I've been self employed for almost 20 years. Covid hit and I went down to around half income. In 2021 I was contacted by a company to do a day's work a week for them on a self employed basis. Over the last few years that's fluctuated from 1 day to 3 days. They've been dangling a contract carrot for two years but nothing has ever come of it (only interested in a contract for sick pay, if I'm totally honest).
A few months ago massive budget cuts were announced. I assumed that if work was short because of budget issues, contracted employees would be moved to my workplaces and I would lose them (it's happened before). A fabulous opportunity came up for me which meant I would have to give up 1 hour of work for this company a week. I took the opportunity which pissed off the manager of the company, he had a right go at me about letting the project team down and has been very cold with me since. Not long after this, I lost a day's work with the company, not because of employees being moved over but the work not being there any more. Because of the opportunity that I took which cost an hour of my time with the company, my income has only dropped very, very slightly, so not too bothered about it income wise (going to miss the people I dealt with at the other organisations though).
Fast forward to this week and I should have gone in for training yesterday but couldn't because of illness I've suffered for the last month. I messaged the manager (which is all I needed to do and the training wasn't compulsory anyway) as I was waiting for a call from GP, and had no acknowledgement. This morning I messaged (again because I was keeping the line free for a GP call back) another manager about another matter, apologised for not being at training yesterday due to being ill and asked about the project that we work on together. There was no "hope you're feeling better" or similar, just straight to the point.
I have ADHD and the RSD has kicked in big time. I've always been a yes person to this company which is how I ended up doing 3 days instead of 1, covering for other staff as and when needed.
My main self employment has picked up a lot over the last year or so and is now better than pre-covid, and the new opportunity that I took is amazing and I feel really valued there. I'm really tempted to tell this company to stuff their work but don't want to tarnish my professional reputation. My DH wants me to stay on for the extra little bit of money it provides as it pays for little extras like weekends away or boys toys like fence sprayers.
I have to go into the company office tomorrow and I'm dreading it. Like I said the RSD has kicked in and I don't know if I'm taking it too personally that no one has acknowledged that I wasn't well yesterday or if it's a sign of how little I'm valued at the company.
Somebody please talk logically with me and stop me making an impulsive ADHD decision.