A dick love story.

Part of one of my jobs is to attempt to collect money from people who do not pay my boss. Every work day, i get a list on a desk top computer, that my luddite boss refers to as “cards”, as in “has jayne called the cards? How many cards has Jayne called today?”

A few of these cards are my boss’s “friends” (all xy). Most people on the cards avoid phone calls from our place of business, in general, because they know that they owe the business money and they want to avoid discussing it or paying it or whatever. They just don’t answer the call, or they delete the voice-mail and go about their day.

My boss’s “friends” are usually no different.

Excepting my boss’s friend, who i will call Harry.

Harry owes a large amount of money to my boss, around $15k.

My male boss, who is the owner, and who i rarely see because he avoids the office because the office is work, is a long-time boyfriend of Harry. My direct boss is a 50 year old woman who works 42 hours per week and is the person that i report directly to, she is lovely and i adore her.

As i was trained by my direct boss on how to call the cards, i was trained to call EVERYONE on the cards. EVERYONE.

So that’s what i do.

When i first started this job, almost 2 months ago, harry was on the cards because harry owes a large amount of money. Shockingly, harry dislikes it very much when i call him and ask him when he will be paying on his debt.

Harry is a condescending prick, which is kind of amazing. There’s no shame in falling short when paying your bills, this has happened to almost everyone, at one time or another, and most reasonable, rational people will face the debt and try to make some kind of arrangement to pay, as embarrassing as that can be.

Or he can just not answer his phone when i call. Or he can ignore the voice-mail.

But NOPE. I have to be put in my place because i am upsetting harry by doing my fucking job.

Harry answered the phone a few weeks ago, after i had left several messages. I politely told him who i was and why i was calling, and he said that both of my bosses understand why he is not paying his debt and that he will continue to not pay his debt and that i should stop calling him. I then explained that he is on my list to call, that the list comes directly from both of my bosses, and as long as he is on the list that they give me, that he would be hearing from me, again.

His response was that he has been the owner’s friend for many years and that he would talk to my male boss so that my male boss could “correct my attitude”.

My response was “ok, you have yourself a nice day”.

He failed to call my boss.

This past week, i called harry twice. The first time I identified myself when he answered and he immediately hung up on me, lol. Yesterday, I left harry a voice-mail.

Harry called me back, just a little bit later. Here are the high points, from what i remember…

Me: thank you for calling XYZ, this is Jayne.

Harry: hey, Payne, this is Harry. I thought that I told you to stop calling me.

Me: You did. But you were on the list for me to call today.

Harry: Owner and direct boss understand why i am not paying my bill, i have talked to both of them, you are the only one that is not understanding why you shouldn’t be calling me.

Me: I understand why you don’t want me to call you, but you are still on the list that comes directly from owner and direct boss.

Harry: I am on worker’s comp. Do you understand how worker’s comp works?

Me: Yes, i do. I fail to understand how that exempts you from paying your bills, though.

Harry: you know what? That’s ok, Mayne, I will just call owner and have him handle you.

Me: ok, I understand that it’s upsetting for you to hear from me, but i only call the list that i an given by owner and direct boss. I will immediately stop calling when one of them removes you from my list, or if you pay your bill.

And i think that he might have called me a name before hanging up on me, lol.

I was alone when this took place, my direct boss returned to the office maybe 15 minutes later and she came in laughing. Harry immediately called the owner as soon as he hung up on me, and the owner called my direct boss to tell her that harry was HISterical over the conversation that he and i had.

My direct boss was laughing, she asked me what i said to harry. So i told her.

I asked her what he could have possibly said to the owner? What was that conversation? From a dude who owes $15k, hasn’t paid anything in months and has been left alone about it. How can he possibly spin himself into a victim?

From what she told me, which is all second hand information, that the owner was pleased, because for the first time in months, harry told the owner that he would be in next Friday to pay some towards his debt.

Whether he actually shows up, and if he actually pays, is a separate thing. But he has at least promised to come in and pay.

And he dreads hearing from me so much, that he might actually keep his word.

So the owner comes into the office later on, and he wants to talk to me about harry. According to what he told me, harry was upset about my “tone”.

This dick dragger owes thousands of dollars and he has not offered to pay a dime in months.

But obviously, the problem here is my TONE.

My whole life, I have heard this. This is my particular brand of gender non-conformity. I look traditionally feminine because i have big breasts for my frame, long hair, so i appear feminine, and males place an expectation of behavior based on appearance.

Until i open my fucking mouth.

My voice is low, for a woman, and i refuse to simp. I am not unkind, but i am blunt and honest, and those qualities are coded as masculine.

My male boss should have responded to me with a “good job, thank you”. Instead, i received a lecture on my tone.

I asked him was i rude? What did i say that was out of line?

He affirmed that everything that i said was fine, it was my fucking TONE.

Then we had a really long conversation about how tone is paramount, lol.

The interesting thing is that my direct (female) boss has the same communication style as i do, AND the owner’s girlfriend also has the same, “unfeminine” communication style, and she occasionally works in the office, as well. We are the women who get shit done for his lazy, incompetent ass. We make every single dime that comes into his business, and we all have the SAME TONE.

But as soon as one of his loser boyfriends is upset that he has to pay his fucking debt, we are tone policed.

This is what solidarity looks like, lol. Dick will prioritize dick. Every single time. No matter what.

Jayne❤