After responding to an add on Craigslist, I recieved a call from Mr. Boblooch, in which he gave a very brief telephone interview, and subsequently hired me, after we agreed on my starting wages. I was told to be at the compaies "shop", at 6:am on Friday, which was two days away. I showed up on time, and immediately began assisting another employee clean out a company van, that two gallons of paint had spilled in. Once the task was completed, I was told to leave my vehicle there, and get in the van, and go to work in Sarasota, which was an hour and fifteen minutes away. Upon arrival, we began caulking in all the door jams, and window frames on the 8th floor of a large bank building, located in the downtown area. After four hours of working, the "foreman"; a man of mexican decent who did not speak the enlish language very well at all, voiced a couple of complaints about the way I was doing the task, and I looked at his work and compared it to mine. There was no obvious difference. After twenty years of working in the industry, this is one of the most elementary tasks that one can do. Shortly before lunch, I heard the "Foreman" have two different conversations with friends of his, that had previously been employed with the company, but recently dismissed. The "Foreman" didn't know that I spoke spanish. During these conversations, he voiced his complaint of having them replaced by new grengo's. He then called Jeff, and told him that I was doing a horrible job, and that I was not a professional painter. After we returned to the shop, Jeff confronted me about the complaint and I stated that the "foreman's" work was no different than mine. He told me to return the next day, and I did, at 6:30 am. Once again, I rode in the company vehicle, with the "foreman". When we arrived at the jobsite, another employee that had not been there the day before, was waiting for us. When the new guy looked at the work, he verbally showed his displeasure with the quality of work that had been performed. As a result, the "forman", quit on the spot. The new guy, along with one other painter, and myself got everything up to par, and put the finish coat of paint on all the trim. Because the "foreman" had quit, I was ask to drive the extra vehicle back to Tampa, and I did so. We had a productive day, and I felt good due to the fact that I could understand the new leaders vocabulary (not broken english), and we had a productive day, resulting in the property being ready for all the walls to be painted. When we arrived back at the shop, Jeff was not around, and once the vehicles were parked, I was informed that I was being terminated. When I called Jeff and ask for an explaination, he bluntly told me that, "we were done, and to fax my time in", and he would cut me a check. This really bothered me simply because he had never actually seen me work, or see the results of my work! It was obvious that he was a total hot head, and there was no logic to his decision making. The one thing that was clear is that the job was now ready for the really easy part, that one man could do alone. It was caught up. Jeff told me that he would have my check ready early in the week, and after calling and prodding him for the money owed to me, he finally passed me along to a female, that was aparently in charge of payroll. Five day's later I finally met with her at the "shop" and recieved a check, that was twenty percent less than what was owed to me. He had changed our initial agreement of 13 an hour, to 12. I then noticed that I was short an hour and a half in time. In reality, it should have been 2 and a half hours, due to the fact that I drove a company vehicle from Sarasota, due to the fact that I had a license. The "foreman" that quit didn't have one, yet was aloud to drive anyway. What all of this comes down to is that the company is shady to say the least. The have an office phone number printed on the business cards, that no one answers, and on the two ocassions I visited it, no one was there anyway. The owner is a complete hot head, void of any logic. He is the first employer I have every encountered that could hire and fire someone, without actually seeing them at work. Finally, he has no ethical regard for paying people what he agreed to when hired, and then has no problem shaving hours off there actual hours worked. He is totally unprofessional in all manners. I can make this determination due to the fact that I have been in the business for 20 years.
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