Melissa in Australia Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Best wishes to him. I hope he does stand his ground - and win. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkTulip Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 I've somewhat avoided this thread up until now because it hit a little too close to home. Yes, we have lost significant income in 2017 and have done some pretty drastic things to compensate. DH is a self-employed attorney who walked away from his biggest client this summer due to some definitely unethical / borderline illegal things they were asking him to do. This single client (a large business with 15+ outlets state-wide) represented about 80% of our income, and had been DH's client for the past 15 years. The second generation of ownership took over and wanted to run things more aggressively. It was a huge blow, and has hurt a lot. We sold our house and moved into one that is less than half the size. We sold a ton of our stuff, including a lot of furniture, and got rid of even more. We sold two cars, and have been shuffling schedules with one car to be used by 4 drivers that have very different schedules. That one has been the hardest and we may pick up a beater car in the next month or two so I don't have to drive DS to work every morning at 5. I have picked up work as a substitute teacher in our local school district. DH has applied to numerous law firms both in state and out of state. The problem is he doesn't have a very large book of business to bring after losing this client, which would definitely be expected from someone with his years of experience. No luck with any in-house positions, either. So he is just out there hustling, trying to build up his client base to compensate for the loss of income. He has seen some success on that front, but it is going to take years to get back to where we were, if ever at all. I'm so sorry you are going through this, and pray that your DH's meeting with the CEO is successful! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 DH is a self-employed attorney who walked away from his biggest client this summer due to some definitely unethical / borderline illegal things they were asking him to do. I'm sorry you guys are having such a tough time as a result, but your dh can be proud of doing the right thing. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Stay hourly and open a consulting business on the side. Absolutely do not move to a salary position!!!!!!!! When they need his skills, offer them the option to pay him overtime or to get a bid from him a a consultant. To have a business, you usually need more than one client, Have him start offering occasional bids to other companies, just so he can legally work as a consultant. Do mind the 'do not compete' clauses in any contract he has signed for his employer. One of three things will happen: 1. He will find his consulting business more than makes up for the difference in wages. 2. His employer will grumble and threaten about overtime, but still pay it. My employer screams about 'no overtime' but I have almost 200 hours of OT this year because no one wants to work for them (lower than market wages), so they are forced to pay me OT to keep it up and running. I have More OT than any other year I have worked for the same company (21 years). 3. They will pay his consulting fees because it comes out of a different budget and while it makes no real sense to pay him as a consultant instead of an employee, it does when you have a money in one budget and not in the other. I wouldn't play this game in a one-income family. If the business doesn't value his skills now, there's a high chance they aren't going to come running to him as a consultant. And....what do you do while you wait for them to figure out they want not just those skills, but those skills from this provider? If you have savings to cover that time period and a desire to be self-employed, it's worth a gamble. If not, I wouldn't make this my plan B. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann.without.an.e Posted January 7, 2018 Author Share Posted January 7, 2018 I've somewhat avoided this thread up until now because it hit a little too close to home. Yes, we have lost significant income in 2017 and have done some pretty drastic things to compensate. DH is a self-employed attorney who walked away from his biggest client this summer due to some definitely unethical / borderline illegal things they were asking him to do. This single client (a large business with 15+ outlets state-wide) represented about 80% of our income, and had been DH's client for the past 15 years. The second generation of ownership took over and wanted to run things more aggressively. It was a huge blow, and has hurt a lot. We sold our house and moved into one that is less than half the size. We sold a ton of our stuff, including a lot of furniture, and got rid of even more. We sold two cars, and have been shuffling schedules with one car to be used by 4 drivers that have very different schedules. That one has been the hardest and we may pick up a beater car in the next month or two so I don't have to drive DS to work every morning at 5. I have picked up work as a substitute teacher in our local school district. DH has applied to numerous law firms both in state and out of state. The problem is he doesn't have a very large book of business to bring after losing this client, which would definitely be expected from someone with his years of experience. No luck with any in-house positions, either. So he is just out there hustling, trying to build up his client base to compensate for the loss of income. He has seen some success on that front, but it is going to take years to get back to where we were, if ever at all. I'm so sorry you are going through this, and pray that your DH's meeting with the CEO is successful! This sounds very stressful. I am sorry yall are going through this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann.without.an.e Posted January 7, 2018 Author Share Posted January 7, 2018 (edited) Out of curiosity, is the CEO also taking a major pay cut? How are the dividend payments to stockholders (if publicly traded)? My DH would be pushing back and saying that his department needs to keep his salary the same and give him a promotion on paper. So if he's a director, bump him up to a VP. That keeps senior management happy because what he's getting now would be less than what a [insert more senior title] should make. Thanks for encouraging me to encourage him to push back. He stood his ground, he gained the courage to dig deep and truly evaluate his worth in comparison to lateral positions in other companies, he presented the facts, he stated why he is worth more than "others", he brought up some of the benefits that the others have that he doesn't, and he won. CEO has voiced multiple times that he is truly afraid of losing DH. They haven't decided yet whether he will stay at his current hourly wage with a 3% raise and a reasonable limit to overtime or whether he will go on a salary that is equivalent to this but with a slight increase. Either way, we aren't losing much income, if any. Edited January 7, 2018 by Attolia 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Thanks for encouraging me to encourage him to push back. He stood his ground, he gained the courage to dig deep and truly evaluate his worth in comparison to lateral positions in other companies, he presented the facts, he stated why he is worth more than "others", he brought up some of the benefits that the others have that he doesn't, and he won. CEO has voiced multiple times that he is truly afraid of losing DH. They haven't decided yet whether he will stay at his current hourly wage with a 3% raise and a reasonable limit to overtime or whether he will go on a salary that is equivalent to this but with a slight increase. Either way, we aren't losing much income, if any. Awesome! Thanks for sharing the update. It's nice to hear when things turn out as they should. May it continue throughout the new leadership. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyD Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 OP, that's great news!!! I am so glad that your husband stood up for himself and pushed back. Way to go, Attolia's DH!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Thanks for encouraging me to encourage him to push back. He stood his ground, he gained the courage to dig deep and truly evaluate his worth in comparison to lateral positions in other companies, he presented the facts, he stated why he is worth more than "others", he brought up some of the benefits that the others have that he doesn't, and he won. CEO has voiced multiple times that he is truly afraid of losing DH. They haven't decided yet whether he will stay at his current hourly wage with a 3% raise and a reasonable limit to overtime or whether he will go on a salary that is equivalent to this but with a slight increase. Either way, we aren't losing much income, if any. YES!!! What a great update. I am so glad he stood up for himself. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Borgore Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 deleted by moderator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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