If you have been reading my blog posts for the past couple of weeks, you will have read some descriptions and details about how things have been going at my new job that I started five weeks ago.  I was very let down and disappointed that what I thought was going to be a good job at a good company, turned out to be the exact opposite.

Besides complaining about the company that I started to work for, I very nearly could not work because my eyes swelled up to where I could not see due to allergies.  I made it through that, but just barely.  My co-worker/supervisor for a number of reasons, did not want to help me do the work, and began to come to work less and less, to the point that he did not come to work at all yesterday.  The company that I work for, is unaware of this, but the oil company that we are doing the work for, is aware that I have been working mostly by myself, though I am not supposed to be.

I have been working out of town, two hours away from Dickinson.  There is an even greater shortage of women, restaurants, stores, and things to do where I am working, than in Dickinson.  On the drive home to Dickinson this Friday, there is nothing that I was looking forward to in Dickinson.  There are no friends or prospective girl friends that I was looking forward to seeing, no where that I was looking forward to eating, nothing that I wanted to buy, and nothing that I wanted to do.

When I got home in Dickinson, I checked my e-mail.  There was nothing too important or alarming.  I had an e-mail that my on-line pay check record could be viewed.  I looked at my net pay check, and it was disappointingly low.  Looking at it some more, I saw that my company had shorted me 8.5 hours of overtime pay.

I wrote a letter to the company pay roll person, writing down the hours that I worked each day, and my total hours.  I planned on dropping this letter off on Saturday or Monday.  Also, there was withholding for “New Hire”, which I did not understand.

As I thought about it some more, I realized that the company was going to try to not pay me for drive time, which began to make me angry.  I have to wake up at 2:00 a.m. on Monday, to leave at 3:00 a.m., to drive two hours until 5:00 a.m., which is 6:00 a.m. in that time zone, and then work until 5:00 p.m. in that time zone, which is 6:00 p.m. in Dickinson.  In other words, I start driving at 3:00 a.m., and I don’t get done with work until 15 hours later, that’s right 15 hours later.  On my time sheet, my supervisor writes down 12 hours for Monday, but the accounting women and the owner’s wife, just assume that because it is a two hour drive, they will just go ahead and take two hours off that 12 hours.

I could inconvenience the company owner and his wife by filing a small claims suit or a complaint with the Department of Labor, for the money that I am not being paid, but I would probably lose, because this is North Dakota.  The company owner and his wife have a lot of news stories about them because they are so amazingly successful, benevolent, charitable, and run everything so well.  I am seeing and experiencing the exact opposite.

I have to weigh out what I want to do.  Saying or writing what I would really like to do, would only cause me unnecessary problems and not get me anywhere.  The only smart and rational thing for me to do, would be to find another job.

I looked at North Dakota Job Service, Indeed, and LinkedIn, to try to find another job.  There are very few jobs in Dickinson now, very, very few jobs.

I write about things like this in blog posts, because I am frustrated, but also to write what is actually happening.  If anyone came to Dickinson, they would experience the same thing, and perhaps even worse.  Most people would go to the liquor store or to the bar on a Friday evening like this.  This is why most out of state workers get a DUI in Dickinson.  It sucks here so bad, but you can’t drink, or the police will get you.