We’re on Day Three of the never-ending headache, and I’m starting to crave how it feels when the giant super triple mocha overload Advil slides down my throat.
After yet another meeting with yet another person, I think the story about my impending space exile goes like this:
- The Space Board *is* upset at me
- I am unreliable because I am late a lot
- This doesn’t necessarily apply to the other people who are 40-45 minutes late all the time, because they are reliable and easy to work with
- It doesn’t matter how brilliant I am; if I’m not easy to work with I’ll never get anywhere in this universe or any other
- This entire situation should not have been summed up as “our clients hate you”, because they don’t and I am technically awesome and super mad skilled
- However, I suck in almost every other aspect – late sometimes (unreliable), pushy (shoot my mouth off), believing people in power who tell me things to expect about my career (naive), bad days (emotional), get upset at ludicrous situations (difficult to work with), potential time bomb (too much chili for lunch)
- It doesn’t matter that I don’t take lunch breaks or leave the office during the day and work late and on weekends; I am not here at 9am and am therefore unreliable and less likely to ever be promoted over other people, especially those who are super nice, never question anything, and are not volatile in any way (say, like cottage cheese or 2% milk) even if they are late every day and take extended lunch breaks
It gets hard not to take things personally some times.
delicious juice dot com 
Holy shit, I think they’re insane!
I’m sorry that you have to go through this. I know that it can be really crushing.
I think you need to start looking for another job. Once a space boss makes up his/her mind about you, it’s extremely difficult to change his/her mind. You deserve something better, with less spacehattery.
I watched a close friend leave my company because our space boss decided she wasn’t productive enough, even though it was because he’d changed project specs which forced her to redo months of work. No arguments in her favour from her supervisor could change his mind.
Anyways, sounds like your space boss(es) are from the same training planet.
Wait… as a contractor you are not required to keep set hours. That’s, like, the primary legal difference between contractor / not-employee.
They are ALL bad men. I shall call them Exploity McSploiterson!
They keep saying it will get better but it keeps sucking….now it’s sucking louder and louder every day. Not that I don’t love the space station but I definitely love you more. Over the time you’ve worked there you’ve had so many crap events with these people, and they never seem to value you enough to even say thanks (or, you know, hire you or something). I say look for a nicer space station with less assholes on it….like, yesterday.
Hugs hon.
What WCG said. You need to send them the criteria legally used to determine the differences between contractors and employees, I think they will find that even now they are contradicting themselves. Read this:
Click to access rc4110-06e.pdf
As an HR professional, I say the following:
1. PLEASE follow the advice of your very smart friends above and “educate” your boss(es) on the LEGAL difference between an employee and a contractor. They apparently hate you anyways, so asking for what you’re legally entitled to isn’t going to change their opinion of you.
2. Polish off your resume – the job market rocks right now.
3. Continue to “educate” your boss(es) until they get so sick and tired of hearing about it that they let you go.
4. Collect EI until you find awesome job with awesome company with boss(es) that are not total asshats.
5. Stop being late…seriously, this will not work in your favour…ever. :-)
*hugs*
Gawd, but they suck. I’m sorry, sweetie. :(
I heard once that nobody ever gets fired for incompetence or not producing or a bad attitude or having space herpes or because their boss hates them or whatever — people get fired for two reasons: absenteeism and tardiness. Because those are the things that can be objectively measured and tracked.
Also, yes, can you get the “you’re late, stop being late?” thing in writing? Because if you can, that’s a KEY piece of evidence that you’re actually an empoyee and not a contractor. Might come in handy when trying to collect EI, and you can claim constructive dismissal — this all happened when you started talking about how you should be an employee, so they’re clearly trying to get you out of there before you raise a further fuss.
(BAD MEN. They are Very Bad Men.)
Honestly, I’m with Gillian. It’s time to depart from this space station and find new wonders (TM Farscape). They pretty much hate you and have damned you in their minds, regardless of logic and/or customer liking, it sounds like, and I just don’t think you can win in this scenario with their attitudes. I don’t know how fast you can find another job of any sort ASAP, but I think it’s worth a shot before they outright can you, which it sounds like they really want to do.
I am so sorry you are going through this crap. You don’t deserve it.
Your previous posts were real rubbish, but this is good. This one is brilliant. Your blog is getting really better.