Independent Contractor or misclassified?
Hi!! I just wanted to get some input from other pet sitters on how you would interpret this situation.
I worked for a pet sitting company for a while but recently left. I got initial information before signing my IC agreement but at the time wasn’t fully aware of how many pet sitting companies toe the line for employee misclassification.
There is a management structure of manager/owner, assistant manager, and team lead. Lots of control over schedules, availability, trying to limit time off for certain holidays due to lack of prepping (but also admitting they can’t due to them being 1099 but still trying.) Exact outline of how to handle operations, always need to loop management into communication/check first before signing up for a walk, sit, or job! Made clear owner would be handling all forms of communication, even if the pet owner let me know something directly, the company owner would have a separate communication thread with them to filter information down to me or other “team members.”
Biggest issues were one time completing services with no payment for that chunk of time due to incorrect invoicing (refused to send an updated invoice) & variable overhead fee taken off the top depending on the job/contractor! Never knew if it was 15% or 25% - which I found out way later. I did leave this company but looking back so many things seem operationally incorrect or illegal.