Yikes! Sorry to hear that some places simply wouldn't negotiate. That's really sad. What sort of negotiations did you win at times?
The best job I ever had in my life was working for a man who had previously been the manager of another company that I had worked for. He had only just started up his own business and at that stage was still only a 1 man show. This was January, 1997.
He was a Printer himself so his workshop was laid out very logically and sensibly and was very easy to work in. He already knew me and he was familiar with both the standard of my work and my work ethic, that needed no discussion.
He also already knew that I smoked, drank beer and smoked dope all day while working and that I hated shoes and would work barefoot if I could get away with it. That also needed no discussion. Then came the talk about money:
“You’re only a one man show and you’ve mortgaged the house to set this place up, you can’t afford any of this double time and triple time malarky. My base rate is $600 a week and all overtime is only charged at straight time and a half. But, if it’s more than 2 hours overtime in a day you buy me tea and throw in a few beers.”
He was more than happy with that. He had a wife and kids so it was nothing for his wife to dish up an extra plate at tea time, and he’d run back in to work and bring me a fresh home cooked meal every night, and he never skimped on the beers either.
I ended up working on average about 70 hours a week, it’s the only time in my life I ever achieved the official national average income. I was earning $55K to $60K a year when most people were happy to be getting $30K.
The business grew and we ended up employing 6 others, Kev running the actual business and acting as the sales rep, me taking care of everything outside the office. I never bothered getting him to start paying proper overtime rates, I was earning shitloads, I had the best boss I’d ever had in my life and I loved being there.
Longest job I ever held in my life, lasted 5 years until I had a massive burn out. I didn’t know anything about autism back then.