Seriously rich?

Kinda hard to pin down where the line is. Like, I’ve never met a billionaire that I know of.

Most of the millionaires I’ve met, I didn’t meet long enough to have a fair evaluation of them. Not to the standards where I’m willing to make a claim about their state as a human being, rather than their behavior are that point in time.

Plus, other than one specific celebrity that I had only minor interactions with when I was dating his ex, it’s nobody famous.

But, while I’ll start with that guy, I’m not going to name him because not only would it pin my location down too close, it just seems rude because it would also mean the same for our ex, who was and is a wonderful woman.

That being said, he was a NASCAR driver. In our direct interactions, he was actually really polite, never crossed any lines, wasn’t an arrogant prick, never even tried to say anything shitty because I was dating his ex. However, indirectly, with how I saw him behave towards others, he had gotten to the point in his wealth that a lot of people do; servants become background noise instead of people. I’m not saying he was bad to anyone, he wasn’t. But he just went with the assumption that since they were being paid, no extra effort was needed.

And that is super common among people that can essentially pay multiple people a yearly salary and still have fuck you money left over

I was a nurse’s assistant, and did home health. It may or may not surprise you to discover that a lot of wealthy folks retire to the mountains, or near them. Plus, there’s always local individuals that manage to reach the kind of wealth where they have multiple people providing services in their homes.

So, with me being me, I ended up working for a decent number of that kind of household. Money can’t buy you immunity to cancer, or Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s, or much of anything else that I was particularly in demand for.

Overall, it was actually the less wealthy ones that were less than you might hope. The folks that ran local banks and made good investments, the lower end of the millionaire ranks. Enough of those were either dicks, or had family that were dicks, that it was noticeable. Usually family more than the patients or their spouses. The kids were usually more prone to being arrogant shits than their parents that had “worked” for the money.

Still, never anything where I ended up punching anyone! Wanted to a few times, but the statement that if they kept it up, I’d not come back either ended the problem, or I ended up doing exactly that. See, back then, I’m my area, male caregivers could be counted on fingers. Out of the handful, I was absolutely the strongest, and one of three that had serious experience and went beyond the basic education needed to be certified.

So, I could pick my cases if I wanted to. If I said I was leaving, it meant that they would end up with second or third best, and maybe someone that couldn’t physically hack the job. You get a 200 pound dude with severe contractures post stroke, it takes a strong caregiver to get the job done right, even with lifts and other gear.

Anyway, point is that when the person is the one that built the wealth, they tend to be decent to people, but still treat employees like employees, even when it isn’t necessary or useful. Like, handing something to a maid without saying anything and just expecting it to be handled, even if it wasn’t actually their job. That kind of impersonal thing.

And, not all of the kids were bad. But, when the kids of the wealthy were less than bare minimum decent, they tended to be outright assholes I didn’t put up with that shit after my early twenties, but i saw plenty of maids and groundskeepers and such treated like dirt. Most of the time, I kept my mouth shut because I ain’t fucking with someone else’s livelihood. I raise hell, and maybe they lose their job. Sometimes, I’d have a word with the patient or their spouse, or a more reasonable family member, but not usually.

But the higher end crowd, where the amount of millions started climbing to nasty levels, they were mostly really easy to work for. Much more relaxed, less prone to expecting perfection all the time, way less concerned about costs too. Like, one lady whose husband was my patient dealt with a problem with the van we used for transportation by just buying two more vans so that one was always going to be ready. If I said we needed “chucks” a whole damn pallet of them was in the store room the next day. That kind of not caring. You’d see some of the little m millionaires wanting to keep track of how many of them would get used. Not many, just some of them. But not the big M ones. They did not give a fuck about supply usage at all lol.

Now, one thing that seems good on the surface that the “little m” ones were prone to that the big ones weren’t was gifts and tips. It only applied to folks like me, where we have an ethical obligation that precludes accepting such things without extra paperwork. The really, really rich ones, you’d explain that, they’d say “of course”, and if they wanted to do something extra, the paperwork was handled before they did or gave whatever it was. The less rich ones were fairly often kinda dicks about it, like the rules didn’t apply to them, that the fact it protects us as much or more than them wasn’t important. Most of those types of patients were very generous, even the ones that are assholes. But it was the less wealthy ones that tended to think it didn’t matter, or that their desire to be generous trumped all else.

But, that’s the kind of thing the NASCAR guy was prone to. Not being a dick, just not really thinking about the people as people, and more like entities that exist for a function.

Mind you, he was a dick in other ways, hence the ex part of things. But they had business interests they still shared, so they had to interact a good bit. He’d only be in the area maybe five times a year, though, he didn’t live here, just had property here. So I may have just not seen him being a dick.

I think the only truly bad experience I had with folks in that wealth range, as in bad enough I almost busted someone’s face, was the son of a banker. He was the point of contact for the company I worked for, meaning he more or less called the shots.

Well, we were contracted for both of his parents. Generally, that meant two caregivers. But this fuckstick was prone to “sending home” a caregiver, but expecting the other one to still provide care to both.

Now, I came into the case after he’d burnt through a dozen or more caregivers. His dad wasn’t out of range for smaller caregivers to provide care to in a home setting, and didn’t need the kind of extras my bosses tended to reserve me for.

He tried sending me home twice. I let him know I’d have to contact my supervisor before I left. The first time, he didn’t raise a fuss. I called, she sighed, and told me to go home. The second time, he said to just get out, or he was calling the office instead. Fine, whatever, I just hit a pay phone and called.

Well, after that, my dander got raised. I made it very clear that if I got sent back, and he wanted me to leave, I damn well expected to get paid for my drive time and fuel expenses. Having already burned through a lot of the staff at that company (and a previous one), he actually agreed to that.

And then tried sending the other caregiver home a few days later. And then wanted me to take care of his mom as well as his dad. Which, I have no issues taking caren of multiple patients, I used to do nursing homes. And I have no issues with female patients, though some male caregivers won’t do it even if the patient requests or doesn’t care.

What I did object to is that not only did that company require an extra form to be filled out for a male caregiver with a female patient, but I sure as fuck wasn’t getting paid to do two patients. There was actually a different rate they’d charge, and I got better pay. But only when that’s what the contract was for.

So I said no. I reminded him that I was sent out for his dad, that me taking care of his mom might mean insurance wouldn’t cover any liability, and that the fee scale was different.

He pulled the whole “I’m paying your salary” bullshit.

I have no fucking clue how, but I kept my cool. Told him to call the company if he wanted to change the contract and plan of care.

The office said “just for tonight”. So, fine, whatever, the boss lady was incredible, and I knew I’d get paid the extra, so no worries

But, then I’m upstairs taking care of his mom. Because, you know, she hadn’t had anyone checking on her while he was swinging dick. She needed care, and I went to provide it after securing his dad. Made sure he was clean, dry, and safe.

This asshat starts yelling up the stairs at me that his dad was wet, and I needed to get to it.

I inform him that I’m unable to do so because his mom is in similar condition.

He flips his shit and starts crossing the line into nastiness instead of just being a generic dick that thinks his money is important. I finish up his mom’s care, come down the stairs and walk right to the phone and tell my supervisor she needs to find someone to relieve me or I’m going to walk. He’s ranting in the background, so she’s understanding, but we both know damn good and well there’s nobody else that can or will drive out there at 11 pm with no warning.

I turn to the guy and tell him that he’s going to need to provide care, and if he wants to talk to my supervisor, she’s right on the phone, and hand it out to him.

He doesn’t take it, so I drop it and start packing my bags. I’m past the point where I give a fuck. He’s screaming at the phone, then at me, then the phone, and I’m walking out the damn door.

Hit the character limit, will finish