An excerpt from my last conversation with my former boss.
Me: So did you have a chance to look over my bids for the west apartment at 209?
Boss: Yes. Um. I cannot afford this.
Me: I went as cheap as I can. We're at the point where it's an even trade-off. I can save you money on materials, but the cost of labor will rise if I build you cabinets from scratch. You see?
Boss: My tenants aren't paying their rent. All this week I've had Jack doing eviction and cleaning.
Me: You told me you wanted this building done. You had money set aside for it. Remember that?
Boss: ...
Me: And the work I've done so far?
Boss: ...
Me: Well, ma'am, pay me when you get the money and we'll go from there, then.
Boss: But the city is coming to inspect in a week!
Me, laughing: I can't rebuild your kitchen with no materials.
Boss: ...
Me: Call me when you have money again.
So now I'm stocking shelves at a grocery store overnights. Less money, but less nonsense to put up with
How're the sleep patterns working out? Doing nights can be a bitch.
Also my sympathies. If I didn't have tuition fees/live in this city, I would quit this job in a heartbeat, for similar reasons.
Im starting to settle into the groove. The first few days are the hardest.
Kind of a shame, though. If I had been in that lady's shoes, I would have spent the money to fix the building up right and sold it ten years ago before slum lords like her turned the neighborhood into a ghetto. That place could be beautiful. But now no one would pay enough to make it worthwhile, and even fixed to bare minimum, the rent will still have to be absurdly low to induce people to live in Little Haiti.
Oh well. Not my problem anymore. It's left to the sort of people my former boss typically has working for her - drunks, incompetents and novices. Poor building.
WHY CAN'T YOU JUST WORK WITH NOTHING AND MAKE EVERYTHING TO CODE BY BUYING MATERIALS OUT OF YOUR OWN POCKET? I WILL TOTALLY FOR REAL PAY YOU SOMEDAY.
I trust you slapped him with a lien, right?
She is honest, after a fashion. I don't doubt that she'll square things with me. Eventually.
Problem with a lien is she'll never sell the property.
But for now, until we're square, I have a place to a.) dump the stuff that I find that I can't either resell or sell for scrap and b.) throw wild parties.
Mostly kidding about b.) though. There's a nice Haitian family living in the one habitable apartment in the place and I can't in good conscience expose them to that level of weird.