I have a quick question, can I legally refuse to work on a saturday due to plans made before being told I had to work?

Little back ground, I didnt sign a work agreement contract when I was hired so its all verbal and it has changed over time from working monday - saturday, 9 to 5 monday - friday and 9 to 3 saturday, to where I work on busy days 9 to 5 and during the middle of the months where its slow I work 1 to 5.

The reason for me asking this is I am doing this job till I can find something better, this job was fun and I loved it but my boss sucked the life out of it by screwing me every chance he could money wise. Now I am at the point that I dont want to even work on a saturday he wants me to work because like last week when I came in at 1pm as he wanted, he quickly left to go fill up water jugs for the house (dont know why they cant drink tap water its all the same crap) then he came back to the shop around 2:40pm dropped off two rolls of quarters and I noticed not only the 6 water jugs filled in the truck but also 25 bags of groceries as well. He said he was going home and he would drop that off and be right back. He left again at 2:40 pm and he didnt arrive back at work till 4:45pm and we close at 5pm. Now I understand as a boss he can do that, but from my view point since I am pulling the full load and not getting paid more I dont feel I should give up my saturday when he takes so much time off. Starting this week I am going to log the time he leaves and the time he gets back to keep record of how many hours he actually works and compare it to how many hours I work. I just know that my hours will be higher than his from how much running around he does.

I already know that he owes me around $18,000 in back pay considering he doesnt pay me min wage. I have that over his head but I just need to know if I have a way to get out of working on saturdays when he is now just using me and not compensating me justly. I have to go in this saturday cause he told me I had to since I opted out this past saturday due to 3 bday parties, and now since he put me on the spot I didnt realize I had my yearly family reunion that Ive never missed this coming up saturday and have to work. Then next saturday after that is the air show which I already have tickets to. I just know this is getting complicated as hell and as my gf knows I am getting stressed out over this bs.

I appologize for the long post and I know its wandering back and forth but hopefully its not too hard to understand.

 

Look at all of that as if you were me reading it, and make up what in your mind you would say to it.

THEN DO IT!


You don't need me to tell you what you know already.

IT AIN'T A REAL JOB

You need something better than that.

Yes, you ARE being screwed. Get something better.


~ BUT you already KNEW that...

I kind of wonder why you let a scumbag do that to you

If I tell you to get a real job, will you be mad at me?

 

Well I want to tell him to shove his saturday and that if he wants to take a saturday off to take it off.

My problem is I have a lot I could say to him between his constantly running away during business hours leaving me to fend for myself when 5+ customers come in, on to how he talks crap about me behind my back to customers, on to how he tells customers that he is a hard worker and this new generation is lazy all the while sitting on his lazy *** talking to the customer as I am standing doing the inspection on the 3 cars waiting for inspection.

Ive already told him off once and probably scared him when I told him I was one word away from leaving cause I was tired of his harrasment towards me always harrassing me telling me that with my mild case of ADD I need to get medicated cause medication worked great for him. Which is a joke considering the guy cant keep track of his keys or any keys. Customer hands him the keys to their car for inspection and by time he walks 10 feet from the car to the inspection machine hes asking me if he gave me the keys. But oh boy I needed to be medicated because I was looking away from the computer looking at the car and didnt hit enter the milisecond the continue screen came up.

All I know is my gf knows I am stressing out she wants me to get a new job cause I am getting screwed being payd below min wage and I know that, I am looking but dont want to say or do something to lose this job till I find a replacement.

I guess I could keep on the course I am on doing just $40 worth of work in an 8 hour day and give him a reason to fire me that isnt a legit legal reason then take him to court for wrongful termination. God knows I got so much dirt on him I could have him put in the big house as a felon due to all the illegal crap he has done or turned an eye to. Thank god I dont get involved with that nor do I do inspections on that. Every inspection I do is 100% legal and legit but some times I wonder if me knowing about the illegal actions he do would make me just as guilty or not. It probably does considering I know about it and havent reported it.

 

Sounds to me like time to find places that need your experience that are good places to work


~Everything you have complained about points to that

*I have to admit, I used to love overtime on weekends - provided they PAY IT

You need to bail on it anyway, if it's dirty

(BEEN THERE)

RULE OF: "DON'T GET ANY ON YOU"

 

Oh I agree, I was a fool for letting him talk me out of getting that interview with earl. My neighbor across the street told me he was looking for a service technican and that I could easily make $100,000 in a year.

Im thinking bout calling Earl up on monday and seeing if hes still looking for help, hell ill answer his phones and order parts for $100,000 a year like his previous guy was getting.



Oh this guy doesnt do over time. I worked 45 hours monday - saturday for the first three months working for this guy at $40 a day which turns out to $5 an hour monday - friday and $8 an hour on saturday.

 

You already know the best advice I could give you then.

You've been looking stuff up, and have a BETTER lined up.

Don't give a clue where you are (the place you are working) - if the better place comes just GO!!!

And never look back...


YOU DIDN'T NEED ME TO TELL YOU ALL THIS STUFF!
But you DID need someone to corroborate it.

Yeah - DO THAT.

Got "EARL'S" number?

 

One better than that, I know the name of his shop and where his shop is. Its pretty much right around the corner. Or I could ask my neighbor across the street who works for him as a towtruck driver if he can give me the number.

Nope probably didnt need anyone to tell me what I already knew. But it sure did help to put it out and can see it on paper though. Its too hard to try to talk to him to try and straighten this out cause he thinks its all a game I think. I told him that when we have a disagreement and I try to explain my side he comes up with "I agree with you on what ever you say", but he couldnt see that is actually a smartassed thing to say and that your not really agreeing but being condensending.

I mean ****, I hate to say bad bout him cause he is a good guy but god I just want to beat some sense into his head. Like dont tell people they need to be medicated cause your medicated and it works great but yet you cant keep track of keys that was put in your hand 2 minutes earlier.

Atleast I relish in the fact that I bit my tongue when he was helping customer even though what he was saying was so *** backwards not even a shade tree mechanic would offer that advice. Maybe I should buy his business and be the boss and he be the worker since I know more bout being professional infront of customers.

 

Sometimes, not always, the gf's right. Move on. Life's too short to get bitter.

 

First things first, it is a job. Be greatful to be employed in this time of high un-employment. Second Being a mechanic myself, It sounds like you get paid on a salary basis. If that is true, You have a legal gripe on your pay. It still has to meet the national minimum wage for hours worked. As for your Boss leaving you to run the shop, Take it as experiance for your future. He is the Boss ! Get over yourself when you start trying to keep track of his hours, The last thing you want to do is try to use ammo like that when requesting a payraise. He is the boss he can do as he pleases, Sorry but that is the purpose of being the Boss. $40 a day is a joke, you would make more than that at Jiffy Lube. Employers in our job field are looking for qualified technicians who are confident in their skills and are willing to complete task ask of them, without question. We all gripe about our jobs. If it was supposed to be fun it wouln't be called work. As for Earl's I wouldn't believe all of that is on the level either. No One pays $100,000 a year to answer phones and order parts. But if there is a way to get your foot in the door then go for it. You sound as though you are in the 20's age group. If so, slow down and enjoy life a little more, Do what you get paid to do and look for somethine better in your off time. Hang in there and ask for a raise and see if that would be something he is willing to discuss. If he is whatever you do don't turn it into a confrontation. You can learn just as much from a Bad Boss as you can from a Good Boss. Take all the good you can from your situation. It will make you a better employee and later in life maybe a better boss yourself. Good luck and I hope you find what makes you happy.

 

Yep, reason why I am trying to resolve this cause this stressing out is getting old considering Ive been stressing out since January of this year. Last year I didnt stress out much if any.

I am greatful that I got the job, but I am also ungreatful that he lied to me from the start when I was nothing but honest with him. He feels that I am too high dollar when I am a trained technican that just needed a year of work to be eligable for my ASE tests. Now that I am eligable I am awaiting the day I have time to go take the tests.

It is pretty much hourly based but he does give me alittle more on a busy day. If we have less than 10 inspections I get $40.00 if its 10 or more then I can get between $45 and $60 depending on just how busy. Some could say thats a volume based pay but I walk out of there with $40 reguardless for 8 hours of work if theres inspections or not. So that is an hourly pay in my book. I have also asked bout getting more money that this $40 a day isnt cutting it and he said that he cant afford that being a small low volume shop. I also asked him in January with this obama care that required employers to provide health insurance he said he wouldnt. I thought that if I could get that, I could drop the insurance I am paying for and my low pay wouldnt hurt me as bad.

In the end what I am doing now is just drawing the paycheck and doing what I am paid to do, inspect cars, till I get a job somewheres else.

I tend to avoid confrontations. I bite my tongue instead of speaking my mind. I know today I slipped up though, I knew last week he told me he had a dr`s appointment at 8:30am so if I could be at work before then, so I get there today at 8:15am. But at 7:55 some nut from a number I never seen before nor in this area code called me 4 times in 4 minutes. I didnt answer it cause I dont answer cell calls from area codes that is no wheres near here. Come to find out that was him apparently calling from his home number (I have his cell and his work number in my phone) and I didnt answer. He asked me when he came in at 9:45 pm why I didnt answer his call this morning, I said wait you called? cause I honestly didnt know that was his number. He then got puffy saying that not to worry that he wouldnt call me again trying for a confrontation. I let it slip saying, ok we are even then, cause I stopped calling you when work comes in cause you never answer and I hate telling customers that your not answering your cell and I dont know where or what you were doing and if they could come back in an hour or two. Customers got upset when I told them that, the up side to it is, it gave me experiance of breaking bad news to customers. Down side is it makes me out to be the bad person and I could be seen as bad mouthing him behind his back saying that I dont know where he is or what he is doing or telling them that he went to the bank at 9am and that he isnt back yet now at 1pm.

At all cost I bite my tongue and avoid talking to him bout stuff like that, but about pay raise I brought that up a couple times and he told me if business picked up he could afford to pay me more. Funny cause when I got the shop opened up this morning and did the paperwork I ended up seeing weve done 69 inspections from October 1 to October 6. That is a grand total of $2,742.75 money made in just 6 days, subtract the $800 for the book of stickers and the business made a profit of $1,942.75. I like to know why cant he afford to pay me more considering the shop made that in a business week.

 

Unfortunately there is more to it than that when it comes to profit made. Overhead is a major part of owning you own shop. You have rent or leases to pay for, Power, Water,Sewer, And that list goes on and on. But I am impressed with your ability to bite you lip and keep your cool. I lost that as the years of doing this have gone by. Where did you recieve your training? Some facilities qualify for verification for A.S.E. If not then hang in there. Remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Our job field has to keep a level head with customers because if you really think about it no one wants to spends hundreds, sometimes thousands on a repair they can't even understand the functions of what broke. Customers are always going to be in a bad mood for that reason if nothing else. Fall testing is upon us and hopefully one more and I get the gold colored Master tech Patch. Remember, This is your path to success. We have all had jobs that we will never look back on in a good way. But they all teach us to take it with a grain of salt, And a shot of tequilla. Lol. Keep your criminal record clean and your driving record clean and learn from everything you encounter. Success is just a matter of time.

 

Yep and the sad thing is he is renting two bays from the guy that is renting the whole shop. The guy who has been renting the whole shop for like 20 years is now doing photo porcelin and so he rented two of the five bays to my boss. Well my boss needs to stand up to his "friend" cause his friend has him paying 75% of the light bill because we have a dyno that is seldom used but yet his friend pays 25% of the bill and he has three electric kilns and a dinosaur of a a/c window unit that runs full blast all day long.

So I fully know he is getting shafted with fees and more fees. But I wouldnt be upset if he was honest with me up front. When I went into this I agreed to the job via verbal agreement for $10.00 an hour which would have been $80 a day and I didnt mind about no lunch I typically didnt eat lunch anyways during my school years. But I make half of that a day now and thats what burned me is that I didnt exactly agree to this.

But I didnt want to rock the boat and was greatful for the job cause $40 a day was $40 more than I had. But now with me paying $125 a month for health insurance, I told him that the $40 for 8 hours isnt going to cut it for me cause I cant get my account to build up like it was before I got the insurance. He said that he would love to pay me more but he cant not until business picks up.

In the end I think I did very good with how I have only "talked back" twice since I started working for him in June 2011. As far as the customers goes, I dont mind them they could be as ignorant as they come and I will still stand there for an hour explaining to them till they understand. That doesnt bother me, but now that sure does bother my boss cause he doesnt want me talking to customers if theres a new customer. I dont like telling a customer I am explaining something to that oh sorry I got to go take care of this have a nice day. Its just like how I dont bad mouth him or talk behind his back but he doesnt afford me the same courtesy. Like I told a friend of both of ours that comes in and sells whole sale products. I told him that while I might not like how he does things or acts it doesnt change the fact that I will not put him down infront of others or behind his back. I thought he was doing the same thing till a customer came in and said infront of me but you told me this are you calling me a liar. What he told him is when I started to lose respect for him. I mean if he has something to say tell it to my face dont go to the customers telling them bad mouthing me behind my back.

As far as my records goes, they are going to stay clean. Im fixing to mail out my FFL 03 so I can expand my gun collection when budget allows so I cant afford to get any felony marks on my records. That is why everything I do at work is by the book and is explained to the customer by the book.

There was this one ASM inspection the parking brake failed and I told him, he said to just run it through cause the owner of the car was a older guy. I walked over to the machine and got out of the inspection and told him as nice as I could if he wanted to over look the safety item to do it on his own inspector badge cause I will not pass a unsafe car nor put my name on a sticker applied to a unsafe car. While I need the job and the money I will not stoop to breaking the law just to keep making a few dollars. If he wants to do something illegal I dont want to know about it and I also dont want my card to be used.



As far as my training goes, I went to HCC from 07 - 09. Took all the automotive courses except for the transmission and the diesel classes. Those classes counted as 1 year of in field work experiance. Working since June 2011 for the guy I work for now afforded me another year so I can legally take the tests and get my certifications. Last year around November he told me he would reemburse me for the cost of those tests once I take them. I am thinking maybe if I can get him to do that maybe I can get the tests taken for free and then make a break for it. But maybe things will improve since we got our second machine up and running and we can do two inspections at one time.

 

It sounds to me like you got a pretty good head on your shoulders. The only advice I could give you from there is contact your state dept of labor and find out if there is anything that he is in violation of. You do not have to file a complaint to find out your rights. If he is violating the labor laws then there is groung to stand on for recovering the money he owes you for hours worked. But you seem to push through all the bad and keep a positive outlook and seek the good in the situation. Keep that drive and desire in your professional life and strive to put yourself in a better atmosphere. You have the ability to move into most garages on an entry level and make the kind of money you are supposed to be making where you are now. Just make this your stepping stone, My first was an aprenticeship where I got every **** job in the buisness for the bare minimum wage they would pay me but hey those are the jobs where you learn the most. Hang in there it will get better for you.

 

I don't know what the law is regarding verbal agreements. But you should let your boss know ahead of time when you make plans that could conflict with work.

Your main problem is letting your boss take advantage of you, not paying you the legal minimum wage. You can't let him get away with things like that.

 

I dont have much more to add that the others haven't already said. Lots of good advice given by them.

My two cents; it aint worth being stressed out over. I'm sure you can find something better and quickly.

And lastely, unless legally needed, never ever ever discuss any of your medical conditions with any of your coworkers or bosses. It is just asking for trouble.

Best of luck to ya! Hang in there until you find the job you want.