I started working for Jim Pike (President of Vector Graphics) in June. I had been working on starting my own small business, but this appeared to be a good career move, so I abandoned my dream of owning my own business to go to work for him. He had a very attractive position with an opportunity to expand my knowlege of printing and move up to what he claimed to be "an executive position in about a year." Needless to say that position never materialized. During the time that I worked there I observed several instances where the customer was grossly over charged for services, and the vendors were not paid for services and supplies. Employees were encouraged to lie to vendors about not having available funds to pay them. On more than one occasion employees pay checks (including my own) bounced. All the money that the company was making had become a great mystery to ALL the employees. The company is currently trying to hide behind thhe bankruptcy laws of the US in an attempt to reorganize.
Now I have become one of the vendors who has not been paid for services.in September I was laid off by the company, and I accepted the lay off willingly so that I could go back to building my own business. Jim offered to have me work as a free lance artist to "help me out". I had always had a good relationship with Jim, so even though I had witnessed his cheating his customers, vendors and employees, I felt that I was immune to this type of abuse.
In October of Jim approached me about doing a job for him. It was to be a simple file conversion and formatting job for a book for Physiotherapy Associates (a Memphis, TN Company). Jim told me that he was to recieve $1000 for the work I was to do, and that was all he would be able to pay. I told him that was an acceptable amount, I accepted the job, and began to work on it. That was when I realized what a time consuming job this was going to be. I was going to have to put more time into the job than it was worth, but I needed the money, so I went ahead and began the work.
I recieved the job on Wednesday night, and started working on it Thursday morning. The first job I had to do involved seeing exactly what his customer had sent him, and comparing it to the 350 (or so) page hard copy they had printed out for something to go by.
By late Friday afternoon, it was clear to me that over half of the books files were missing, and this was going to me a nightmare of logistics. I phoned Jim to let him know of my situation, and he said to do the best with what I had, but to get him something to show his client by the first part of the following week. I worked night and day all weekend converting all the files and by Monday I was thouroughly exhausted, and spent most of the day Monday trying to get back the sleep I had lost over the weekend.
I got a call Monday night from one of Jim's employees who told me he had to have something to show his client by 5 am Tuesday. I hurriedly threw something together and e-mailed it to Jim's e-mail at about 2 am, and went to bed, pleased with the work that I had done. I continued working on the book the next day not knowing that I was about to have the job yanked from me. Another of Jim's employees called me around 3pm Wednesday and told me to bring the hard copy back to Vector Graphics. I called the production manager to get the facts, and she told me that Jim was furious with the job, and that I had intentionally sabotaged it. She also told me that he did not intend to pay me for what I had done.
I will NEVER do work for Jim Pike again, and I will certainly NOT bring him jobs, like I had considered doing.
I would encourage any individual or company who offers services or supplies to this company to get your money up front, or you run the risk of becoming a Vector Graphics casualty.
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