Job/employer once again

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chevalier

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Some of you probably remember my need for prayers in job matters - I thank you once again. It seems I’m in need of prayers - once again now. Long story short, they’re asking me to sign fictitious contracts and being open about it. The pay I get that way, apart from contracts being bogus, is below minimal wage and I have to pay tuition at my PhD course. Apart from this, they’re also being disrespectful in such a way I can’t really take it anymore - “that would be a fictitious contract to give you medical insurance for a ridiculous amount of money, not to give you more cash”, calling me by first name when I’m expected to address the boss by title etc. Unfortunately, I don’t have any offers right now, although I’m looking. I don’t know what to do at this point, apart from spamming my resume all the way down the list of law firms in my city and praying. I know this kind of situation is pretty normal in this line of work in the beginning, but I don’t want to sign fake contracts or do similar things. I could claim I’m being forced, but I already have problems with scruples and I can’t handle wondering whether I’m sinning or not by cooperating in breaking the law… Let alone the insulting pay and the fact I need to pay for the studies and become independent from my family with bills and the rest (I had a free scholarship at university, which waived the fee but it was daytime and full time, precluding normal work, hence lack of job). It’s weighing on me so much that I’m simply burning out.
 
J†M†J
Praying for your intentions:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

God Bless
In Jesus through Mary
Steve
 
Prayers to St Thomas More, patron of lawyers. He had, apparently, to deal with a lot of shysters in his time (the legal profession hasn’t changed much, I guess, although his main problem was people offering him bribes.)
 
Chevalier:

I’m sorry to hear about your situation, this sounds like a position that you should get out as quickly as possible since it seems like you are being an accomplice in whatver wrong they are doing by just being there. Don’t let pride control you if it bothers you taking a different type of job or falling back on your familly.

I’m praying for you.

Prayerfully,

Renato
 
Chevalier,

I will keep you in prayer. You know what you have to do! The Lord will bless you for doing to right thing.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
 
Renato said:
Chevalier:

I’m sorry to hear about your situation, this sounds like a position that you should get out as quickly as possible since it seems like you are being an accomplice in whatver wrong they are doing by just being there. Don’t let pride control you if it bothers you taking a different type of job or falling back on your familly.
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Good advice Renato!
 
Chevalier:

Your post isn’t really specific but if you are signing bogus contracts that defraud, oh say an insurance company out of money, or individuals out of their savings or putting them in financial peril, understand that things like that are felonies. Insurance fraud will get you time in the big house. If a firm doing things of that nature is caught, guess who the ‘bosses’ are going to blame, yep the person whose signature appears on the fraudulent contract. And operations that demand that employees do such a thing are shielding the ‘higher ups’ by making the employees that patsies who take the fall. You might be able to plead ignorance if the occurence was one time or two, but a pattern of malfeasence doesn’t wash. And if you are studying for a Ph.D and want to work in the legal field, well, a conviction and jail time for felony conviction for ‘gross misrepresentation with intent to defraud’ is going to kill your future.

If that’s the case, get out now. Just quit. If it interrupts your present situation, at least you’ll still have a future. You can go back to school when things settle down.

As I said, your post isn’t too clear as to the exact situation, and I may be reading too much into it, but if I’m right, there’s more at stake for you than a low wage job. At 24 or so, you are playing with fire with your future. And it sounds like you are setting yourself up to get burned.

Meanwhile, I’ll say a prayer for you and your situation.
Shalom
 
Not an easy call…I’d speak to a priest about it. I will be praying to The Holy Spirit that he will grant you wisdom and fortitude with insight…
 
joeybaggz said:
Chevalier:

Your post isn’t really specific but if you are signing bogus contracts that defraud, oh say an insurance company out of money, or individuals out of their savings or putting them in financial peril, understand that things like that are felonies. Insurance fraud will get you time in the big house. If a firm doing things of that nature is caught, guess who the ‘bosses’ are going to blame, yep the person whose signature appears on the fraudulent contract. And operations that demand that employees do such a thing are shielding the ‘higher ups’ by making the employees that patsies who take the fall. You might be able to plead ignorance if the occurence was one time or two, but a pattern of malfeasence doesn’t wash. And if you are studying for a Ph.D and want to work in the legal field, well, a conviction and jail time for felony conviction for ‘gross misrepresentation with intent to defraud’ is going to kill your future.

If that’s the case, get out now. Just quit. If it interrupts your present situation, at least you’ll still have a future. You can go back to school when things settle down.

As I said, your post isn’t too clear as to the exact situation, and I may be reading too much into it, but if I’m right, there’s more at stake for you than a low wage job. At 24 or so, you are playing with fire with your future. And it sounds like you are setting yourself up to get burned.

Meanwhile, I’ll say a prayer for you and your situation.
Shalom
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Shalom as well, Joey. 🙂

No, the bogus contracts would be between me and the law firm. I wouldn’t be signing anything with the clients. However, I don’t even want to sign a contract saying I work less or earn more than I do. Felony is when an employer withholds pay (the gross cases, not every little delay), doesn’t pay insurance, certifies untruth in insurance/tax forms. It wouldn’t be my liability, but I would have a problem looking at it being committed. I’m already much tempted to rat them out. The way things are managed with the pay, however, accepting what they give would mess up the taxes - it would be questionable on the grounds of specifying wrong types of contracts, paying smaller rates than should really be the case etc. I don’t want to do that, which is why I want to quit.
 
I would like to thank everyone for kind support. 🙂 I’ll be praying for you as well. I’m soon going to talk to them. I won’t agree to work for the current boss unless he pays a really good wage (his principal aide is on a long leave, so he may be inclined) and all papers are in order. I think I’ll give an opportunity to another partner, a more reasonable and more respectful (and appreciative) one for whom I do most of the work in that firm anyway (except that other partner “claimed” me).

Also, if I cut it today, it will have been less than 20 days that I’ve been working for actual pay, so I won’t really feel bad about signing a hired services contract for it. Since it turns out the pay was below minimal wage, I wouldn’t be able to sign a normal employment contract like that anyway. Not sure if he knows minimal wage - maybe he’d simply sign it and then I don’t care if labour inspectors get him. But I’m not sure I want to try that one. I really feel like giving up on the money since there’s no way it could be perfectly in order. 😦
 
Told him I’m quitting. Last field assignment tomorrow morning and I’m free. At a loss as to what to do with the money he owes me - since no title of transfer will be true in the circumstances - but free. It does feel liberating. Here’s hoping the law firms I’ve sent my resume and application will begin replying. One replied very early today morning and in a very respectful way, but wasn’t interested - they said they were not recruiting at the moment, but they would the resume for the future.
 
Chevalier,

Stay strong in your faith. Our Lord will take care of you. Your actions show how much you trust in Him. I will pray for you tonight before the Blessed Sacrament.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen.
 
You won’t believe what happened. 😉 No, I don’t have a new job, hehe.

But I called my father some two hours ago and he told me that he and his family had put up a thanks intention for my job. It was read during a prayer service before the mass and later at mass intention. And while it was, “we thank you for a job for Lucas,” the priest read it at mass as, “we ask you for a job for Lucas.” Dad was quite wh-wh-what about it, but now he says it must have been the Holy Spirit. 😃
 
chevalier said:
You won’t believe what happened. 😉 No, I don’t have a new job, hehe.
But I called my father some two hours ago and he told me that he and his family had put up a thanks intention for my job. It was read during a prayer service before the mass and later at mass intention. And while it was, “we thank you for a job for Lucas,” the priest read it at mass as, “we ask you for a job for Lucas.” Dad was quite wh-wh-what about it, but now he says it must have been the Holy Spirit.
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:yup: **You bet!! ** 👍
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I’ve received an offer today.

I thought I was applying for a law-related position (though I can’t exclude it was specialist translation, since I don’t recognise their e-mail address) and maybe I actually was, but after sending my CV, I received an offer which isn’t a lawyer’s job and isn’t employment, either, but offers some perks:
  • position akin to sales/contacts manager
  • contractual relationship, independence, no fixed hours, no quotas, “no nothing” 😉
  • commission 40% on deals, no non-competes, no contractual penalties, no availability requirements
Especially the latter means I can essentially carry on the duties from their contract even as I work as an employee for a law firm. Given the small salaries of young lawyers and the high costs of my education, this doesn’t sound bad.

The range of their services is broad. Generally it’s law, accountancy, taxes, industry security/guard/protection/intelligence, private eye services, obtaining subventions from the European Union (that’s big cash partly because they use EU rates, while our prices are half of what things cost in Western Europe, so sometimes dotations can be quite sizeable), factoring/broking, leasing, investment/retirement funds, loans.

They say one can limit his activities to just one of the branches or more. So if I wanted I could specialise in negotiating legal services and maybe private eye. Since they don’t care if I don’t do a certain branch of their services, I think I could safely ask for a disclaimer that I won’t be obliged to negotiate anything which is related to divorce or which I oppose on ethical grounds (which I would specify). I suppose if I were a ranking representative (meeting with key customers) of a law firm, I would be able to frame the contract in such a way as to make it valuable experience for law firms in the future.

While the job isn’t a lawyer’s job, it offers useful perspectives, the ability to get to know important people, perhaps acting as a lawyer and using a lawyer’s professional title when dealing as a law firm rep, which could benefit me later since people would remember the name along with the title for the future when I open my own law firm.

They also said the job they were offering was, “for the beginning,” which, I suppose, means that if I perform well, there’s room for promotion. They also offer internal training sessions and support from actual marketing experts. I suppose trainings for free are quite another asset.

However, I’m still sending out CVs and resumes and given that I have much time now, I spend time writing nice application letters and presenting myself. I wish I hadn’t rushed the first fifteen that I sent out to leading law firms. 😉 I’m also targetting translation services - for contracts which simply give cash to me and a job done to them, not intenting to work as a full time employee forever.

Please keep me in your prayers not only so that I get a good offer, but also so that I can make a reasonable choice - I’m not the best at choosing quickly and not experienced enough to judge jobs easily between their cash value, useability for the future, relationship with my professional field and assessing which one is the best considering all factors. I’m praying for wisdom and thanking for anything I get. 🙂 I think I’d best like a good salary from a law firm in a lawyer’s job, but I might be inclined to take such jobs that deal with people and somehow involve the law. Though a criminal lawyer is hardly the default education path for a sales rep, I think it does match my talents. It’s hardly a champion of light kind of job, but it could fill my pockets and allow me to pursue education, afford law books, pay bills, set aside some money to start a law firm with when I’m done with the doctorate. I’m also predicting that this kind of experience could in the future make me the difference between associate and partner in a law firm. The gamble is that it might remove me from professional experience as a lawyer. Then again, if they have a law sector, I can always ask them to fill me with a number of contracts for legal opinions, contract/regulation drafts, specialist legal translations and the like.

Thank you for your kind prayers. 🙂 I’m especially grateful for them as offers start coming. This means very much to me. I’m praying for your intentions as well. 🙂
 
I will be praying for you everyday. God is a good and generous God. I’m happy that you are starting to hear from prospective employers. Remember, you are interviewing them just as they are interviewing you.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen.
 
Thank you. 🙂

I’m getting more offers. I have an interview set up with an international law firm and also established a link with a translation office that says the offer is valuable to them and they’ll be contacting me immediately when they get a contract matching my profile. Those contracts are great because they don’t complicate your taxes, they don’t put you in any long-term relationships, you just do some work and get cash to live on. I’m contacting more such offices. It won’t hurt even if I get hired by a law firm since I’m predicting I’d earn more as a full-time translator than as a full-time lawyer, so a couple of contracts to do in spare time won’t hurt. Let’s just hope it doesn’t all end in promises or unsatisfactory offers. 🙂
 
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