A thing that a longtime employer and longer time colleague and friend can, theoretically, do is simply stop paying you while demanding the same if not more work. That person could also simply refuse to pay you out on your last day when you quit, after months of being underpaid, paid late, and then ultimately not paid at all anymore. That person can just refuse to send a W2 for 2024, then lie that it’s coming repeatedly, and in the end, apparently not have paid the tax money they took out of your paycheck that year at all, resulting in you having to spend most of a year filing paper tax forms back and forth with the IRS, to try to avoid being charged thousands more by the government on top of the many thousands you’ve already had stolen from you.

The California labor board can be fully five years backed up and not even offer to look at your complaint until then. Your former employer can just stop answering your messages, and continue business as usual as if it never happened. Lawyers can refuse to take your case, likely knowing it’s too small time for them to get any real profit. You can be too exhausted for small claims court, as you’re putting your life back together. You might even (definitely) acknowledge that you stayed in a bad situation for way too long, trying to be a supportive friend and steady teacher through unprecedented times, and then you ended up under the bus anyway.

All of this can happen, and it may put you in a pretty alarming amount of debt. It has for me. I’m not asking to fundraise the full amount of debt, because that’s way too high a number for me to ask for when the world’s a mess and most people I know are struggling.

But during the lean January months, after over a year of trying to manage things more privately, I’m finally saying hey… sometimes life kicks everyone in the nuts, and I could use some financial help to dig myself out of this colossal mess and move on with my life.

If you’ve wondered why I stopped teaching so abruptly… well, now you have a little more context. It’s painful and embarrassing and sometimes, that’s life.