Another Nightmare Employer...

UPDATE: OP re-wrote her Post June 7, 2009
Received Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Hopefully this will be easier to understand. :)

I have a very, very long recount of a horrible experience with an employer. We spoke over email several times, as she lives about 3-4 hours from me one state down in Southern Jersey. Several things were discussed over email which prompted me to meet her and possibly accept the job--she was a single mother with a special needs son soon to move to a large house, she offered the basic vacations and also use of the car.

I get to her apartment, that she was currently living in. It was tiny...and it was FILTHY. The kitchen was so disgusting and she just started cooking right on that dirty, crusty stove. She'd told me to draft up a basic contract that we could then alter when I got there. I did, and added nothing unusual to any nanny, or parent used to having QUA LITY nannies---paid sick time, vacation, holidays. Over email, she said she paid her current nanny less, but that we could negotiate. I said fine. She mentioned quite a few times over the phone that her current nanny that she was firing was a slob and that is why she was firing her. That should've been my clue, but I ignored it because I wanted to live out of my current state, and out of my current living situation.

Then we got to the car. She never informed me that there was only one (which is fine, sure), but what was "you can use the car when I'm not using it" changed as the conversation went on, when she actually decided to hire me. Now it was "you can use the car during the day for errands and my son, and on weekend nights, but I have to have it during the day." Okay, fine, only one car, that's fair, especially since she offered to drive me on weekends to the various, but far, places around her area. Mind you, South Jersey is a dead area. There is nothing to do, and the bus system is hilariously poor. You can bet your bottom you're not getting anywhere not an hour or so away without a car. But, I don't go out a hilarious lot ANYWAY, so I figured that as long as I could get out on some evenings and weekends, I'd be okay.

Then came the salary. I told her 480-500 for everything she needed me to do. Can't do it, impossible. O kay, 450. That is 9 an hour, and I get paid overtime for over 50 hours. She can't do that either. I ask her what she wants to pay, and she tells me a mere $7 an hour. I feel stupid for even accepting that kind of money, but she said there'd be raises (don't know what prompted me to believe that). She also ends up adding several new responsibilities to the job---mailing her letters. Talking to her clients as a secretary. Other several amounts of secretary work. I'm pretty open-minded, so I said it'd be okay if it was just that. We figure things out, and get something working. I'm set to move in three weeks later on the 21st.

I get a call the very next day telling me that I should not use the car or ask her to drop me off and that I should just try to use public transportation (which like I said, is horrific). Uh, are you serious? Why didn't you read the contract, that we'd gone an edited right in front of your nose? I repeat to her that we already discussed this, and that I used the car when she wasn't using the car.

Now, over email, before we met, she mentioned 4 specific weeks; 2 when her son was in camp, and 2 when she and her son went to China. She told me of a job that I could get around that area, that would pay me 10 an hour (she stressed this SEVERAL times) to work a full week with her son, and doing ot her things. I said it sounded nice, and I'd consider it (my thought was that she was just being nice).

About her China vacation, I told her that since we decided I would pick one week of my own vacation, I would let her use one of the weeks in China as one of my vacations. Which is paid. She asked me about the other week she's in China, and the two weeks her son is in camp. I naturally informed her that these are to be paid, as are any week that the parent tells the nanny they aren't to work. She makes this silent little noise, as if I'm ripping her off for expecting her shitty salary EACH WEEK, and not having to go out and work a second job for a measly three weeks to try to get a salary.

I go home, and got a phone call the next day adding another gazillion new responsibilities to the job, and now she needs me to travel with her, too. Oh, and now she wants to test me for two weeks, and "see if it works out", and just let me go if it doesn't. The two week trial was fine with me, but I told her the extra responsibilities would have to be discussed, as I'm not a house whore to do everything you can't do in the house. She said that her current nanny does anything and everything she tells her, but that to discuss it was fine, and she'd see me soon.

I get ANOTHER call the next day telling me she "lo st her job" and cannot hire me anymore. And "I'm sooooooo sorry! We don't know what we're going to do!"

Yeah, I'm sure she freaking did "lose her job" the day after I tell her that she can't rip me off more than she already tried to. Lady, find someone illegal to pay those wages and lock up in your house. And that's not even counting that she wanted me to stay with her son all night while she worked, and didn't want to pay a RED CENT for the five nights a week I was suddenly supposed to stay and watch her son in the house, unable to go anywhere by myself either during the day, or at night.

She's probably searching in the Philly/SNJ area for another patsy, so I'd watch out for H.L.D. She will lie about everything until you get to her place, and then ask you to do EVERYTHING in the house cause "SHE IS SO VERY, VERY BUSY!" and refuse to pay you but pennies more than her cheapskate 300 a month.