Frustrated

[Guest]

I have a boss who is a shark. That's ok, that's what he's supposed to be, he owns his own business and needs to be competative. Here's the problem, he's such a shark, that everyone who ever worked for him for any length of time has left on bad terms and taken revenge to the point of almost bankrupting him several times. This last time the bookkeeper put him in the hole by $60,000 and didn't tell him she had not paid the govt for over a year. Ya, there has been lots of fun in the last three months since the big boys walked in. My position was only two days a week so the boss and his quirks didn't really afffect me so I agreed to take the extra hours at a pay raise of $10.50/hour when the other girl was let go. An indpendent bookkeeper was hired.

 

So here's my problem, I have a new small home business of my own which he has always known about and encouraged. I've always kept my clients out of the store because of conflict of interest but because I'm now working full-time my hours are limited, so my boss told me if I needed to have the occational client drop something off that would be fine until we hire a second clerk and I would have more days off a week to tend to my own clients.

 

Guess what happened? No he did not go nuts on me when my client dropped something off, it was when I wasn't there....so....he stole my client then pretended to be sorry when I got back. My boss takes home $150,000/year. This client represented $1000/year repeat business to me, but only a one time profit of $700 to my boss. Here's the thing.....I've told my boss that I am not happy about this and that I can't work in the store if this is going to continue. He told me he owns the store, that he can do anything he wants and that I have no right to speak to him about this any more - end of story.

 

So, I tendered my resignation. Frankly he was shocked and confused. He thought full-time at $10.50 would be enough for me to swallow my pride and say nothing. I told him to do the math, that 10 or more clients like that would take some time to get but that it would happen and that if there is to be trust between us he must respect my business and leave my clients alone if they happen to come in to see me specifically.

 

I also told him he had no right to tell me I was not allowed to speak because I was speaking as a business owner, not a clerk - I was speaking to someone who had taken a client of mine, yet still expected to work on good terms with me as their employee. I told him he had unrealistic expectations. The told me not to threaten him. I told him it was not a threat, it was a reality, if he did not keep his hands off my clients, I would not work with him.

 

So here's the thing, the actual job I like, and he likes how I do it so his actions put us both in a precarious position. He's getting ready for retirement so a combination of both our businesses in the future is not unrealistic once he gets to the point of wanting to sell.

 

But, I am not quite trained enough to fully run/own a small store myself. He also doesn't really want to loose the person he may sell the business to and the person that the clients like. But, sadly I realize he is the peverbial scorpion and unable to control himself. He knew what he was doing was going to destroy our relationship, but he did it anyways for the enjoyment of the kill. Was it personal against me? No, he's just addicted to winning at all costs and that's what has got him into such trouble with his other employees. Shame.

 

I expect we will argue again on tuesday and that I will quit or he will fire me. I just don't see this scorpion agreeing to leave my clients alone. I'm happy to keep them out of the store, and have always put his clients first when I work there (which is why I have community respect), but I doubt if he will reciprocte because he will see the whole event as a loosing a fight which he simply won't do.

 

Just had to vent,

Thanks for listening, sign me frustrated.