Goodbye #134

Companies like this piss me off to an infuriating level.

This small vendor who I have been doing side work for completed a last minute major project nearly two months ago for the company I currently work for. This project was finished on time -- with well done and pats on the back all around. Now, the big company I work for will not pay the small vendor because "they don't feel like it". I've heard the excuse that it's the "end of the year" and the regular bullshit that they want to hold on to the cash even though they have plenty of it to pay out. The small company does not have the cash to pay the people they hired to complete the project, so they're going to have to take personal loans just to pay part of what they owe their people now -- because they're actually cool and care about the people that work for them. The big company is essentially screwing the shit out of the small company, and hurting the relationship they have with outside contractors. The snowball rolls downhill in the direction of the smaller companies. Fuck that.

I see a haze of red and want to walk over to the person in charge of paying out this past due amount and punch them in the eyeball. However, that would only make me feel better and would probably delay the process further, if anything. The only thing I can do is bitch about it in my effing blog.

I have some personal experience with this type of situation. I've been victim to this kind of abuse before, while I was self-employed. I would complete a project and bill the company, expecting payment within 30 days. I can count the number of times I have been paid within that time on 3 fingers. At the time, the only thing I could do is call them every day and send more bills their way. Getting in to a legal dispute about it would have just delayed the process even more. Until they would pay (sometimes 3 or 4 months later), I would have to support my family on credit cards and hope that the company which owed me my ghat damn money would remove the stick from their collective asses. Now I'm working for that fucking corporate-type company. In retaliation, I'm going to steal a bunch of pens and some post-it notes. That'll learn 'em.

I ride the bus to-and-from work every day. I feel like I'm doing my part to help the commuter traffic situation, and there’s some hippy thing for the environment which is good too. It's also a bit selfish, since driving to work in the morning makes me crazy, and I get to plow thru several books a month during my commute time. Anyway, my bus, the #134, runs express service to downtown Portland and back every day from a local park-and-ride. At least, it will until the end of this year. Verifying that the majority of residents in Clark County suck ass, the ballot measure to increase taxes by 0.3% for public transportation costs was voted down. That's 30 cents on every $100 to the taxpayer. The result is that C-Tran has to reduce their fleet and service by 46%, beginning January 2005. All -- that's right -- ALL commuter bus service in to Portland will be dropped. This puts hundreds of commuting drivers back on the roads in the morning. Nice work, Clark County!

The Lompoc sings the soothing song of the C-Note. She calls me to her for Friday happy hour(s). Engage!