Monday, October 24, 2005

[Work] I'm Not Making This Up

For those of you whose jobs are not as ... interesting as mine, here is a conversation from my workplace (abridged):
My Supervisor: Phoenix-sensei, we're sorry we forgot to pay you last week. Maybe you'll get paid today!
Me: (thinking "Maybe? It's 5 Days overdue. I'm close to living on 'hurricane chow' my predecessor left me... yeah, MAYBE they'll pay my contractually agreed upon salary, and MAYBE I can eat tonight and MAYBE I can buy some heating oil...") Yeah, that would be nice.
My Supervisor: Also, we're going to have a LOT of English tests to mark. Do you mind staying late after work to help?
Me: ...
To recap:
  1. They're not paying me, AND
  2. They're asking me to work unpaid overtime.
Of course, "unpaid" is redundant...

UPDATE: Swung by the bank on my way home from work today (and left work actually AT 4:15PM, because hey, if you're not going to pay me...well, I'll do the job you're not paying me for, but no extra!) and THERE WAS MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT! And I looked upon the money. And it was GOOD.

"There's a monster in my pants, and it does a HAPPY dance...

4 comments:

  1. Well, at least you can take comfort in knowing that your employer is not the only educational institution to occasionally not pay an employee.

    The last payday we had here (Oct. 7, because the 10th was Columbus Day, which we didn't have off but was apparently a bank holiday), I got paid for my part-time work for Sept 16-20 (the first day of the pay period to the day before classes started). I did not, however, receive my pay as a graduate assistant from Sept. 21-30. Took them a week to get me that money. Why? I dunno. Something about someone "waiting for the official word" before sending my payroll action form through or something.

    Fortunately for me, though, I spotted it the day I got my paystub (the day before payday), talked to Margo that afternoon, and was told a couple hours later when exactly I would get my money.

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  2. You know you're always welcome to share my food and heating if you ever get caught short again!

    Love your fellow Asahi gaijin.

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  3. PS How are your "Goals for Japan" going? Surely you can tick a few off now?

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  4. Lewis! Actually, it hadn't even occurred to me to ask for help.

    I guess I was having too much fun, shivering and hungry and complaining. ^_^

    My "Goals for Japan"! I had forgotten all about them! I'm not sure I have any to tick off, but I'll check. Thanks for the reminder.

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