I've never really gone into what went wrong with a lot of my jobs and now that I've left another one, I'm starting to get reflective. I've decided that small businesses are not for me. Something goes wrong in the mind of the owner and I just don't get it. I don't understand why it's so hard to just be nice and do honest, legal, respectful business practices. When I was a small business owner the meanest thing I did was block a fellow shop owner on facebook and she flipped the F**K out, let me tell you.... I suppose I should have known then how crazy and unpredictable small business owners could be. For the record, I don't feel this way about everyone. I do know a select few of good, honest small business owners and I will support them 100% for as long as they are in business. I've just had mostly horrific experiences and at this point, I feel my only options are to work for myself, or an evil corporation because at least they are monitored more closely. Enough generalizations. Let's dive right in!
For my protection, I'm going to rename all the business names. The owners love to pick on anyone they can and I'm sure they read this blog hoping I put something they can nail me for. Pathetic. Let's start with several small businesses I encountered in NJ. First there was the childrens tutu store owner who practically led an attack against me for carrying a few hair bows. She has since been sued for stealing another tutu store's name. She then moved into a larger store unit that she couldn't afford bc she refused to teach anyone how to make her tutus. There's only so much business one person can earn as the sole producer of inventory. So she has closed down. Then there was the Irish store's owner who joined in the crusade against me because I blocked her on facebook. She had run the facebook page for the whole village and I received a tip that she was saying shady things about me. So I blocked her and she stormed into my store during business hours and ranted at me. This is a grown woman. In her 40s. She has since gone out of business as well. Lastly, there was the ballet company's owner. She ran her business solely on grants she received. Her ballet company was horrible. I went to see one show and was shocked. My dance recitals as a kid were far better and this was supposed to be a professional company. She made sure to get dancers from other countries to qualify for more grants. She had her studio, office, and the dancers' living quarters in a giant house. They lived in bunk beds and the basement. The house was not cleaned. There were balls of dust everywhere. The basement had no lighting but a few small lamps and only a few sheets hanging from the ceiling provided any privacy between beds. She had me provide her with fake bills stating that she paid me far more than she did in order to prove all her grant money went to the company, which it did not. I didn't realize how sketchy that was at the time.
That was NJ. Now we can talk about Long Island. When I got back from NJ I began working for the children's entertainment company as an office assistant. We'll call this company Tiny Earth Entertainment. Honestly, I'm ashamed of how long it took me to see the evil in this place. This was where I met my good friend Crystal. I was hired to replace her. Although as I worked with her I liked her a lot and tried to help her improve her work and possibly stay at the company. There was enough work for both of us. Didn't work. They promoted me 3 months in and 3 months after that they fired her. Only then did things start to get bad for me. Crystal applied for unemployment. My boss- we'll call her Renee- called me and told me I had to write a statement and have it notorized saying that Crystal had been selling drugs to employees at work. I was horrified. I told her I wasn't going to lie. She then tried to convince me that I told her these things a few weeks ago. We had had a conversation about the performers doing drugs but we were talking about her own daughter. After some arguing she gave up and Crystal won the unemployment case. This was when Renee realized she didn't have as much control over me as she'd hoped. She put up cameras everywhere in the office and spyware on my computer to see everything I do all day. This was very uncomfortable. She also called me 7-13 times a day (I kept a chart). She wanted me to steam costumes as a form of cleaning them (which is actually the opposite of what it does. The steam, in fact, sets the germs and smell more permanently into the fabric). She refused to pay for dry cleaning but then would flip out at me if the costumes smelled. The way she had us clean the face paints was actually breeding more bacteria. I googled it. She'd have me withhold paychecks if the performers did anything wrong. Withholding paychecks for any reason is actually illegal. Half the things she advertised on her website didn't exist. She expected me to lie to customers and tell them the costume was stuck in customs or the puppet show was touring the west coast or the bounce house was booked that weekend. I wasn't comfortable lying and therefore refused to take bookings. All of those things are illegal but can't be proved because all employees sign a confidentiality agreement. But wait, there's more! There were several cases when performers were under the influence and Renee knowingly sent them to perform at children's parties. Her own daughters were the worst culprits. One of them smoked weed daily and even brought it into the warehouse on occasion. She eventually quit which was great but then the other one was drunk all the time. She would go out partying the night before and show up to work Saturday morning still puking. One time Renee actually made her daughter and friend take a breathalyzer. They both failed. Her daughter was slightly less drunk so she was assigned to drive. They were stumbling around shitfaced and still sent to do a party in Staten Island with a new trainee in tow. Several performers would smoke blunts in costume on the way to parties. Several others would pop pain meds. And these people were being welcomed into innocent people's homes and paid to entertain their children. Absolutely disgusting. One more than a few occasions Renee would call up a person at the last minute and cancel their party because they had annoyed her. She'd tell them the performer was sick or some other bullshit. Break some small child's heart just because she felt like it. The 2 company vehicles the performers had to drive were both way past inspection and had severe problems. The performers were afraid to drive them but told they had to. So when they got into inevitable car accidents, their jobs were then threatened. I remember one day in particular, 2 performers totaled the van and were still made to work the party. I could go on and on with examples like this but I'll stop here. The last thing they did that was sketchy was cheat the IRS. Towards the end of my time there, my parents tried to buy the business. Renee's husband met with our business advisor and admitted that they couldn't give us any proof of earnings bc they only claim a third of what they make. It suddenly made sense why they only accepted cash balances. All they claimed was the credit card deposits they took. To sum up: Tiny Earth Entertainment cheated customers, employees, and the government. Ultimately they are cheating themselves. They'll never be able to sell their business. And they'll never be able to hire mature, intelligent, responsible employees because those are people that can't be manipulated or controlled. I'd still love to see the whole business crash and burn though.
And lastly, let's discuss my foray into formal dress alterations. The only thing I can think to call this business is Pizzazz which is ironic because there actually is a local store called that but that's not the one I'm referring to. When I started working at Pizzazz I was a bit intimidated at first. I had never really done alterations like they did because I'd always worked in theatre. Things were done differently. However, I learned quickly and soon was practically running the department. I did all the fittings and most of the alterations as well as updated the computer and the paperwork and maintained inventory. Things began to come to light that concerned me though. 1. Nobody got raises. 2. Nobody got paid overtime. 3. Some people got paid less than originally agreed upon. 4. Everyone got paid a form of salary. If you worked overtime, you didn't get paid for it but if you were out sick you immediately had to make up those hours. 5. When you ended your time there, you didn't not receive your remaining pay. 6. No one gets breaks. We all stuffed our faces with food for 5 minutes and went back to work.....When anyone wanted to discuss issues with the owner, she would "listen" and nod and say she understood and then she'd either completely ignore your requests or worse, shame you for them. Only after I chose to leave did I learn the owner's whole story. Apparently when she was dating her husband, she found out he was cheating. So she got pregnant to trap him. She's in this country illegally but now with the American child, she's allowed to stay. She can never leave, however. So she got her whole family to also move to America. She and her husband had another child together at the same time one of his mistresses had a child. He supports them both. Both she and her husband have affairs. She's 100% gorgeous and always dressed to the nines. She looks like she must have a team of people making her up each day. There's no reason for anyone to look like that unless they're trying to hook some wealthy men. Apparently she belonged to dating websites looking for rich men. I'm not surprised. Anyway, she wanted to work but can't because she's not legal. So he husband created her business for her. And now she uses it as a way to screw him. This makes sense. She was intelligent and yet the business was run poorly as though she knew how to fix it and didn't want to. She fired 3 managers within a month and both her seamstresses left a week later. I'm interested to see what happens with her business.
When I left Pizzazz I went and met with another shop owner. She was super enthusiastic and promised me an overwhelming supply of work beginning February. Well, it's March now and she has yet to give me a single fitting. I called to ask her about it and she was almost rude. It was like night and day. So, she seems like a flake. When I met with her I could tell she was a flake. It's absolutely baffling to me that these horribly run businesses can do so well. I'd love to know how and why that happens. It doesn't seem possible to me to ever be able to make a reliable living when working for these types of businesses. I know corporate America doesn't pay well and a lot of times the people running the companies don't know anything about the jobs underneath them, but at least you get gauranteed hours, pay, and breaks. I haven't gotten those things elsewhere.
For my protection, I'm going to rename all the business names. The owners love to pick on anyone they can and I'm sure they read this blog hoping I put something they can nail me for. Pathetic. Let's start with several small businesses I encountered in NJ. First there was the childrens tutu store owner who practically led an attack against me for carrying a few hair bows. She has since been sued for stealing another tutu store's name. She then moved into a larger store unit that she couldn't afford bc she refused to teach anyone how to make her tutus. There's only so much business one person can earn as the sole producer of inventory. So she has closed down. Then there was the Irish store's owner who joined in the crusade against me because I blocked her on facebook. She had run the facebook page for the whole village and I received a tip that she was saying shady things about me. So I blocked her and she stormed into my store during business hours and ranted at me. This is a grown woman. In her 40s. She has since gone out of business as well. Lastly, there was the ballet company's owner. She ran her business solely on grants she received. Her ballet company was horrible. I went to see one show and was shocked. My dance recitals as a kid were far better and this was supposed to be a professional company. She made sure to get dancers from other countries to qualify for more grants. She had her studio, office, and the dancers' living quarters in a giant house. They lived in bunk beds and the basement. The house was not cleaned. There were balls of dust everywhere. The basement had no lighting but a few small lamps and only a few sheets hanging from the ceiling provided any privacy between beds. She had me provide her with fake bills stating that she paid me far more than she did in order to prove all her grant money went to the company, which it did not. I didn't realize how sketchy that was at the time.
That was NJ. Now we can talk about Long Island. When I got back from NJ I began working for the children's entertainment company as an office assistant. We'll call this company Tiny Earth Entertainment. Honestly, I'm ashamed of how long it took me to see the evil in this place. This was where I met my good friend Crystal. I was hired to replace her. Although as I worked with her I liked her a lot and tried to help her improve her work and possibly stay at the company. There was enough work for both of us. Didn't work. They promoted me 3 months in and 3 months after that they fired her. Only then did things start to get bad for me. Crystal applied for unemployment. My boss- we'll call her Renee- called me and told me I had to write a statement and have it notorized saying that Crystal had been selling drugs to employees at work. I was horrified. I told her I wasn't going to lie. She then tried to convince me that I told her these things a few weeks ago. We had had a conversation about the performers doing drugs but we were talking about her own daughter. After some arguing she gave up and Crystal won the unemployment case. This was when Renee realized she didn't have as much control over me as she'd hoped. She put up cameras everywhere in the office and spyware on my computer to see everything I do all day. This was very uncomfortable. She also called me 7-13 times a day (I kept a chart). She wanted me to steam costumes as a form of cleaning them (which is actually the opposite of what it does. The steam, in fact, sets the germs and smell more permanently into the fabric). She refused to pay for dry cleaning but then would flip out at me if the costumes smelled. The way she had us clean the face paints was actually breeding more bacteria. I googled it. She'd have me withhold paychecks if the performers did anything wrong. Withholding paychecks for any reason is actually illegal. Half the things she advertised on her website didn't exist. She expected me to lie to customers and tell them the costume was stuck in customs or the puppet show was touring the west coast or the bounce house was booked that weekend. I wasn't comfortable lying and therefore refused to take bookings. All of those things are illegal but can't be proved because all employees sign a confidentiality agreement. But wait, there's more! There were several cases when performers were under the influence and Renee knowingly sent them to perform at children's parties. Her own daughters were the worst culprits. One of them smoked weed daily and even brought it into the warehouse on occasion. She eventually quit which was great but then the other one was drunk all the time. She would go out partying the night before and show up to work Saturday morning still puking. One time Renee actually made her daughter and friend take a breathalyzer. They both failed. Her daughter was slightly less drunk so she was assigned to drive. They were stumbling around shitfaced and still sent to do a party in Staten Island with a new trainee in tow. Several performers would smoke blunts in costume on the way to parties. Several others would pop pain meds. And these people were being welcomed into innocent people's homes and paid to entertain their children. Absolutely disgusting. One more than a few occasions Renee would call up a person at the last minute and cancel their party because they had annoyed her. She'd tell them the performer was sick or some other bullshit. Break some small child's heart just because she felt like it. The 2 company vehicles the performers had to drive were both way past inspection and had severe problems. The performers were afraid to drive them but told they had to. So when they got into inevitable car accidents, their jobs were then threatened. I remember one day in particular, 2 performers totaled the van and were still made to work the party. I could go on and on with examples like this but I'll stop here. The last thing they did that was sketchy was cheat the IRS. Towards the end of my time there, my parents tried to buy the business. Renee's husband met with our business advisor and admitted that they couldn't give us any proof of earnings bc they only claim a third of what they make. It suddenly made sense why they only accepted cash balances. All they claimed was the credit card deposits they took. To sum up: Tiny Earth Entertainment cheated customers, employees, and the government. Ultimately they are cheating themselves. They'll never be able to sell their business. And they'll never be able to hire mature, intelligent, responsible employees because those are people that can't be manipulated or controlled. I'd still love to see the whole business crash and burn though.
And lastly, let's discuss my foray into formal dress alterations. The only thing I can think to call this business is Pizzazz which is ironic because there actually is a local store called that but that's not the one I'm referring to. When I started working at Pizzazz I was a bit intimidated at first. I had never really done alterations like they did because I'd always worked in theatre. Things were done differently. However, I learned quickly and soon was practically running the department. I did all the fittings and most of the alterations as well as updated the computer and the paperwork and maintained inventory. Things began to come to light that concerned me though. 1. Nobody got raises. 2. Nobody got paid overtime. 3. Some people got paid less than originally agreed upon. 4. Everyone got paid a form of salary. If you worked overtime, you didn't get paid for it but if you were out sick you immediately had to make up those hours. 5. When you ended your time there, you didn't not receive your remaining pay. 6. No one gets breaks. We all stuffed our faces with food for 5 minutes and went back to work.....When anyone wanted to discuss issues with the owner, she would "listen" and nod and say she understood and then she'd either completely ignore your requests or worse, shame you for them. Only after I chose to leave did I learn the owner's whole story. Apparently when she was dating her husband, she found out he was cheating. So she got pregnant to trap him. She's in this country illegally but now with the American child, she's allowed to stay. She can never leave, however. So she got her whole family to also move to America. She and her husband had another child together at the same time one of his mistresses had a child. He supports them both. Both she and her husband have affairs. She's 100% gorgeous and always dressed to the nines. She looks like she must have a team of people making her up each day. There's no reason for anyone to look like that unless they're trying to hook some wealthy men. Apparently she belonged to dating websites looking for rich men. I'm not surprised. Anyway, she wanted to work but can't because she's not legal. So he husband created her business for her. And now she uses it as a way to screw him. This makes sense. She was intelligent and yet the business was run poorly as though she knew how to fix it and didn't want to. She fired 3 managers within a month and both her seamstresses left a week later. I'm interested to see what happens with her business.
When I left Pizzazz I went and met with another shop owner. She was super enthusiastic and promised me an overwhelming supply of work beginning February. Well, it's March now and she has yet to give me a single fitting. I called to ask her about it and she was almost rude. It was like night and day. So, she seems like a flake. When I met with her I could tell she was a flake. It's absolutely baffling to me that these horribly run businesses can do so well. I'd love to know how and why that happens. It doesn't seem possible to me to ever be able to make a reliable living when working for these types of businesses. I know corporate America doesn't pay well and a lot of times the people running the companies don't know anything about the jobs underneath them, but at least you get gauranteed hours, pay, and breaks. I haven't gotten those things elsewhere.