I Haven't Been Paid In 20 Weeks

Brought to you by CHM, a budget-friendly, faith-based alternative to health insurance. chministries.org slash budget. I am a master electrician working for another master electrician for the last four or five years, and I recently discovered that we're about 20 weeks behind on payroll, which equates to about $18,000. I'm looking for some advice. I'm sorry. You haven't been paid in 20 weeks, but you recently discovered that? I've, I've been getting paid, but not, you know, like two pay periods in a month or three pay periods in a month, not four. And it's accumulated into, yeah. And in February, the most up-to-date pay period I have is October 4th. Why are you just discovering this? Well, uh, that's a phenomenal question. It's definitely my fault that I have failed to realize it for this long. I've been building a house. I just had a baby. I got married this year and it just, uh. Which would be all the more reasons I counted all my paychecks. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So why is the guy not paying you what he owes you? Well, it used to be a company of five employees and then everybody left and it was just him and myself. And then he got stiffed on a $25,000 job. He put a lien on the property, but never got paid for it. And I think he just transferred that deficit from supply stores and lines of credit to not paying me because I don't charge interest. But never bothered to discuss this with you. Correct. And when did you discover this? I discovered it the week before last on a Thursday. Have you found a new job yet? Well, I'm not working for a crook. Why would you? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I agree with you. My biggest concern is that I file a wage claim and he declares bankruptcy. Oh, that's probably very likely. Yes. That's not, you're not going to get the money by sticking around though. You discovered he's a snake. Now that we've established that, we also know one thing about snakes. All they do is bite. They don't do anything else. Don't be shocked. And don't think the snake's going to turn into a rabbit. It's a snake. Leave. If you're serious about budgeting, you can't ignore healthcare. For most families, it's one of the biggest line items. Y'all, you can cut subscriptions and eating out, but if you're still stuck with a massive premium every month, it's going to be stressful. Christian Healthcare Ministries is different. It's not insurance. It's believers sharing each other's medical bills. And the best part, programs start at just $115 a month. So go to chministries.org slash budget and use code Ramsey for 50% credit towards your first month. Leave. That's part of the moral dilemma I've been having. It's not a moral dilemma. It's common freaking sense. Well, I have not been working. I made it clear that I don't want to work until we're paid up. But my thought was by creating the illusion that I would continue working for him, maybe I could, you know, get, uh, get some of this money paid up before I tell him I'm leaving. Okay. Let me try one more time. Okay. This guy doesn't pay people and he lies about it. That's not going to change based on any action you take. This is a guy, this is what he does. He's a liar and a thief. That's who he is. The best thing you can do with liars and thieves is to distance yourself from them so that you don't get lied to and stolen from. Agreed. So I, I, I'm afraid, sir, you've lost your money because you didn't keep your finger on the pulse and that's on you. It's also on him because he's a snake, but dude, you need to get a and quit trying to figure out a way to get this snake to not be a snake. He's a snake. Yeah. I just think you're afraid of something. You're that's why you're doing this moral stuff and throwing these words around. That's all that is, is you justifying your lack of inaction. And, uh, you've just been two lessons. You got to learn here. You have not been paying attention to what's going on. Cost yourself a lot of money. Number two, you're afraid to step out. You think this guy's the only guy that's going to pay you and you're in one of the most sought after trades there are right now. And there's a massive need. There's a line around the block of people hiring master electricians. There, there's such a shortage of people in the trades. So you can go get something tomorrow and you should have yesterday. He, uh, he offered to transfer the titles on some trucks and trailers to me. Do you think I just take that and run? Yes. Yes. Yes. Like instantly scenario. Yeah. I won't file a wage claim. If you give me a truck and a trailer worth what, uh, you owe me a hundred percent and I won't file a wage claim on you with the state. Yeah. That, that he needs to do that. And that's redemption for his thievery. Okay. Yeah. Take them. And then, Hey, maybe you set up shop for yourself. Then if you've got a truck and a trailer, let's go, baby. Yeah, that is the plan. That's a guy I can trust the guy in my mirror. Right. Very true. But now you're going to have to have someone help you with the books. Cause you don't pay attention to them much. Sorry, Tom, you walked right into it, buddy. I love you, man. But yeah, you can be a good electrician and a bad businessman. So be careful if you're setting yourself up in business that you learn the business skills too. Wow. Ouch. Uh, you know what that is? That's a guy who works his butt off. That's right. He works hard and he, and most of everything he's gotten, he's outworked everybody else. Yeah. And he thought he could outwork this. And, and folks, when you get in a situation like this, what you can't do, and Tom's a nice guy and he's an honest guy and a good guy. We're picking at him a little bit, having some fun, but, um, we've all done things like he's done. What he did is he took his personal character of high work ethic, high honor, high integrity, and tried to superimpose that back on a guy who's a snake. Cause he thinks other people are going to be like he is. And, um, you know, what that'll leave is a scar. Yeah, it already, it already has. Here's the great news. I'm we, until the very end of that call, we thought he was getting nothing. And, and so the lesson here is, is, and again, not picking on Tom, but there's fear. We didn't have time to break it down, but for him holding on. And I'm going to tell you a fear of the unknown. Just hold so many of us up us, all caps. I've done it when we don't know what's next, right? Whether he goes out on his own or he's got to get out on the street, you will put up with things that you would not normally put up with. And I'm telling you for everybody listening and watching, there's a lesson here. He's terrified of something. Maybe just change. And that's normal, by the way, doesn't make Tom a weirdo. That's all of us. So learn the lesson there that when we have that fear, uh, the fact that he called us today is good. Get some insight from other people, Dave. Cause what will happen is, is you get into this, um, you know, in this loop that I can't thank you. That's the word. And it's really dangerous can hold it back a lot of progress. So I spoke at a church yesterday and, um, between services, go out and talk to people and all this stuff. And, and a guy came up and he's like, how do you get over the fear of running your own business? And I said, I'll let you know. Yeah. Great statement. Right. I mean, uh, the editor, John Johnson of Ebony magazine said, uh, the entrepreneur is the only person who can go from sheer terror to sheer exhilaration and back every 24 hours. That's right. And so, yeah, that that's, so yeah, I got me a truck and I got me a, uh, a trailer, but, and I, and I have the skill, but now good. That's scary. It is scary. And I want to acknowledge that. Right. So, yeah, you're, you're, you're right too. That's very good. Well, I tell you, that's a good guy. The couple of lessons are, if you listen to the show, you can learn things. That's the idea. It's not just entertaining. Um, although Ken is quite entertaining, but the, um, but the, uh, you know, two takeaways is one, you got to pay attention to what's going on in detail because no one else is managing you, but you that's right. And then two is don't try to make a snake into a rabbit. They're just snakes. Yeah. And so, uh, just because you might be a good person doesn't mean you can expect that of other people. You can't always expect other people to react the way you are going to react to do what you would do in that situation. Cause let me just tell you, if Tom was in charge of the payroll, the first day he couldn't make a check, a payroll check, he would have been sweating and terrified and would have sat down and told the guy day one. He wouldn't have lied to him. He wouldn't have hit it from it. 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