friendship soured while working for a friend

[aprilgoddess]

I have been friends with this guy for around 9 months now. We met at a party at a mutual friends place and hit it off right away. Since then we sometimes meet to catchup over movies, coffee etc. Its a strictly platonic friendship. Now this guy is extremely frugal when it comes to money. He always suggests the cheapest places when we go for meals and also picks places close to his house to spend less on gas. I usually agree to go along with his choices since he is good company.

 

he has been working on his startup venture for a few months. Since I had just quit from a place and was looking for a new job, he asked me to work with him.We decided to start on a trial basis for a month and formalize things after that.So I worked for him for a month during which I did enough work for his company and spent on gas and phone expenses for work. After 1 month when we decided to formalize things, he tolm me he would pay me a fixed amount per month. This amount is less than 50% of what I was getting for my prev company. I told him that, but he said work till you find a new job. SO I agreeed. I worked for him for another 45 days after whch I decided I couldnt continue.So I told him I would like to quit but would help him till he found a replacement. He told me that I could stop right away and that he could manage.

 

Now I had worked fr him for 2.5 months including the trial period. He paid me 1 month salary on my last day. WHen I asked for the remaining amount, he said the first month was a trial period so he cant pay me for it and for the 15 days of this month, he started making excuses.I decided to forgo the first month salary but persisted on the pay for the last 15 days. He finally agreed to pay for the 15 days but this has really soured our friendship. He called me unprofessional and acted like I was being unreasonable. I dont know if I did the right thing. Was I wrong in insisting on getting paid. I even sent some strongly worded emails which he took offense to. I really felt I was being taken advantage of and that motivated my actions. We are not talking anymore. I dont mind the friendship ending but I just need to know if I did the right thing. Any thoughts?

[rask]

Sounds like you did the right thing to me. I've worked for people on a "trial basis" and always got paid for it. It's not like you were interning.

 

Looks like he's just cheap, and probably would've been really crappy on getting you a pay check even if you had of stayed longer. Cut your losses, you don't have to be taken advantage of by someone like that.

[paradisa]

Always tread carefully when working for a friend. Many times it ends badly. You definitely did the right thing here, he was taking advantage of you.

 

I had a situation a few years ago where I needed some help with housework. I was friendly with a family and their adult daughter had a housekeeping business and wanted the work. Everything was fine for a while but then her work started slipping and I had to get after her to complete her work. That got to be really not fun. Finally one day she wanted additional money to clean a window (which was already in our agreement and included in her fee). I had it with her by now though, I didn't want to put up with her declining work performance and requests for additional fees and had to let her go. I really had problems connecting with her family after that and I had to cut my losses and lost all of their friendship.

 

Working with a friend puts the friendship on the line and if you don't want that risk, avoid doing business with a friend in the first place.

[Hoagy]

The law may be different there but I would say you were certainly entitled to be paid for the first month unless he made it clear in writing that you would not.

 

I made the mistake of working for my friend and her husband a couple of years ago. It was good to start with but difficult to define the boundaries between personal and professional, like working with them all day and then going for dinner at their house in the evening. After a few months they terminated my contract over a few mistakes I'd been making but I was honestly relieved and we were able to resume our friendship as normal until this year when we split up for other reasons.

[Captain Obvious]

Why didnt you agree to what you would be payed before you started the trial period?