Cranky
In all the time I've written this blog, I haven't done a "let me vent about my job" post yet. It's time.
I am a professional wordsmith (freelance editor), which means that what I do for a living is fix other people's bad writing. And believe me, there is a lot of bad writing out there. Mostly this just annoys me, but when I have an opportunity to get paid for fixing it, then I don't mind it so much.
Being a freelancer has its ups and downs. I get to work from home and set my own hours, but I don't get any paid benefits. My current client is the online publisher ABC (who, a few years ago, bought the online publisher XYZ, for which I was the in-house copyeditor a few years before that). I do the work, I send them invoices, and they pay me thirty days (their terms, not mine) after I invoice them.
Unless we're talking about my most recent invoice, which was paid a whopping three weeks late. I invoice at the beginning of the month, so I should have been paid on 1 September, but I very generously waited until 5 September (Tuesday) to ask about my missing paycheck. "Oh, it's probably delayed because of the holiday weekend," I was told. "If you don't have it by Friday, let me know." Excuse me? If I don't have it by one week after I was supposed to get it, I should let you know? Ahem. Okay, I let that one slide. I even let it slide through the next weekend. On Monday the 11th I asked, "Where's my paycheck?" and was told, "I just asked about it." No more news was forthcoming, so I sent another query on Wednesday the 13th and was told the next day that:
[here is where it gets good]
*blinks*
As you can imagine, I was less than thrilled by the prospect of waiting another ten days for a paycheck that was already two weeks late. So I requested that it be sent to me by FedEx or another overnight courier. No response.
Well, the check finally did arrive--last night. Yes, the check that I should have had at the beginning of the month, that then was supposed to be sent out on Friday the 15th (according to the quote above), was actually cut on Monday the 18th and mailed on Tuesday the 19th. Needless to say, the first thing I did this morning was scamper to the bank and deposit that sucker.
When I spoke with my contact/handler at ABC this afternoon (we have a weekly "touch base" phone chat), I expressed my dissatisfaction about this whole thing and asked for some reassurance that this was a one-time snafu that wouldn't happpen again. The reply: "I will certainly do whatever I can to get a late pacycheck to you, but I can't guarantee that anything will happen." Gosh, that certainly inspires confidence, doesn't it? So when your late payment of my invoice causes me to be unable to meet my financial obligations, would you write an excuse note for me to give to, say, my mortgage company? Thanks.
I am a professional wordsmith (freelance editor), which means that what I do for a living is fix other people's bad writing. And believe me, there is a lot of bad writing out there. Mostly this just annoys me, but when I have an opportunity to get paid for fixing it, then I don't mind it so much.
Being a freelancer has its ups and downs. I get to work from home and set my own hours, but I don't get any paid benefits. My current client is the online publisher ABC (who, a few years ago, bought the online publisher XYZ, for which I was the in-house copyeditor a few years before that). I do the work, I send them invoices, and they pay me thirty days (their terms, not mine) after I invoice them.
Unless we're talking about my most recent invoice, which was paid a whopping three weeks late. I invoice at the beginning of the month, so I should have been paid on 1 September, but I very generously waited until 5 September (Tuesday) to ask about my missing paycheck. "Oh, it's probably delayed because of the holiday weekend," I was told. "If you don't have it by Friday, let me know." Excuse me? If I don't have it by one week after I was supposed to get it, I should let you know? Ahem. Okay, I let that one slide. I even let it slide through the next weekend. On Monday the 11th I asked, "Where's my paycheck?" and was told, "I just asked about it." No more news was forthcoming, so I sent another query on Wednesday the 13th and was told the next day that:
[here is where it gets good]
The word from the payroll department is that the invoice was fumbled, and the check will be sent out tomorrow. One of the key people in the chain between me and payroll was out of the country the week of August 2, and apparently the interim setup dropped your invoice.
My apologies. The check is being sent from [the West Coast], so I would guess that you'll have it within 10 days.
*blinks*
As you can imagine, I was less than thrilled by the prospect of waiting another ten days for a paycheck that was already two weeks late. So I requested that it be sent to me by FedEx or another overnight courier. No response.
Well, the check finally did arrive--last night. Yes, the check that I should have had at the beginning of the month, that then was supposed to be sent out on Friday the 15th (according to the quote above), was actually cut on Monday the 18th and mailed on Tuesday the 19th. Needless to say, the first thing I did this morning was scamper to the bank and deposit that sucker.
When I spoke with my contact/handler at ABC this afternoon (we have a weekly "touch base" phone chat), I expressed my dissatisfaction about this whole thing and asked for some reassurance that this was a one-time snafu that wouldn't happpen again. The reply: "I will certainly do whatever I can to get a late pacycheck to you, but I can't guarantee that anything will happen." Gosh, that certainly inspires confidence, doesn't it? So when your late payment of my invoice causes me to be unable to meet my financial obligations, would you write an excuse note for me to give to, say, my mortgage company? Thanks.
4 Comments:
Yeah, that sucks and is certainly unexcusable. I don't blame ya for being "cranky".
Thanks! Hopefully, this won't happen again. I didn't mention in my post that one factor contributing to my crankiness was that I've been through this before: XYZ (the company that was bought by my client, ABC) went through some fairly intense financial insolvency that included my not getting paid for two whole months (and that was when I worked in-house as a regular employee). So yeah, I guess I am a little concerned when the money comes in late now!
Well, I propose that you accidentally (on purpose) delay your next editing project that you complete for them. You can say "I don't know what happened! I'll have a discussion with my hard drive and printer and get back to you!"
I like Gina's comment. See how they like their excuse when it is turned around on them. lol
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