The Invoice

 

I emailed an invoice today.

It was for services rendered over the past few months and it will be paid in due time. I have no doubt of that as the company I sent it to is always honorable, prompt, and professional.

Some invoices, in the freelance world, often take a little time to get paid, but inevitably, they almost all do.

So long as I'm not truly destitute I don't worry about a delay. It happens. An email gets lost, even forgotten. I'm not the world's best businessman in this regard. Oh, for the love of Rockerfeller, far from it.

A quick follow-up normally resolves things. Sometimes it's even my fault. One of the places I work didn't send any confirmation that they paid me. They just electronically put the money in my account and I failed to check the statement before sending a quick text.

I was redfaced but, ultimately, no harm.

There are a series of invoices, dating back to 2017, that has gone completely unpaid by one former employer. In fact, most emails and attempts to collect have been ignored.

The money isn't insignificant, though I've been told in various channels that suing for it would be fruitless, so I've mostly given up.

That doesn't mean it has been forgotten or forgiven.

I accepted a position there as a way to get my career and brain back in balance following some difficult though fruitful professional experiences. The brain has a funny way of looking back at such things.

Like anything else, there was a honeymoon period. But promises that were made weren't kept and money was often slow in getting to me.

Eventually, we whittled everything down to doing the job as a contract employee. OK, cool.

I didn't love any of this but it would have to do. I now had no medical benefits.

"You'll make more money than you did before!" I was told.

That might have been true if I were ever paid for those duties.

Look, I'll blame myself for some of this. The number I was promised per job started at a higher rate.

Then I was told that wasn't true.

Like an idiot, I didn't have it in writing. No email. Nothing. Totally my own fault for being so naive.

There's a deeper backstory of other things, including being able to pay for my car and the hell -- that's the word -- I went through. The same went for child support. Attempts to recoup that money were a failure.

All of this as my mother was sick and I was caring for her, I might add.

Threats to the employer to get a lawyer involved -- and I had contacted one -- didn't work. The whole thing was a nightmare. A huge nightmare.

You look back and you wonder. Should I have just stayed in one situation, where those close to me feared I was heading towards physical ruin, over going to a situation that put me in financial ruin?

"If you had stayed," one person said to me, "you would have had a heart attack."

On the other hand, how's the stress when you're financially worried?

Ultimately, I was able to get some unemployment, which they actually held against me for pursuing. Honestly, what choice did I have?

No, I was entitled to the unemployment -- you stopped using me as an employee -- and the past-due invoices.

I tried to get the value of the invoices. At first, I pushed the number higher because I felt the car issue and, frankly, interest was due to me. OK, they rejected that.

I brought the number down.

I brought it down lower.

I kept thinking they'd be honorable. Wasn't I doing the same? Wasn't this a negotiation? Couldn't we just resolve this and walk away on good terms? These were people who supposedly wanted to do the right thing for me -- mentally and in terms of my career.

Eventually, I whittled the number down to where the lack of response led me to feel that the fight was no longer worth it.

It was one of many kicks in the face that I've received. 

Lessons learned I suppose.

Karma's a bitch, they say. There are ways to get the point across.

Like a blog post that doesn't name names.

I came through it a better man. You might read this and shake your head. You might read it and have your own judgment of me.

I hold my head high.

Other invoices will be paid.

Other employers treat me well.

Consider this an editorial you'll never run.

(By the way, I've already received a reply to the aforementioned invoice that I sent today. They thanked me and I have no doubt I'll be paid quickly. That's a great relationship and that's how it's supposed to work.)