Okay, so to give y'all a little background...I moved to TX 4 years ago specifically to work for this family owned business my "friend's" family owned. Was told I'd get my salary (which was decent) plus quarterly bonuses and commissions. The job was as an Account Manager for a major national account that they have had for years but they were expanding their product offering and wanted me aboard. So, I move my wife and 3 kids out to TX from South Florida.
Come to find out once I am into the job, that they had had 2 or 3 other people try to do the job they gave me and the longest any lasted was 2 months. One lasted less than a week, the other 3 weeks. The job was kind of high stress and requires a certain personality type - mine. I don't get too stressed out about anything. My philosophy when hit with a "crisis," Ask, "Did anyone die? Did anyone get hurt? No, then it's just an opportunity to get better for next time. Let's learn from this and move on." Problem is, the company was always run in panic mode due a lack of planning and/or organization. I fixed that problem for my customer and tried to get others to do the same for theirs.
Fast forward, 2 years - no bonuses and no commissions. Had to sell my house to avoid a foreclosure that I could see coming if things did not change. Figured, okay that was my fault for over buying a house that I should not have based on my salary. Work continues to go well, I have almost 100% rating from my customer and the Bosses never have to worry about my account. Which should be a good thing to be rewarded but I have learned that there are people at the company that have not seen a raise in 6-8 years despite their managers trying to get them for their employees.
Next thing you know, the "company" buys a Brand New Lear F'n Jet!!! I say, things must be going good, time to ask for a raise. Instead, I get the "economy is week and we are not giving raises" excuse.
In the meantime, my financial picture is not getting any better. I have a mountain of debt that was accumulated when I had the over-sized mortgage due to health reasons and bad planning. I am sinking. Try to dig ourselves out of debt by starting to work on other people's cars. Re-access after a year and I had only paid down our debt by about 5%. Realize, bankruptcy is probably my only option. Reluctantly, we file for Bankruptcy. Opt for Chapter 13 so that we can pay back some of the debt and keep the house and car. Tell my bosses about it...insert crickets chirping here...
Decide to change tactics and instead of asking for a raise, I tell them point blank, "I am tired of being broke. I need to make more money. I understand that in order for me to make more money, you need to make more as well. What can we do to make that happen?" Again...insert crickets chirping here...
2 weeks ago, we have something happen at the plant and I felt that my customer had a right to know as it would affect their work. I was told under no circumstances was I allowed to tell the customer what happened. Now, I have spent the last 4 years building up a trusting relationship with the customer and I really struggled with having to lie to them. I took a step back and said "Since I have moved out here, I have lost almost everything. I'll be damned if I'll loose the one thing I have left, my integrity." Tried to talk to them about my position and they would not even give me the time of day. So I tell them "I will not lie to our customer and they need to find someone that will. I plan on moving back to Florida" Again,...insert crickets chirping here...
After a week of the silent treatment, I get an email at 7:30pm that Friday. "Exit Plan" is the title. It starts, "I need to know when your last day is going to be. The sooner the better..."
SOOO, yesterday was my last day and am now going to work at my shop full-time until we can sell our house and move back to Florida! I plan on finishing as much of the restoration on my 70 R/T in the meantime and selling it to help fund our lives for a little while once we head back to Florida. I guess I'll have to start a WIW thread for that and get some color opinions as well...
Sorry for the long winded story but I kind of needed to get it off of my chest
