Interesting Twist

I know that I touched on this yesterday, but I have had some more news develop about my current place of employment. Here goes.

Yesterday morning, while I was busy getting ready for surgeries, my boss and a man were talking in the waiting area. I realized quickly that the man was not a client, but either a salesman or a veterinarian. My boss gave him a tour of the clinic, and the part that sent off warning sirens in my head was the fact that my boss never even thought of introducing me to the man. This is very, very strange, because my boss is a very outgoing and friendly man, and has always introduced me to people, especially other vets. Not this time.

I asked my kennel helper who the man was, and he said, "He's is a veterinarian."

At that, I knew that my job was on the line, but the nail in the coffin would be found out later.

Let me first state that my beef with my boss is that he promised to pay me certain benefits. I email him 2-3 times and wrote him a letter and the message in all of these was the same: my benefits package. I had to write so many letters because he refused to even have the common courtesy to give me ANY kind of response!

After these continual efforts on my part to establish my benefits package, which we has already agreed upon about 1.5 years ago, I decided to tell him that I needed to work for him on a part time basis. I took a $17,000 pay cut to work for him, and I explained that I'm losing $ because of him not paying me what we had agreed upon. I also might add, that in every letter that I wrote him, I stated that the benefits that I was asking for - which we had already agreed upon- were not asking too much. In fact, they were the bare bones minimum for a full time veterinarian.

We talked about my going to part time 3 times. The first 2 he told me that he wanted me to work Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Fine with me. Then the last time that we talked about it, he stated that, "We'll have to see about Saturdays."

I thought, "Good, he's finally making a smart decision and close the clinic down on Saturdays." I thought that because we are getting killed on Saturdays. We continually lose money then. He will especially lose money on Saturdays paying part time wages to a veterinarian.

Also, I'm scheduled to start working part time on Monday, October 15th. This will become important soon.

So back to yesterday. That afternoon, around 3:00 P.M., my boss told me that I needed to have my office cleaned out. My immediate thought was, "Holy cow, he's gonna can me."

I asked him, "What do you mean?"

He replied, "I need you to get all of the dog stuff (a bed and a child gate for the door, and a water bowl) and other things out of there because the next two Saturday, October 20th and the 27th, I have a relief vet coming in and she will need your office."

I almost blew a gasket. This information, combined with the fact that I knew he was pissed at me all day long, led me to the following conclusion. I'm about to be kicked out of here after the end of this month.

Unbelievable! I have almost single-handily built the business of this clinic. Now don't think that I'm out of line when I say this. I've worked 5 out of the 6 days of the week, each and every week, with 2 exceptions. I busted my arse to get the computer programs up and running and enter ALL of the prices in. In fact, I got this entire clinic up and running. And that's not an exaggeration. Every piece of equipment that is in this clinic, I got up and running. I got the bugs out.

But now I sound like I'm being...um...a brat. I'm just trying to explain how hard I've worked building this business up. My boss, has worked hard too, but he is only here 3 days a week, and 2 of those days, I'm here too. On the days that I'm here, he makes me see most of the patients. I put my heart and soul into this business. Such a tragic set of circumstances.

I'm pretty upset because he has gone behind my back and has someone else working on the Saturdays. There is one other detail that I must include...the plot thickens.

We have a calender that shows the vets schedule. It shows who is working what days, and when one of us will be gone. As I stated before, I will be working part time for him starting this Monday. After telling me to "clear my office out" and that "the relief vet will need my office," he shows me the calender. I see that she (the relief vet) will be working the next 2 Saturdays. I also see that for the rest of the month, every Tuesday and Wednesday has "Dr. Wood to work, or Relief Vet." So basically, he's gonna try to hire someone else to work those days, instead of me. He will pay the same amount for a completely new person to do that.

So to sum up, he said that he couldn't pay me the benefits that I wanted and we agreed on, but he can shell out about twice the amount that I'm getting paid, for part time vets to work the same days that I have been. He will pay DOUBLE because he's to in the clouds to realize that the approximately $300/month in benefits that should be paid to me is much less that paying twice my salary to other vets.

Hmmmmm. Something doesn't' add up here.

It boils down to this. He's pissed at me. Pissed that I want to go to part time work. So instead of doing the right thing for the business and have me working 2-4 days relief, he's gonna kick my booty out of here by the end of the month. I really think, and I'm about 95% sure on this, that he is going to try to hire the relief vet that will work these next 2 Saturdays.

So now I have to stay one step ahead of him. I think that I'm gonna tell him that I'll work through October, and then leave. That way I have about 2 weeks to find work to make up for what I was planning on working for him in November.

Another interesting proposition that Annie told me, was that I could start up my own mobile practice. I am seriously mulling it over as we speak. The major advantage of it would be the extremely low overhead (a vehicle, employee(s), drugs and vaccines, and other assorted supplies). That's it. Very little risk would be involved, and I figure that about $1,000 would get me up and running pretty quick. Plus, Annie said that she would help me by being my receptionist/tech, so my payroll would be pretty minimal.

Whatcha think about them apples?

Keep on keepin' on.