SecondCo got some checks in the mail this afternoon, so we transferred the money over to the main company to cover the payroll next week.
Of course, this completely cleaned out SecondCo, so it will have to take money back for ITS next payroll.
This juggling money between companies does not strike me as sustainable. It’s like we’re using one credit card to pay off another.
My paycheck will be late next week. Boss moved all the money out of Co. 1 to make payroll for Co. 2 this week, and will be out of town at least until Monday night so won’t be available to put cash in before our payroll.
We’re going to use what little cash we have to pay the payroll girls, as they’re all living paycheck-to-paycheck and can’t afford a late one. Fortunately, thanks to Alpha Geek’s new job, we’re almost back to living on last month’s income per Rule Four of the YNAB budget method, so we won’t be in a crisis if mine is a few days late. (And Freda works because she got bored being retired, so it won’t hurt her either.)
I’ve interviewed at two different companies this week. I mentioned the payroll issue to Alpha Geek, and wouldn’t it be wonderful timing if, the first time we missed payroll, I immediately gave two weeks’ notice?
Alpha Geek thinks I should do that regardless of whether I have a new job lined up.
This seems to be the year for it. Several of my online friends have moved to new jobs; I’m hoping to follow soon. With any luck, it’ll happen before my own job starts coming up short on payroll—which is a real possibility, and I wish I didn’t know how close we’ve come the last few months.
Boss has put an ad in for a part-time bookkeeper to take over the stuff I’ve been doing for SecondCo. I’m not sure why, my guess is that he’s trying to separate the companies so he can sell one. The other guess would be that he wants someone he can get cheap to do the job I’ve been doing for more money, but that wouldn’t work because then he’ll be paying two people instead of one—and the second one will be paid out of SecondCo’s profits, of which there aren’t much. So I don’t know what’s going on with that, but I don’t ask because I don’t really care and I’m just looking for an exit.
The place is struggling, I tell ya. Around October-November last year the entire payroll side of things quit, one after another, so at this point our entire payroll staff is new, untrained, and inexperienced. One of the girls who quit went off and started her own little payroll business, and has been poaching the clients she used to serve while working here, so we’ve lost eight or ten in the last few months. And one of the girls hired to replace the lost staff was a stone-cold moron, and was let go after a couple of months. We’re still undoing the fuck-ups she managed to do while she was here.
Overall I have the sense that the whole company is just limping along, and won’t be here a year from now. Hopefully I’m wrong. Even more hopefully, I won’t be around to find out.