Sweet Satisfaction

EdT submitted 605 days ago

In 2000 I had been hired on contract by a local IT services firm. Seven months later, the job I was hired for was completed. My employers told me they liked me, and offered me a permenent job, which I accepted. For the next three months my new employers did not have any client jobs for me to work on, but they kept me very busy on internal systems. I did however bring in the only paying work we had during that period, a programming job that lasted about eight weeks. A friend of a friend of mine had called me up asking for help, and instead of taking the job myself I let my company take it. I also introduced my company to a friend of mine, Steve, who wanted a web application written, and the company was still trying to win his business. I was the only one bringing in new business.

About three months months after I became a permenent employee the two owners of the company asked myself, and the other two employees to come in on a Saturday for a company meeting. They told us the company was doing great. We had hit a slow patch, but things would pick up soon. Blah, blah, blah.

The next Monday was my brithday. That afternoon one of the owners called each of us, one by one, into his office to tell us that the company was out of money, and asked us to work without pay. I was blown away. I asked him why he didn't tell us this on Saturday, and he said he didn't feel it was the right forum. I told him I wasn't willing to work without pay, and he told me he'd have to lay me off. So I said, "Thanks for the great birthday". And I told him I wanted my last check. He said they didn't have the money to pay me, and he wasn't required to pay me right away.

I knew this was B.S., but what could I do? I went home, and looked up the section of California's emplyment law that stated that not only did a company have to pay everything immediately when they terminate employment, but that if they did not pay up then the emplyee continues to earn his salary until the point he is paid in full. So I sent my old boss an email with links to the appropriate paragraphs of the California law on the CA goverment web site, and asked again for my last check. The next morning I got a phone call telling me to come pick up my check.

While leaving after picking up my last check I ran into my friend Steve who needed the web application written. He was on his way in for a lunch meeting with my ex-employers. I told Steve the whole story, and asked if he would let me do the work for him. Steve accepted on the spot, and I was hired again making considerably more then the job I was just laid off from. Steve and I went to lunch to talk things over, and while we were sitting waiting for our food he called my old boss to tell him he wasn't going to make their meeting. We had a great laugh over that. I went from feeling very down and out on my birthday to feeling the sweet satisfaction of revenge less then 24 hours later.