It´s been a hell of a week.
Yesterday I was severly reprimanded for poor work performance. You know you´re in trouble when your
boss asks you if you "want to contine working here."
Wednesday I was diagnosed with Mononucleosis.
I´ve been working illegally for Deutsche Telekom for months now. Working without a contract, without a work visa, without a steuernumer (similar to a social security number). On Monday I told them that without a contract I couldn´t get a visa (you can´t work freelance in Germany without having lived here for 5 years) without a contract.
They said they will give me a freelancer´s contract next week. Don´t know how that will help me get a visa.
Today my girlfriend was diagnosed with mono too. Fuck.
The only good news is that apparently you don´t need a visa to get a steuernumer and that we filled out the forms correctly so that is on it´s way to me.
This means I can continue to work illegally in the country - you see in the past all DT wanted from me was a monthly invoice, now they want the steuernumer on the invoive in case they are audited by the German tax squad.
But as my boss told me today "your job is in your hands," meaning no more slacking, no more silly errors in my PR stories (saying a company is a DT affiliate when it´s a T-Mobile subsidiary).
All of this work trouble was brought to a head yesterday when my lates feature (about Telekiosks - DT´s Internet capabe phone booths) was declared DOA because when I finally got my interview subject lined up she told me DT is getting out of the Internet phone booth business (it only got into it in November 2001 - no wonder this companies stock has plunged more than 90% in the last 2 years... well that 67 billion dollars in debt can´t help). My boss Colin (nice queer guy who surfs gayporn sites on company time) was really miffed.
You can´t miss deadlines in the journalism/PR game.
Anyhow I´m recovering from the mono, today I got the steuernumer thingy, and next week my work is gonna kick ass. My attitude is turned around on account that I´m scared shitless that I might lose this gig. Its too good, too easy and the money rocks (200€ a day).
Fuck I´ve got to watch my ass.