Salary rant

I don't actually want to talk about personal money matters here on my blog but recent circumstances have been forcing me so. You see, I haven't had my salary yet from my internship. Its already mid-February and I haven't got my payment yet for January. And just I arrived today, my landlord talked to me demanding that I pay my February rent which I thought needs to be only paid postdatedly. And since I haven't paid it on-time, he would levy a Fr. 40 charge besides my rent. How's that for the start of your week?

I have been following things up with the ILO payroll department since the beginning of February. And I have already talked to the head of the payroll. All I got was a 15-minute explanation that they are doing all that is necessary to have my payment disbursed. Again and again and again and again for 15 minutes that they are doing everything they can to have my payments disbursed. Ten minutes later, I went down to the coffee shop to grab some tea and I saw the guy there chatting with 3 fellow employees. Yes, they are doing their everything to have my payments disbursed.

It hasn't been really smooth sailing for me here. I kinda sensed from the start that everything would not go as well as planned. As you may know, I started applying for a Geneva internship way back May last year. I got an email from them last June informally confirming their interest in getting me as an intern. However, no contract was issued until 8th December. I sent them up to 16 emails just to push their ass around to work on my contract and it took them like 6 months to have it issued. And yes, because of that, I didn't had the time to scout for the cheapest flight and more importantly, ended up being homeless with the crazy Geneva housing market.

Then I arrived. I immediately submitted all the required details such as banking information to have my payments disbursed. I also promptly submitted all the documents to obtain my immigration card which will be necessary to apply for permits to travel to schengen countries. That was way back a month ago but up until now, no document has been issued to me thus far.

Mind you, I am quite dissilussioned with my organization. They say that they work for the betterment of the working conditions but if they could not even do their work, how could you believe their cause. And these people get paid big time, with entry level salaries at Fr. 5,000 (roughly CAD $4999) and they do not even pay taxes. They get a lots of money and vacation time as well (every week, I can always hear them talk about their planned escapade to the Mediterranean, Klosters, Ibiza you name it). And the coffee room is full all the time as you see fashion models with their Fr 2,000 suits and coats parading their Fr 5,000 rado watches lounging in the coffe shop. When you look from afar, you have high regard and esteem for international organization. But looking closer, its just another unefficient government office.

I have been polite to them explaining my problem and predicament. But my patience is running out. And my landlord hasn't been understanding as well, berating me and even saying that 'its my problem of figuring it out for myself.' In other words, he doesn't care and what all he needs is the money. Maybe I should be more pushy and assertive to them and fight it all out? Probably the best thing to do is to yell to them to actually show them how frustrated I am with the way they are treating me. Once is ok but twice, thrice, or the fourth time around, its a different story.