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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Mum had another fall.
I went to bed at 10:30 which is late for me these days, said goodnight and she said she'd be going in 5 minutes, so I went to bed.
2:30 I wake up to hear her voice calling my name. She'd stayed up till 11:30 watching TV and by the time she fluffed around it was nearly midnight before she went to get in bed, and fell over. Once she's down, she doesn't have the strength to get back on her feet. So she called out to me, I'm out like a light at the other end of the house, so she crawls into the kitchen and calls out and I hear her, at 2:30. Fvck.
I get up groggy, stumble into the kitchen to find her lying on the floor. Picked her up and got her back in bed, sore but no physical damage thank christ.
Sat on the front porch having a couple of smokes at nearly 3am, no idea how I actually managed to go back to sleep.
So back on nursing duties today, she's more shaken up than anything. She has a GP appointment Thursday morning so I'm going into the consultation with her and asking for a referral to a falls clinic.
She's fine cognitively, had the annual Nurse check 2 weeks ago, it's just the body and balance that's failing. From the chair it's 4m to the toilet and 3m to the bed with no trip hazards.
Short term I'm going to need to take her with me when I go to toc, medium term NFI, but it looks like I won't be going out much for very long.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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think positive 
Side By Side
Joined: 30 Jun 2005
Location: somewhere
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im so sorry.
it may be time for assisted living soon sadly.
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You cant fix stupid, turns out you cant quarantine it either! |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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^
I had the same thought but not just yet. After talking to her about how she fell, she was in her room and tried to bend over to pick up a shoe but at the same time was trying not to put weight on her busted foot. Any fkn wonder she tipped over.
So today after I made her breakfast I gave her a pep talk. Reminded her that as recently as last week she was walking around the house without even using a stick and before she did her foot she could walk out to collect the paper and take rubbish to the bin without a stick, so there was no reason for her to fall over if she didn't do dumb things.
Got the GP tomorrow, get a referal to a falls clinic and I have a design in my head for something I can build that might just help her get herself vertical if she falls again and she's not too hurt.
Anyway, we'll see.
_________________
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Got up to Toc today and the front lawn is basically dead. The battery in the timer on the tap went flat.  Pumped some water into it today, new battery in the timer and reset everything. The 7 day forecast up here is, starting tomorrow, 35, 35, 36, 37, 40, 39 and 40.
Cool overnight, perfect weather, just need to get lots of water into the front and sides and mow the back.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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| David wrote: | | stui magpie wrote: | $1100. It's getting close to the point where you just write this off to experience and slander Uber Carshare on social media at every opportunity.
If you can't get legal aide, legal fees will cost you more than $1100. Because you've already paid the money (albeit they took it from you), you're basically Sisyphus carrying a bag of shit up the mountain instead of a rock |
Funnily enough, after I'd gotten to the point of pretty much giving up on ever seeing a cent of this, I got an email from the owner of the taxi company offering a settlement of $700. I think he must have gotten spooked because I mentioned to the Uber Car Share rep that I was exploring legal options.
Didn't have to think too long about saying yes to that. Sure, I'm still almost $500 down and that sucks given I shouldn't have had to pay anything – but it's better than nothing, and at least this is over and done with.
Transfer turned up in my account this evening (he said he sent it through yesterday, but I wouldn't trust this guy to tell me the time of day!), so that's that. Some money back and a hard lesson learned. |
Hopefully this won’t become the annual "David is about to get screwed over" thread, but here goes:
For the last four years I’ve been editing a film magazine for an educational nonprofit that does a bunch of stuff (resources for schools, etc.). It was a great job but I was always underpaid (basically $50k full time), and kind of accepted that for the love of the work and belief in the value of what I was doing. In August 2022 the old manager retired and a new guy came in, who pretty quickly discovered that the organisation’s finances were in worse shape than previously thought and that the magazine in particular was running at a loss.
In the past, the mag had been propped up by the nonprofit’s other activities, but in January last year they pretty swiftly decided to rationalise all departments and put the magazine on hiatus. Pretty sad, but understandable. So I got some volunteers in the Melbourne film community together, and, with my boss’s blessing, put together a campaign to save the mag that brought in around $15k – great, but still a long way short of what we needed. In the meantime, I was still employed to do a range of tasks and do everything I could to salvage the publication, although my hours were dropped to part-time before then being raised to full-time later in the second half of 2023. I got an e-newsletter up and running and kept working on the website in the hope that the publication could survive as an online-only thing. It was a tough year and I feel like I poured my all into it, but I ended up feeling pretty burnt out and like I hadn’t achieved much.
Finally, after exhausting every avenue, I was informed just before Christmas that the board had voted to make my position redundant as of mid Jan. However, even though I’d lose my formal employment and all my entitlements, I’d be offered a three-day contractor position (with a built-in mutual two-week notice clause) to keep the newsletter going and do some other work for the org. I was feeling pretty 50/50 about this and somewhat keen to move on after everything that had happened, but decided to say yes because I needed the money and thought I might be able to do some good in that role.
I lasted about a month until finally, in mid Feb, deciding to pull the pin – I realised this new position was just making me miserable, and that without the future of the magazine to work towards I just felt like I was stuck in limbo. So I gave my two weeks’ notice and was given a bunch of handover requirements which I worked to fulfil over the next fortnight, ultimately ticking everything off. On Monday last week, I filed my last fortnightly invoice (for $1500), did a few late nights putting the finishing touches on the handover and paid to ship my work computer off to my manager, for which I was promised I would be reimbursed ($225). I was expecting to at least get the invoice paid by today, as per the usual fortnightly cycle, so I can pay rent next week, and hadn’t heard any suggestion that it would be delayed.
Anyway, fast forward to Monday this week and I get an email from my former boss asking me to sign an "exit undertaking". Most of it’s pretty straightforward, just listing all the handover stuff I’ve already done, plus some common-sense stuff about not using the organisation’s resources for other purposes. But there’s one clause I’m not so keen on: it says that I can’t work with any of the magazine’s (pretty large) pool of freelance writers in a competing publication for the next twelve months. Apparently this kind of non-compete clause is "standard". Effectively, given the small pool of working Australian film critics and the fact that they take work anywhere they can get, this would effectively make me unemployable in my industry for the next twelve months (or else deprive them of much-needed work opportunities at anyplace I landed at). I went straight to the union for advice and got told what I already suspected, which is that I’m under no legal obligation to sign anything. I’m not eligible for any redundancy package and I never had anything like signing an exit agreement in an employment contract; they’ve essentially pulled this out of thin air.
So in some senses I was in a fairly safe position to just ignore them, or politely decline to sign. But they still had one thing over me, which is my final paycheque. I’ve spent the past few days quietly hoping that they would just pay me and then I can let the chips fall where they may on the exit agreement, but I realised this morning that my fears had come to pass: I hadn’t been paid. I texted my former boss, and surprise surprise: he said I’ll only be paid after I sign the form.
I’ve tried to get in contact with MEAA for much of this week so I can get some sound advice, but without much luck; the rep I spoke to earlier must be too busy or dealing with personal stuff as he hasn’t been responding to any of my emails and calls since Monday. Otherwise I’m not sure of my next step. I’m aware from experience last year that when the org was short of money they just wouldn’t pay freelancers’ invoices for months at a time, and I fear that, rather than outright refuse to pay me, they’ll just do the same here (even though the contract I signed in January stipulated that I would be paid fortnightly in arrears).
In reality, I hold a few cards here. The first is that I know a lot of people in the industry, and that if I went public on social media about how I’m being treated, that could affect the reputation of the organisation. The second is that I’m close with most of the staff (it’s a small team) and I know they’d be upset at what’s happening. Another is that it seems to me that what my former employer is doing constitutes adverse action and that I could probably take them to Fair Work or something. But I don’t actually want to go through any of that if I don’t have to, and more than anything I just want to be able to walk away with as much goodwill as possible. I suspect that if I show my hand in any way, they’ll just make life as difficult as possible for me and use every trick in the book to avoid paying much like the taxi company did last year, which was an unpleasant experience I’d really rather not repeat. My former boss has a nasty and vindictive streak, and little he could do would surprise me. So I still feel like I need to tread carefully.
If anyone has any advice, it’d be much appreciated!
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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You've been sodomised, again.
Did you get a redundancy payout when you stopped direct employment? There's a minimum redundancy payment in the Fair Work act but it doesn't apply for small business which have less than 15 staff.
Signing on as a sub....... Ok.
They can't withhold money owed on the condition you sign a non-compete clause, you're legally entitled to that money.
My advice is firstly, don't sign it. Getting one paycheck vs being unemployable for 12 months is a very poor deal.
refuse to sign and make it clear that you will take it further as they owe you money. You could try some of the ambulance chasing no win-no fee mobs, but they'd likely swallow all your payout.
You have 7 years to claim a back payment, so get all your paperwork in order so you can prove what you're owed, then get on with getting a new job as the first priority. Once you have an income and time to breathe you can turn your attention to getting the money back as a matter of principle.
_________________
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Thanks Stui. Yep, I wasn't eligible for that reason (fewer than fifteen employees). Fair's fair, not much I can do about that. At least they paid out my remaining annual leave, which was a pittance.
Have thought of contacting a lawyer but I think I'll keep pursuing the union route first. I feel like if I play my cards right it shouldn't need to get to that stage, but wouldn't hurt to explore options I guess.
One bit of good news is that I still have the second job, which is casual and gives me some pretty good hours when I give them full availability. So even though money will be tight, given I was relying on two jobs up until now, I can probably squeak by in the meantime. Not getting or having to wait indefinitely for this money I was counting on is a kick in the guts though.
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Do you use Linkdin?
If not, get on there ASAP. Put some work into making a decent profile and send "friend" requests to everyone you know in the industry, from CEO's down, and set your profile to looking for work. Don't talk yourself down, talk yourself up and be shameless messaging people in the industry to make them aware you're looking for work.
People in the industry will be aware of you and know if you're any good or not, so don't passively wait for a vacancy, if you're any good they'll create one for you. Good luck.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Cheers, that’s good advice. I’m on there but don’t use it much, so maybe time to do some self-promotion (as much as I hate it)!
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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think positive
Side By Side
Joined: 30 Jun 2005
Location: somewhere
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gees, they dont have a job for you but dont want you working elsewhere! that sux big time, assholes!
id do as Stui said and also talk to legal aide.
things are different if you get made redundant than if you quit.
i get the reasoning, NAB wanted to steal my eldest when she was on contract, she had to leave for 12 months to be able to go there - she quit but got a job she loves elsewhere in the meantime!
in your case though, thats just asshollism
_________________
You cant fix stupid, turns out you cant quarantine it either! |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Anyway, before I progress anything formally, I just wrote my former manager a text outlining my feelings. Hopefully that does the trick – and if not, well, there's no choice but to escalate.
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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^
Nice, but don't obsess over 1 paycheck + expenses, focus on moving forward and getting a new job. Once you have an income again, then you have time and head space to drill your previous boss.
_________________
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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I don't want to speak too soon, but I *think* he's backed off. He said he'd tell the accountant to pay me. Of course I'm taking that with a grain of salt until I see it in my account.
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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If he's had any legal advice then he knows he can't withhold payment of legitimate invoices on condition of signing a no compete agreement. I hope for your sake he's come to his senses, but irrespective my advice above stands.
_________________
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Cheers! I'm pretty keen to move on so definitely want to cause as few waves as possible. If we can get this sorted amicably, that's the ideal. In the meantime I might have another job lined up (have already been offered, just waiting to hear back on how many days they can offer me), so hopefully things will be back on track soon!
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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