The names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent...from the assholes.
So, I'm minding my business Monday when I get a call from the companies PR guy (we'll call him PR Guy). He was at the offices of some organization we're a member of, and the woman there's computer died, "Inaccessable boot device". He wants me to walk him through fixing it, to which I respond that he's probably only make things worse, it needs to go to a tech. So, he wants to know of some reputable techs in the area that wont "screw her over", but I dont really know any (do everything myself, duh). So, he asks if I do anything on the side, and if I'm busy. Of course I do work on the side, I explain my rate to him, etc... Says he'll call me back.
About 5min later, I get a call from the women who owns the laptop, needs it by tomorrow no matter what, and wants me to do it. Again, I explain my rates and what I'm going to do, and she happily agrees so long as I have it for her tomorrow. Yay! Some extra $$$ for X-mas.
So, I go to lunch, get back to the office, and her laptop is sitting on my desk. I start packing it up, getting ready to bring it out to my car, when my boss (we'll call him Boss) comes into my office. PR Guy called Boss during lunch, asked him to get me to work on it during work. So, he takes the ass-kissing route, and orders me to start working on it. So, there goes my extra X-mas $$$, taken by 2 selfish brown-nosers who each make at least twice what I do. >
I end up working for 3hrs on company time just to recover the data, the drive itself is shot. We have no spares large enough, so I need to pick one up on the way home. Figure this way, I might be able to get at least a little bit out of this. After getting home, installing the new drive, loading Windows, all her software, restoring the data, etc...it runs me until midnight.
I get back in the morning, and head straight for the Boss' office to give him a piece of my mind. I tell him exactly what I did, what I was going to charge (which he commented was dirt cheap), that it was low to do that to me, and what he thinks I should do. He says charge her for my time at home, but it would be unethical to charge her for the time I was at work. So, it hits me, and I tell him fine, I'm taking 3hrs of from yesterday, because I'm not loosing the extra I would have made for my measly work pay. He thinks about it for a minute, apologises to me for burning me like that, and agrees.
I call the lady, tell her that her laptop is done, all data is safe, and what the damage is. She's so happy, she can hardly talk. She shows up, picks up her laptop and my full invoice, thanks me and says I'll probably be hearing from her soon. Yay! Once again, I'm getting paid!
Well, not so fast. PR Guy calls me this morning, pissed off about the elections, asking how much of my time was the companies time. Of course, I tell him none, but I'm sure this isn't the end of it, and that he's going to do whatever he can to get my time paid for by the company, at my normal pay.
There's just so many things here that piss me off. Both these guys easily make double what I do, and here I am, a single father of 2 girls. It's X-mas time, and that extra $$$ will make it much easier on me. Add to that the fact that PR Guy was worried about her "getting screwed", but was more than happy to screw me. And probably the biggest thing is that I had an agreement with this woman, and these 2 guys that I've helped on countless occations, both professionally and personally, go around me just to earn a couple brownie points. Oh well, guess I'll see what happens when PR Guy and Boss are both back in the office tomorrow.
So, I'm minding my business Monday when I get a call from the companies PR guy (we'll call him PR Guy). He was at the offices of some organization we're a member of, and the woman there's computer died, "Inaccessable boot device". He wants me to walk him through fixing it, to which I respond that he's probably only make things worse, it needs to go to a tech. So, he wants to know of some reputable techs in the area that wont "screw her over", but I dont really know any (do everything myself, duh). So, he asks if I do anything on the side, and if I'm busy. Of course I do work on the side, I explain my rate to him, etc... Says he'll call me back.
About 5min later, I get a call from the women who owns the laptop, needs it by tomorrow no matter what, and wants me to do it. Again, I explain my rates and what I'm going to do, and she happily agrees so long as I have it for her tomorrow. Yay! Some extra $$$ for X-mas.
So, I go to lunch, get back to the office, and her laptop is sitting on my desk. I start packing it up, getting ready to bring it out to my car, when my boss (we'll call him Boss) comes into my office. PR Guy called Boss during lunch, asked him to get me to work on it during work. So, he takes the ass-kissing route, and orders me to start working on it. So, there goes my extra X-mas $$$, taken by 2 selfish brown-nosers who each make at least twice what I do. >
I end up working for 3hrs on company time just to recover the data, the drive itself is shot. We have no spares large enough, so I need to pick one up on the way home. Figure this way, I might be able to get at least a little bit out of this. After getting home, installing the new drive, loading Windows, all her software, restoring the data, etc...it runs me until midnight.
I get back in the morning, and head straight for the Boss' office to give him a piece of my mind. I tell him exactly what I did, what I was going to charge (which he commented was dirt cheap), that it was low to do that to me, and what he thinks I should do. He says charge her for my time at home, but it would be unethical to charge her for the time I was at work. So, it hits me, and I tell him fine, I'm taking 3hrs of from yesterday, because I'm not loosing the extra I would have made for my measly work pay. He thinks about it for a minute, apologises to me for burning me like that, and agrees.
I call the lady, tell her that her laptop is done, all data is safe, and what the damage is. She's so happy, she can hardly talk. She shows up, picks up her laptop and my full invoice, thanks me and says I'll probably be hearing from her soon. Yay! Once again, I'm getting paid!
Well, not so fast. PR Guy calls me this morning, pissed off about the elections, asking how much of my time was the companies time. Of course, I tell him none, but I'm sure this isn't the end of it, and that he's going to do whatever he can to get my time paid for by the company, at my normal pay.
There's just so many things here that piss me off. Both these guys easily make double what I do, and here I am, a single father of 2 girls. It's X-mas time, and that extra $$$ will make it much easier on me. Add to that the fact that PR Guy was worried about her "getting screwed", but was more than happy to screw me. And probably the biggest thing is that I had an agreement with this woman, and these 2 guys that I've helped on countless occations, both professionally and personally, go around me just to earn a couple brownie points. Oh well, guess I'll see what happens when PR Guy and Boss are both back in the office tomorrow.
