When Sweetie was offered his new job he was told his insurance would start on the day he accepted. Upon arrival at the office, he was told, sorry, but it won't kick in until 30 days after the start date. Um, okay, misunderstanding, right? Upon asking for the appropriate forms Friday, he was told, Um, well, actually, it's sixty days, so not until August 1. Okay, we'll deal with that, where are the forms? Oh, ah, oops, we made a mistake, we're getting a new insurance provider September 1 and aren't accepting new subscribers until then.

After a bit of, excuse me, but when I accepted this job you said. . ., the firm agreed to pay COBRA, which deadline is fast approaching. Okay, we said, fine. So the forms were faxed to Sweetie and he went to ask for a check for $1640 (June and July payments). Oh, they said, you go ahead and pay it and we'll reimburse you. I guess they didn't think he could have the forms faxed and weren't quite prepared for such quick action, figured I would fill out the forms and send a check from here. Well, I guess we unwittingly called their bluff on this one. Another large red flag--no sign ordinance would permit one this size. (Many expletives deleted here.) We have no choice, we have to have COBRA (remember, only Blue Cross/Blue Shield will insure this diabetic and will exclude anything that can be traced back to diabetes, which could apply to practically anything except an auto accident). Our combined prescription meds are a bit over $500/month.

We've decided not to press them for the extra week's salary they promised, in that Sweetie's pay would start on the day he accepted the job and set off for CS.

And then they announced that they were laying off two of the six employees in Colorado Springs. There was no notice; the two cleared out their desks and left.

So we figure they're going to close down the CS office as of the end of August and Sweetie and the other guy will be told move to HQ in Tempe or ta-ta. Tempe??? It's 115 in the effing shade in the summer and there's no there there. (The other two folks are the former owner of the company, now a VP, and his girlfriend who is the sort of personnel/admin person.)

Meanwhile, our savings are severely depleted and approaching the red zone and Sweetie has this ironclad 6-month apartment lease which allows breaking only for relocation and not for layoff.

Needless to say, he will go to the office today and spend his Sunday sending out resumes.

You ask, Why would they do this, dragging him all the way out there when they just as easily could have screwed someone local? Good question. Sweetie really is good at what he does and has a great reputation. We figure they wanted him badly and assumed he would just go to Tempe when they close the CS office. (Now, mind you, there is no talk of closing the CS office and, in fact, when I asked them about it five weeks ago when they made the job offer they said, Oh no, CS won't be closed. We knew the Tempe folks had bought the CS co. back in February and figured it was a bit strange that they would keep the CS office open as is. We don't believe them; we figure the lease is up on August 31 and that will be that.)

This would also explain why the boss was so very keen for Sweetie to keep staying at his house indefinitely instead of renting an apartment.

Nothing to be done except look for yet another effing job. This is getting extremely tedious.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

Answers

OG. . .

Some people wonder why I'm as crabby and cynical as I am. . .

. . .those who know me, know why. . .

I hate like hell hearing your news, but truly, it surprises me not one whit. Disgusts me, YES...Angers me...YES...surprises me, NO.

I don't know what to say, except I'm real sorry to hear this.

What a bunch of BS.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

Well, this sucks.

How much do you have in writing from this company? How willing are you to sue, if a case can be built?

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

Barefoot,

From our experience, it's always satisfying to contemplate such, but in reality, usually it's not worth the time and money necessary to hold an employer's feet to the fire. It also takes more time than what most folks might imagine to get something like this "rolling".

Everyone says, "Get an attorney to sue 'em on a contingency." Well, good luck. Unless it's obvious on the face of it that there's a sizeable chunk of change to be had, most attorneys aren't going to be interested. You can spend a LOT of time trying to find an attorney who might agree to take the case, but that's usually time that needs to be spent on finding another job right away. :-(

And yes...it's always wise to get everything in writing. . .but again, that doesn't always happen, and especially not when one is very anxious to get back to work. There has to be a modicum of trust and usually it's this sort of thing where the trust ends up being breached...and usually it's from the employer's end.

It's a "wake-up call" when something like this happens, and it should give a person a better understanding of the character/integrity of the company. Depending on the circumstances, one might choose to file this information away and not start looking for another job right away. In this case though, I think he's very wise to do so.

I know how weary of this crap he must be. :-(

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

What a pile of $%^&!!

I wish I had enough money to start a succcessful, honest company and hire everyone on the boards who has had to go through crap like this.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

Damn, that's terrible. I wish you two all the good luck in the world for ending up in a decent situation.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

(((Old Git)))) what a bummer!!!! but I know he'll land on his feet, it is just the "headache you have to engure till it all settles!

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

Thanks, all. I'm happy you're about as pissed as I am!

I guess what really grates is that we asked all the right questions, even the difficult ones. The co. lied both directly and indirectly, as in start date will be "as soon as administratively possible." What the hell does that mean? Sweetie will be "eligible for the following" bennies, just doesn't say when.

The good news--Sweetie was able to send out eight resumes when he popped in the office today. He hasn't been able to send out that many in one day for years. And that was from just one site-- Flipdog.com. He'll go to the others (Monster, etc.) tomorrow.

And you're right, Brooke, it's very difficult to ask for something in writing, especially when the guy offering is a friend of your last immediate supervisor who is a decent guy, so you figure his friend is too. If we file suit, even supposing we had a case, Sweetie will be branded as a troublemaker, won't be able to get a job anywhere.

Meanwhile, he still does have a job and we hope his paychecks don't start to bounce. Long as we can deposit his checks, we can stash away a few hundred in savings each time.

Once again, I find myself so grateful for all the Y2K info and advice which has kept the storeroom in damn good shape and scrips nicely piled. Don't have to spend no money at no supermarket, can manage quite well.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2002

OG, I don't know what to say except a lot of swearing. Having been in the consulting business for so many years, this doesn't surprise me, but I really hate it when it happens - especially to people I know.

You might actually take a look at Tempe. Yes it is hot, but there is lower humidity. We used to live in Phoenix. 100 deg there feels like 80 with high humidity. I have trouble with the heat here in Iowa when it gets to be 85 and humid, but in Phoenix I was fine until about 110.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002

Well, this sucks the big one.

I don't suppose Sweetie could get a job cat-sitting for the new boss? They seemed to get along quite well.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002

We wouldn't want to be involved long-term with this company anyway, not after they lied to us. We asked all the right questions, delved into it as carefully as we were able, and they lied. Period. We're too old to risk this sort of thing; the current plan seems to be for Sweetie to try to get a job with a government contractor and see if that can be parlayed into a permanent government job, which might be a bit more secure than the private sector. Northrop Grummman has something interesting in flight training/simulators. If he doesn't get any nibbles by mid-week, then he'll go back to the SC job, which is still open. They told him to get back in touch if CO didn't work out. (He scored higher on their test than anyone ever had before.)

Of course, I'm not keen on Charleston, either, but (providing we live as far out as feasible), it measures up far better than Tempe. I lived in San Angelo, Texas, for 15 months, it was somewhat milder than Tempe (July ave "only" 95 as opposed to 105), and I didn't like the summers at all. One of the major deciding factors of the CO job over Charleston was the much more favorable climate.

We'll see what happens with the eight resumes Sweetie sent yesterday. We do have a little time--as noted, we think we have at least until September 1. So, for the momnent, we wait.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002

For what it's worth, OG, I've been seeing IT folks transferred out of CO by the dozens, and a number end up here. One of the good/bad things is that Cols has been picking up more foreign companies and a lot of .gov work, so our local economy is still somewhat stable, in spite of the recent Lucent and MCI layoffs.

I don't know if this is happening because our esteemed Gov Taft is a better boot licker than he lets on but the contract .gov work is continuing to roll in.

Charleston is not nearly as wild and wonderful as CO by a long shot, but I think there are aspects of the culture that you would enjoy. As a whole, it is still more laid-back and more like Raleigh than Columbus or Pittsburgh.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002

We'll just wait and see what this week brings and go from there.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002

Gov. Taft's wife, Julia, is the best government appointee I ever met. (She headed AID's disaster relief effort under Reagan and Bush Senior). Disaster Relief was one of my clients at AID.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002

OG, FWIW, Sweetie's plan to try to get on with the government is probably a good one. At least it would be difficult to fire him :)

I know I had thoughts along the same lines when I considered going back into IT work, but I just can't get enthused about IT work again after being away from it for the past 6 months, so maybe not.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002

As most of you know, the Charleston firm is still interested and will be sending him an offer letter in the next few days. I guess I just can't shake off the oppressive heat and mosquitoes. But if I can persuade Sweetie to go for a house with a pool, well, that will help.

So I said to Sweetie, I've decided a hurricane and a job are worth more than a forest fire and no job. And he said I'll take your hurricane and raise you one cholera epidemic. He thinks he's SO funny.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2002