u/anonymousmousexo

Location: MD, USA

Filed a wage claim with my state Dept of Labor for two unpaid final paychecks. Before filing, I had an email trail of them repeatedly promising to pay by a date, then pushing it back. I gave a final deadline in writing, they missed it too, and that's when I filed. Notably, in that earlier communication they only acknowledged owing me one paycheck. Their formal response to the state now acknowledges two.

Their formal response also says my claim is factually false and accuses me of timesheet fraud, specifically clocking in without actually being at work. This is completely untrue, and nothing like this was ever raised in 5+ months of employment before this response.

They also claim:
2. I never returned my office key at all. I have an email from my manager confirming she received it on the exact date they now claim was the deadline.
3. I stopped showing up unannounced. In reality my end date and final days off were mutually agreed with my manager, but that conversation happened on Slack and I no longer have access to that account.
4. Their calculated amount owed differs from mine by only about $130, likely a PTO/personal day discrepancy. Given they never proactively sent me a single pay stub in 5+ months and I had to request everything myself, our numbers being this close actually supports my figures being accurate.
5. They've opened an internal investigation and will decide later whether to pay in full or deduct hours.

The part that worries me most: my manager had me switch clock-in methods multiple times (again, discussed on Slack/in-person, so also lost), eventually settling on office computer only. She said this method proved my location through an IP address logged at each clock-in/out. That IP address used to show up on my timesheets, it's now missing from the recent ones. Gusto support confirmed the data appears to have "vanished" and told me to check with my employer. It looks like they're setting up to argue my hours weren't legitimate, while having erased the one piece of data that would prove I was actually in the office.

Evidence I do have: the email trail of broken payment promises (including their earlier admission only one check was owed, not two), the timesheets showing the missing IP data and clock-in method changes (on Slack- noaccess), and the email confirming my key return.

Questions: Does a sudden fraud accusation and "investigation" right at the response deadline look suspicious to you too? Worth hiring an employment attorney at this point, or keep handling it directly with the DOL investigator? Does DOL offer free attorney referrals/consults?

First time dealing with this, appreciate any real advice.

I bought a ticket to see Kettama months ago and was supposed to go with a guy I was talking to, but we stopped talking. I still really want to go, but now I have no one to go with since I'm new to the area (Washington, D.C.).

I've never been to a rave or a big concert alone, and I have a little bit of social anxiety, so I’m nervous about going solo. I also feel like it might not be as fun alone, especially since I don’t want to drink by myself.

For women who have gone to raves alone, would you recommend going solo for a first rave? Is it still fun by yourself? Should I just say fuck it and go? Will it be awkward or uncomfortable without a group of friends or even just another person to go with? 😭

I live in a quiet, affluent area outside city limits. My house backs up to a stretch of woods, no houses directly behind me, just trees for a good distance until a road curves around further back. A house nearby was actually broken into a few months ago.

For the past 2-3 days, I’ve been hearing coyotes/dogs making noise outside, which has never happened in the 6 months I’ve lived here, especially not at the hours it’s been happening.

Tonight it happened around 3:40am, lasting 2-3 minutes. Not thinking much of it, I went downstairs to check on my cat and make sure he wasn’t on the balcony. My porch has multiple levels and a dock, and the balcony has netting, so I couldn’t see anything out there, definitely not farther back into the woods. Something told me to lock the door, so I did.

When I went back up to my room and settled in, I noticed there was more light coming in than usual. My room is normally very dark at night, and there’s no automatic outdoor lighting back there, so I hadn’t turned anything on myself. After a few minutes, the light went out.

A while back, separately, I noticed a chair out in the woods, far enough back from the house that you wouldn’t notice it unless you were really looking. It was positioned directly facing my bedroom window. I also spotted what looked like a camera out there, at a similar distance but at a different angle, easy to miss unless you knew to look for it.

You can actually see directly into my room from pretty much any angle in the backyard, even from farther back behind the fences and into the woods. Because of that, and because there’s nothing back there, I’ve gotten into the habit of not closing my blinds.

My dad is in the house with me. I don’t think anyone I know would have any reason to do this.

Planning to check the area in daylight today. Has anyone dealt with something like this before? What should I be doing or documenting?