Could so do without.....

.... the grief!!!! One of those weeks again (honestly people are going to start wondering if I'm not one of those eternally depressed doomsayers who never have a good week!!!!) where one of my sons is having LOTS of trouble at school with not doing work, not doing homework, lots of excuses yadda yadda, we're juggling the last of our money because I don't get paid until the end of next week from my new business, AND the cherry on top is that the new client is looking wobbly about the price parameters we set last week at our meeting. I walked away with the clear impression that what I had asked for would be fine and that she would just need to get the director's final okay and she would do the contract up. Now - a week later - it seems that she has not even shown the proposed pricing and hours to the director and claims she just can't get him and the accountant in the one place at the one time to talk to them. I'm starting to have some (I'm thinking understandable) concerns over how this is going to play out. Now the impression I've gotten after a phone call indicates that "if there's a problem" we'll need to just keep using the old price structure (which was considerably less per piece rate but at the time there was also considerably more work than I've had under the new staffing arrangements) and that just don't cut the grass as Cass would say!!! From the tone of voice it sounds like there is very much going to be a problem. She verbally agreed that yes, the arrangement for the new hourly rate would start from the day after our meeting last week but then we went into the "if there's a problem" part of the conversation. Because this is my first real client on my own I wasn't sure how forthright to be with her, knowing that being forthright is also frequently mistaken for rude, aggressive or confrontational by people if it's convenient for them to feel that way so I've had to say that me working at the old rates for the whole fortnight would not be satisfactory from my point of view given the gross imbalance of hours worked (too many) stacked up against how much I've had to do in those hours (not enough). Basically they want someone available to cover specific hours and I've accommodated with that but on the basis that I would need to be paid hourly as working 30 hours a week for them means I cannot find even one full day of work a week anywhere else to supplement my income and thus I have to ensure that what I charge per hour for the expected number of hours each week will cover my cost of living - JUST LIKE ANYBODY ELSE!!! I suddenly feel as if I'm standing on shifting sands and it's more than a little uncomfortable because I don't know how sweetly I need to handle the situation or if I need to be more aggressive to make sure they understand that I won't take anybody messing me around. So I bit the bullet today and submitted an invoice to them for last week and this week. The invoice normally wouldn't get submitted until next Wednesday for payment on Thursday night but I wanted to just get one foot in the door so that if they want to humm and harr about the rates that provisionally she seemed happy with, then they can argue with me after they pay me. I can just see that if I wait until next week they will have had a chance to decide that they're not happy with the rates I've quoted and because I won't have subbed an invoice to them they'll only pay me at the old rates, not the new ones. I really don't know what else to do but be prepared to stand my ground on the issue. I completely believed that there was no issue with the prices I quoted and that all she needed was a sign off and to email me the contract. Now I'm a bit stuck in nowhere land because nothing has been finalised and I have no contract to protect me at all because she's now wobbling over the deal. I also can see something else coming - because we don't have a written contract they may choose to terminate my services immediately because they don't like the rates I quoted them. I figure this way at least they have an invoice and the rates were verbally agreed upon (if she didn't bother to double check with anybody in charge before letting me walk out of that office last week I figure that's her problem to sort out now, not mine) so if the worst case scenario happens at least they will have to pay the invoice I've already given them (but I'm a worrier so I'm going to double check that to make sure I know where I stand in the situation).

So that's been my Friday so far.......grrrrr! And it appears Krys from SM isn't going to send out any nice emails this afternoon which is downright deflating right before the weekend!!!

Cyberscraps opens tomorrow and I don't even think I'll get to the shop at all :( because of logistics but I'll probably go in Monday afternoon after 1 o'clock for a couple of hours.

Jamie is going to his first school disco tonight (all of grade one he is!!!) and he's just bustin' with excitement!!!! They will have coloured hairspray for $1 (thanks so much to the school for that FAB idea.......what a mess to get out of his hair again!), lots of flimsy, poorly made glow-in-the-dark toys from $1 - $4 each (that will be broken before he even gets home but apparently that's okay as far as little kids and glowy things are concerned), and he's going to dance (or I imagine he's going to give it a red hot five year old go anyway!!!!). Lachie is going to the older kids' disco an hour and a half later and he's quite excited too for a kid who doesn't like anybody watching him dance. I'll be home with Blayd and Her Royal Highness. I may even get some more scrapping done if I can get Caeligh into bed early enough (yeah, funny ha ha I know!!).

I have to dash and go pick up the tribe from school and kinder because James and Lachie need to be home very early so they can get ready for their big night out!!!! I believe some kind of hair wax/gel/product is going to be required and a bit of fancy work from Mum the hairstylist!! Have a luverly evening chickies and I'll blogga blogga more on the weekend! Cya, Lu