Looooong Vent--dh and work

Avatar for comountainsprite
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Looooong Vent--dh and work
2
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 2:30pm
Sorry for venting here with you ladies but I’m hoping that if I get it out of my system, I’ll keep from making dh feel worse. First, the background. Dh is technically employed by an outside company (for simplicity’s sake, we’ll call them Inc.) that contracts with a property management firm for the buildings he is responsible for as the sole building engineer, 300,000 sq ft of commercial property. As such, he gets paid by Inc. but day to day reports to the president of the property management firm. For the past two years, he’s been the only thing that kept Inc.’s contract because they haven’t done anything and in fact committed numerous blunders. The man he thinks of as his boss (the property manager) has told him on many occasions that if he wants to go to work for another company they work with on some of their other properties,that he would like to cancel the contract with Inc. And when the contract was up for renewal in May, it was dh’s influence that kept the contract ($160,000 contract BTW). Last year, the property manager signed off and a huge increase in the contract amount but in doing so, insisted that dh get a $2/hr raise since he’d recently taken over the extra building, not to mention is doing a chief engineer’s job description. Inc, gave him a .50 raise/hr and basically told him that was all their international human resources could give him. His former Inc supervisor who was basically not someone he communicated with on a regular basis at all (they’ve basically left him out there as a one man show) indicated that he’d maxed out his job title in terms of pay. Now he has a new Inc supervisor who wants to “bring him back into the fold” put him through a lengthy review, is asking him to submit a new set of monthly reports beyond what he already prepares for the property management group, missed 3 appointments for the stupid review in the first place because she just forgot and then was late to the 2 she actually kept, and is tap dancing about “Well, our company just doesn’t work that way” in terms of what the property management firm—her customer—wants and has paid for in terms of dh’s wage. And he found out today that indeed she did readjust the dates of the contract to renew Jan 1st but in doing so, made it Jan 1st of 2006. So, what all that means is that Inc who is supposed to be this internationally reknowned company, has told dh that he has no chance even for a cost of living increase in wage. And his new Inc supervisor hasn’t given any acknowledgement to his request that they look at a promotion in terms of job title to accommodate the customer’s wishes. So in the past month she’s made him jump through all kinds of hoops that didn’t benefit him at all. The review’s sole purpose was her having paperwork to make it look like she was doing her job since his last supervisor who was promoted to a higher job in the company, didn’t do a bunch of pushing paperwork with regard to dh. Oh and I should mention, he had a chance to apply for a higher paying job with in Inc but his Inc supervisor took a month to return a phone call regarding what the wage scale on the other job would be so it was already filled by the time he could evaluate whether he should apply or not—it wasn’t listed in the job posting she’d sent him. It just pisses me off to no end!!!

He works his butt off, is far more qualified than the other building engineers Inc has working for him in this area, the new Inc supervisor even acknowledged that she knows dh is the only reason they even still have the contract, and yet there messing him around in terms of acknowledging his contribution. The whole reason the property manager wanted him to get that kind of raise is that he knows the quality of dh’s work for the past 2 ½ years, knows his credentials, and is afraid another company is going to come along and offer him more money and he’s going to jump ship. A real fear at this point. Mostly I’m just really frustrated because it looks like dh will either have to look for another job, or tell the property manager that he would prefer to work for another company if they want to get out of the existing contract (there is a 30 day out clause if either party is unsatisfied with the contract and since the property manager once again this month put it in writing to Inc that dh should be compensated at a higher wage scale would qualify.) Either way it’s a lot of extra drama and just ticks me off. And of course, it makes me madder because we have the new mortgage that is more than our rent was before and because dh works so hard and it hurts me that he’s not rewarded for his hard work. Okay, I’m done now. Thanks for letting me vent. Obviously it’s not something I can do a thing about but sometimes you just have to get it out and I don’t want to voice my frustration any more to dh because he obviously already feels pretty bad about it himself.

Avatar for cl_tcranky1
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Fri, 08-06-2004 - 10:15pm

Hey there


You know by now you're welcome to vent anytime.

Avatar for comountainsprite
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 4:03pm
Thanks. The redecorating/remodeling is going slowly but I'm sure we'll get there. Hopefully we'll finally get the trellis up today and the hallway carpetted next weekend. Dh got a good sized remnant from one of his tenants that is the perfect color and size to carpet our hallway. We just need to get the padding and tack strip. As for the bathroom . . . We've tentatively "scheduled" the beginning of that project for mid Sept but I'm kind of feeling like I'll believe it when I see it. I think, as tends to happen, that dh is dreading the work (as am I) and kind of settling in to getting used to the bathroom as is. So, I'll be really happy if it even happens before next year. He'd protest but I know how we've put off just puting up the trellis and that's only a couple hour project. Oh well, we'll see. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. As you can tell, I'm sure, I'm kind of in an emotional week so perhaps my perspective will be different next week.