Well the recruiter asked, so  I answered.  Not in a very negative way, just sort of, this is what I imparted at the beginning, this is what was told me, this is what is happening.  Look I'll drive that ruck - I have - without stopping for hours and hours.  Get it over with. If the next stop is 9 hours away, I"m driving it out until 6  or 7, where I have to stop by fed mandate for a 30 minute break, get out of the truck, exercise, and then go until it's done.
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Yesterday, neither my final vacation payout nor my first paycheck arrived in my checking account.  I should have gotten both.  Meaning, for the time being, putting off paying the mortgage payment.  I can do that all the way up until the last day of the month, after that I jeopardize my credit score once again.

I have enough to pay it, but not enough to pay it and the bills that are going to hit my account in the next 15 days.  Right now, the worst that happens is a $40 late fee. 

Obviously, I contacted both my GM of the old company and the recruiter of the new company.  The recruiter wrote back and gave me a number to call for a specific person - who did not answer the phone.  I tried throughout the day to get a hold of him to no avail and left my name and phone number, with no reply to it.  I wrote the recruiter back asking him to look into this, for whatever money is there, I want, it's owed to me, this isn't really a good way to start off an employer-employee relationship, thanks. 

I don't mind that he handed me off to the department that deals with it, I do mind that that department doesn't answer their phone nor reply to their voice messages. 

As for the vacation hour payout, the GM wrote back and said he would look into it. At the end of the day, like 9 hours later, I heard nothing back from him and asked him why.  He made a lame excuse and yes, I called him out on it, then wrote the Regional Manager for help with the situation since he wasn't going to do anything.  Monday, I'm bypassing both of them and calling payroll myself.  I should have received that payout yesterday.  I will find out why it wasn't paid out, it is company policy, in writing, that's all I need. 

So, two strikes.  Fortunately I had the money from the house rent in Phoenix in the account - otherwise I would be totally screwed right now.  Like, get out the credit card again and start paying bills with it, for there are no other options.  I want to start paying those cards down, not continue to have to use them. I figured go pay out $500 on one card with the vacation payout, which will bring that card down to almost zero.  I then figured to start paying off one of the zero interest accounts, I have two of them now.  That will take some time, but I need to get this credit card junk managed.

Well well well. Sure enough, the Regional manager wrote and gave an excuse for the GM. Short, curt and to the point.  My rather short email to him was polite and professional.  No reason for him to reply to me in that manner.  I have no expectation of ever going  back there, certainly not now.  I mean, yes if I moved back to Phoenix I would certainly ask my old GM, he's a great man, knows how to treat employees like family, like they are a part of a team and makes you feel like you actually belong there. The Regional manager over there as well, very cool person. 

I did reply to him just now, but not in kind.  I'm not going to fall for it.  I don't care what they think about me, my requests for pay raises went ignored. That's that.  In fact, the GM actually lied to me about getting a pay raise, but he doesn't acknowledge that, of course. I didn't bring that up, at all, in this round of emails, not worth it.  I'm going to go out in class and keep my head up.  Whatever happens to me, is on me at this point.  I am going to rid this new job out for while - unless there are going to be pay issues, that's a bit ridiculous.  I will be keeping my eyes open for a local job that pays good enough and gets me home at the end of the day.  If I'm going to live in a truck, I want one of the new ones since they have already reneged on their promise to "have me home most nights".

That was just utter blather, no reality to that at all.  I don't want to move around from one place to another, but in the trucking industry, that is actually a very common thing to do. Move around until you find one that works for you.  They are mostly the same, but it's how you are treated that makes the difference. I was going broke at the old company, I was going into debt, no thanks.  I made my pitches on several occasions for a pay raise, it ended up empty handed. That's their decision, mine was to move on, I let them know that near the end, like the last few months.  I flatly told them because of the hour reduction, my banking account was almost drained and I had no savings. 

When I got to the point that both were empty, living paycheck to paycheck, that's when I made the move. This wasn't some thing that I just decided to do overnight. This was a long time in the coming.  I can say that I am very elated not to be working for that a-hole boss anymore.  It's like becoming unshackled from chains and locks. 

Anyway, I must be about my Saturday. Need to visit Walmart and get some supplies for the truck - water and low calorie, low fat snacks to munch on.  The granola bars I bought for the last two weeks were okay, but just okay.  Try something else.  And a haircut.  It's pretty difficult to wake up in the morning and not have a shower to go to to wash your hair and get it kempt looking again.  I have to have a haircut that looks good regardless and that would be short hair.