Photo Credit: Marten Bjork #MartenBjork, http://www.unsplash.com
I am not so proud to announce but I am really having a terrible day with my boss’ wife. Honestly, I don’t know what I did to make her mad at me. I’ll try to make the story short, it was my boss (the man) who hired me in the first place, whatever was written on my contract was an agreement between me and him, for example he agreed on my 24 day vacation leave per year despite of my request to make it 30 days. Others who had been working there for over a year had 20 days off a year. I actually worked only for him over the year, I handle around 5 to 8 Designers online at work and other encoders from Asia online.
I work 4 hours a day from Monday to Friday. My 1st Year contract at work was Probationary, but 2 months before my 1st temporary contract ends, my boss increased my salary because he said I was too good and my income was very low. My 1st Probationary contract was extended for another year.
In Germany, it is not allowed to give more than two years probationary contract, so my next contract this time should be a permanent one now. But before my contract ends, my boss’ wife sent me an email saying they will be offering me another contract, so I made an appointment with her to talk about it, and she asked me what I think how my performance at work was… I said I think I did great. Then she said that my boss (her husband) also thinks I am performing well and that is why he wants to keep me in the company, but she said she thinks I am receiving too much salary and vacation in comparison with the others who had been working there longer that I am. So she said to me that she would be rather hiring a German who speaks fluently with the same salary than I have (she meant because I am from Asia just like her, and my German language is not better than any Germans), so she said she will give me an option to work longer with the same salary and vacation, or have my salary reduced. She said if I will not accept it, he will have a separation with her husband and laughed and she said “it’s only a joke”. She said I don’t have to speak about our conversation with my boss, because she decides for it.
Photo Credit: Brooke Lark #BrookeLark @brookelark, http://www.unsplash.com
I had only two weeks to think about it, I told my husband about it and he said it’s not really nice what she does but I have to accept it to keep my job. So she sent me an email to follow up my decision, I told her I could not work longer than she requested so I had no choice but to accept her offer to reduce my salary even though I don’t think there is a reason to reduce my salary. She talked to me again and gave me another option to have my vacation reduced instead, from my original 24 days vacation will be reduced to 20 days. Looks like she was having trouble with the Finance Office to reduce my salary, so I had no option again but to accept a 20 day vacation every year. My contract ended on the 16th of March which falls on Thursday, then I should receive my permanent contract On the 17th of March which was Friday, but three days before my probationary contract ends she said I should not go to work on Friday since my new contract will start on Monday which is on the 20th March. I asked her why not on Friday, she said because she doesn’t give new contracts on Friday. I had no choice but to accept the offer.
Photo Credit: Asdrubal Luna #AsdrubalLuna, http://www.unsplash.com
As I received my salary, I found out that 3 days work was deducted so I asked about it and she said because I did not work for 3 days, even though actually Saturday and Sunday was no-working day, it was included in my deductions. I did not understand the point of reducing my salary for two non-working days, although I did not work for only 1 day because it was her request that I do not go for work. From the time I complained about my salary deduction, my stress with her did not stop, we exchanged arguments over email and I made some research together with my husband and I found out it’s not allowed to worsen a contract if the task and duty remains. Germany has strict rules and law on work, as I found out according to law, from the moment I got a salary increase during my Probationary Period at work, my Contract should have been automatically converted to a Permanent Contract, and the 3 days interruption after my probationary period does not actually exist unless it would have been longer than 3-weeks interruption, I should have received a full amount of my monthly income even with 3-days interruption. Even reducing my vacation is not allowed in German law since my task and duties remained the same.
Photo credit: Tom Pumford #TomPumford, http://www.unsplash.com
I’ve discussed the issue with my boss as I believe that he should be the one talking about it with his wife, but as it always turned out, either he’s damned too coward to talk about the issue with her or he just doesn’t want to have any arguments with her, so I guess I just have to do it all on my own. Since then, she made my life at work miserable. One day when my boss was not at work, I was surprised to see her come to where I work, she sat beside me where she actually never does because she normally works at a different office location. So she turned the computer on beside me and worked there and asked me to submit to her my report, ~ she obviously wanted to know what I have been doing at work, my boss never did this but I think it was fine so I just did it. After giving her my report I still had to explain to her what I do at work because it turned out she was lazy to read my report and she basically had no idea what I do. Looks like this made her realized it was not easy to handle eight designers a day (for a part-time work). Then one day, she asked me to be the replacement of my other office worker because she was on vacation for few days and I have to do the invoice and answer calls at the same time, however good I tried to be, all I received was her critics and there was not even a single warm appreciation on what I accomplished. Then another day, I called to tell her I could not go to work because my daughter is sick, I was surprised because she’d been shouting and yelling at me over the phone and she said I should resign, I asked why… she said because I just simply could not work… I said no and if she thinks I am not reliable for work because my daughter is sick, then she should terminate me from work~ which I believe she wouldn’t do, and she couldn’t do. As expected, she yelled at me again and hang up on me. In a month time now, I’d be 4 years at the company and I am not really sure why I’m still stucked there… my issue of having back my 24-day vacation per year is still not clear despite giving her all the information she needed.
Should I have any other option, I’d rather be just simply doing and working somewhere without such stress. I mean, it is actually the only kind of job for me right now which fits my schedule well, so searching for a different kind of job is not really an option… probably you have tips on what else I should do to get rid of my boss’ wife? Have you ever had such an experience? How do you handle such a situation? I’d just be glad and happy to hear any of your comments. 🙏
