The Workplace

It’s me, the Angry Nice Guy again. Is it me or does it seem like the workplace is one of the favorite places where people take advantage of the Nice Guy? I mentioned it previously in my first ANG blog. In fact I am going back to that job tomorrow with a back brace. My wife works for a place for 25 years and gets a pension and a 401k, I get a back brace. I am not bitter I just made the wrong job choice. But, back to the workplace and another Nice Guy debacle. 23 years ago, had my own little landscaping company with about 30 customers. One of my customers was a rich guy with a 3.5 million dollar estate. I worked for this guy for three years. Wrote up a contract and did everything from fall and spring cleanup to cleaning his woods of winter debris. I even redid all of his mulch beds, got rid of the aluminum edging and installed the large king size plastic edging. I would spend weeks there with three employees that were my friends. The third year we were doing about the same thing. This time we had to rent a chipper for two days to get rid of all of the fallen debris over the winter. After the contracted work was completed he indicated that he had some mulch beds that he wanted to get rid of and create more lawn. Well this was not too difficult and we were already on the job site so we continued and stayed there for another three weeks. We brought in loam and brought in sod. Everything went fine and the job looked good. We had to do some extra work because it was summer and we lost some of the sod. I finally packed up at the end of the job and was waiting for my check, I got one but it was way short of what I was owed. Short by the amount that was not in the contract by some strange reason. As rich as this guy was he stiffed me out of $13,000. I owed my workers money and now it had to come out of my own pocket. I tried to sue for the money but he showed up with seven attorneys and said he was going to file a countersuit. My lawyer was a good friend and he said that the judges at this time were siding more with the home owners than the contractors and the in this case we were outmanned. Discretion was the better part of valor was how he put it. So, I continued to work other jobs alone so that I could pay back the money I owed to my friends because after all, I am such a Nice Guy. They said that I didn’t have to, they are Nice Guys too. In all I was out $13k but I still had my friends. The unfortunate part was I was in the process of buying a house at the time and it made things very difficult. My only solace was that I grabbed some nice seedlings under some of his mature shrubs and got some nice plants out of the deal.

I did see him some years later and time has not treated him well. He was an advisor for a large bank which went under and it looks like it took him with it.

Beware of the work place, it seems to put targets on the back of the Nice Guy, even if you own the business.

If there are any other workplace please share them in a comment. I will read them while enjoying a cold beverage and it will become a bonding experience.