Thanks for your reply. Yes, he is a bully, definitely. It is strange, because I used to work for him on some other small projects and he was reasonable to work with and paid me fairly and on time. Now it is a completely different story. I guess the idea of being the big boss has gone to his head. As my husband says, his true colors are showing.

I went to my respiratory doctor yesterday to get a prescription refill. My heart rate was through the roof and he thinks the symptoms I am having when dealing with work stuff are definitely panic attacks. He asked what was going on. I gave him a short description about my work situation and said if there is any way I can quit I should consider it because the stress is not good for my health.

He has sent two more messages trying to get me to commit to that project, which are full of lies. He presented me to the client as one of the people who was going to be doing a big portion of the work, along with one other person. He said very clearly to the client that he was going to have us do the work because he has experience working with us, and that he wouldn't bring in a team of unknowns, interns, students, etc. to such an important project. Now he tells me that he only needs my participation in one part, but I don’t know if I believe him. I mean, either he is blatantly lying to the client or to me and either way it makes him untrustworthy.

He also gave more sob stories about money. When we discussed salary back in early 2015, he said he had to start low, but by May (2015) he would give me my first raise. It's now almost a year later I've not had one raise, but he has piled on tons more work. He pleads poverty with me, but spends a bunch of money on things that add little value to the business. I am supposedly part-time, but I work way more than that. Who knows if I will ever get a raise from him. My patience and trust is destroyed.

In addition, my husband is a lawyer. He’s not a labor law expert but looked at some labor legislation and he thinks that I should have never have been treated as an independent contractor, which is what our owner is doing – with everyone. He should have been paying my pension contributions and health insurance all this time. I may even have a basis for a lawsuit or at least to report him to the labor inspection office. So again, he is not ethical.

Unfortunately, the job market here is tough. That is why I have stuck it out so long, I would rather have some money coming in. I can probably at least have some income from some freelance things I do, but it will be less. I have an idea for a business. I was hoping to save more money before starting it, but maybe I need to push it up.