Different Hats

This is my all-time favorite cleaning story about an old employer that I used to work for and the time he was sentenced in a federal courthouse for tax evasion and fraud.

Years ago, my first job that I had was working for a cleaning service and I lasted for close to seven years before we departed. My mother worked at the same place and that’s how I got the job. We left this craphole job when I gave my birth to my first child and we started cleaning houses on our own.

All the years of cleaning for this business, we’ve met some interesting people that range from filthy rich, wannabe rich, and the normal people. I’ve even met some famous faces that include Tom “Bones” Malone (Blues Brothers), Sandra Denton (Salt-N-Peppa), Al Singleton (NFL), and Neil Cavuto (Your World with Neil Cavuto). These celebrities were extremely nice and a pleasure to work for, I’d clean for them again!

I have cleaned hundreds and hundreds of homes, driven thousands of miles, and knocked on so many front doors.

But throughout my time here only one person really ever made such an impact on my life.

My old boss.

His personality type was the exact definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. A man that loved himself and his needs were prioritized first. Someone that looks down at others who are unfortunate and indulges on his egotistical pleasures. His kindness and empathy was expressed through his influence with money and ability to manipulate people. In other words, just a person that doesn’t care about anyone but himself and thinks that he’s better than anyone.

Some people can see those types of personalities, and sometimes people just have their blinds still lowered.

I’ve watched him treat his employees (myself included) just like we were worthless nothings that would never leave the job. He treated his clientele just the same, especially with a cancellation or a minor change. This guy just thought his shit did not stink and that he was invincible from anyone or anything.

Until one beautiful blue and clear sunshiny morning everything changed.

A normal day of us employees walking up the steps into our office door and to the white board of our planned schedules turned into complete madness.

Papers by the folders and binders immediately thrown into black trash bags, the white board that laid out our schedule for the week erased, and employees told to load into the company vehicles and disperse ASAP.

As much as I would love to disclose how and why it went down, I really can’t get too specific about how it unfolded, but it was a tip-off call that lead to this extreme panic and fear.

That tip-off call was a message to the boss that the IRS was on the way. It was a surprise audit thanks to their suspicions and evidence of tax fraud.

His cleaning empire was slowly unfolding, his egotistical ways came to halt, and the truth was finally coming to the light.

Years of hard work and building a business from the ground up was just all a blown-out and fraudulent endeavor.

Lying about income, cashing large checks, paying select employees with cash, not reporting income, the list just goes on man. They already had what they needed on him and he got in BIG trouble.

While everything is coming apart within a matter of days, another shocking surprise surfaced from the shadows and revealed itself.

A second family. A girlfriend with the love child they conceived and lied about for so many years. A secret love that lots of people already had a clue about. An employee none the less. A bitter and tasteless woman who mirrors the personality of her paramour boss. The woman who tore a ripple into the first family to make way for her new and promising life. A woman who stole another woman’s husband away.

In just one month so much changed and we all got to watch the free show.

It was quite the experience to be honest and it went on for a while until the big sentencing.

The news of his tax fraud made the headlines and it was in the newspaper. It really was a big deal at the time and some people were NOT happy about it. People don’t like to hear about other people, especially reputable businesses, not paying their taxes.

Eventually he was indicted on tax fraud and evasion, we all thought for sure that he was potentially going away to prison.

Employees had the pleasure of attending his sentencing day, and I volunteered to come and show my support. Of course I was not there to lend my support and love, I was there because how often does someone get the chance to watch another person be sentenced in a federal courthouse by a top-notch judge who actually deserves it?

So I went with another employee and we sat front and center.

The first thing that happens when you enter a federal building is you take off metal objects, shoes, and other stuff and pass through the metal detector. U.S. Marshals escorted us into a room where everything was about to happen and there was my boss. He was sitting down at a table to the left, and to the right of him was the IRS representatives.

We waited for a while until the judge made her appearance and we all stood up from our benches.

Each party went back and forth, so many questions were asked, and the big moment finally happened.

The judge asked my boss to stand and recite his full name. She read everything over again and all the charges, she asked how he pleaded, and after he said guilty she read him his punishment.

He did NOT receive any prison time. He basically got a big slap on the wrist with fines up the wazoo, and that was it.

The day that my boss was sentenced in a federal courthouse, he cried and ran to his girlfriend along with his friends and family. His first family did not attend.

He walked out of those double wooden doors wiping away his shoulders. Nothing really could stop him I guess. He changed again that day.

I was so young still working at this job, in my twenties barely and I already got such a good taste of the reality of life.

I learned a lot from this guy alone – pay your taxes, don’t lie about your income, the IRS does NOT mess around, affairs never end well with married people, and you don’t have to work for someone like this.

It’s getting close to ten years since we have left this job and all it’s immature nonsense, and it was the best decision ever.

The beauty and the felon are still together living in false harmony, growing older together with the same beating black hearts. In a sad and twisted fate of reality, they really did belong to each other in the end.

Have you ever experienced something like while working at a job? What did you do? What would you have done?