only wanted three sessions." I explained to him several times that for the first few weeks after my recovery I had to take it easy, but since its been several months since then, I can handle more bookings if need be. He keep saying "well I'll book you as a last resort." I have never in my life known someone to be so insecure and paranoid. Everyone whose heard this story agrees how crazy it is.

One more thing....I did some work for him at a corporate office and when it came time to write my paycheck, he purposely didn't include my time for the outcall. When I confronted him about it he said he just forgot, even though I had the time written out on my pay-sheet. I asked him if he had an issue with me because there have been several times when I had to wait three or four weeks for a check. (I always remind him when I need a check, and he delays anyway, he does this with everyone.) He insisted it was an oversight, and I told him that not getting paid every two weeks was a problem.

I see his business as a ticking time bomb thats gonna blow any minute. He has no consideration of the people who work for him. Even though we are independent contractors and we are suppose to be able to bring our own clients into the business, he has things set up to make this impossible. He is constantly looking out for people who he feels are trying to "get over " on him, and can't appreciate good people who want to work and have integrity. He had NO reason to treat me that way as a have been a reliable worker (he has said so himself).
My hubby said not to take it personally cause Manager has lost sight of what it means to truly run a successful business.. and that's treating people with consideration and respect.

Ticked off on 06 December 2009 22:22:03

User rating: 4.1 (12 votes)