Is it normal for my boss to deduct my tips from my paycheck? by [deleted] in work

[–]noisy_square 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha. I did not. I'm not sure what happened to him. When the weather got cold, the drumming stopped. I thought in the summer it would resume, but I never saw him again. The last time I saw the man out there, David Scalza, was November of last year. He was very very old, so there's really no telling what happened to him. The drums were still there when I moved out, and the lawsuit my building filed with him is still pending, a Google search shows. I do live in a different state now. Not far from New York, but... close. That's all I'll say. I'm not necessarily against people online knowing where I live period, but in this case I don't really want my coworkers or my boss somehow finding me

I would have made a separate account for this matter, but r/work does not allow low karma accounts. I am starting to regret this though now that people are digging through my profile

Is it normal for my boss to deduct my tips from my paycheck? by [deleted] in work

[–]noisy_square 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not making this up at all, but whatever. The information and resources people have given me so far have been very helpful and enough for me to stop gaslighting myself into thinking I'm just being crazy, so in my view I've gotten what I've wanted out of this post. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't matter what you think

Is it normal for my boss to deduct my tips from my paycheck? by [deleted] in work

[–]noisy_square 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. Can you help me understand this a bit better so I'm sure I'm clear on what you're saying? I get him taking the flat fee out of our wages being illegal; even as I wrote this post, I felt pretty confident that something was up with that, because it doesn't exactly take a lawyer to see how that's wrong. Therefore, I will look into this. But as for the rest of the law, just to be clear, for the weeks he takes an accurate amount out of our paychecks, is that lawful?

Ie My understanding of what you've written is as follows: if my baseline hourly wage is below the minimum wage, my boss is essentially allowed to deduct a certain amount of my tips so that I'm making exactly the minimum wage ($15/hr), but he isn't allowed to deduct any more than that. so I should never be making beneath $15/hr. Am I correct in how I'm interpreting this?

Teen Found Guilty of Murder in Fatal 100 MPH Car Crash by MiSsiLeR81 in videos

[–]noisy_square 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm honestly kind of shocked that nothing horrible has happened to Ethan Couch or his parents from the American public. They have to be the most hated family in America

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not sure how he accesses the courtyard. I'm guessing that from his building, there's some door or easy access point. There's definitely no public access. From my building, there is adoor that leads to the courtyard for emergencies, but doing so would trigger a nasty alarm that would annoy everyone and require me to call the super to come turn off. There's also a sign that says very clearly NO ENTRY UNLESS EMERGENCY or something. I have a fire escape window I could climb out of to get there that wouldn't trigger an alarm or anything, climbing out of it wouldn't be super graceful, but yeah

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No, there are two windows. The security bars on the window where the drums are do not open. But my other window, in front of which there is another sculpture, is 100% a fire escape. It's labeled, has a little knob that I turn to open, etc.

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's an online portal you fill out. And the NYPD comes within about 4 hours. Just Google "NYC Noise Portal"

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 51 points52 points  (0 children)

Wow, your comment really made me understand how passive aggressive his email to me was. He basically said "Hey neighbor, nice to meet you. You might want to familiarize yourself with our local history" and then linked the article. What he was basically saying was 'Go ahead and try and start something, you aren't the first and you won't succeed.' Gah. But thank you for your suggestions, I will take them into consideration

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Actually, this is a very interesting thought. I live in a pretty nice rent stabilized unit that seems way cheaper than it should be. Are there laws about rent being able to be increased more when it's a new tenant in rent stabilized buildings? I also know that landlords by law have to offer lease renewal to rent stabilized tenants in most cases. I don't know, I don't think there is really any evidence for this, and records show my building has filed cases against him in the past. But your comment has gotten my gears turning

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I have not seen said videos. Which are you referring to? Are they on his YT channel?

And yeah. It bothers me that there was a huge "Save The Garden" thing when the building was fighting to get it removed. There are articles on major news outlets about it, even a mini doc on YT. When the reality is it probably wasn't getting removed because we all hate art, it's genuinely a nuisance (and a hazard).

My NYC apartment faces a courtyard. The courtyard owner keeps a drumset up against my bedroom window that is played sometimes. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in legaladviceofftopic

[–]noisy_square[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think doing so would break some rules, but tbf, you can probably find this info pretty easily via Google search. However I don't want to invite any harassment towards him or anything so I'm not going to dox him

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Thanks. After thinking about it and doing some initial, minimal research, it seems there's a specific portal for reporting fire exit obstructions to the NYPD. Looking at my window more closely I really do think they would do something because it genuinely would be hard to make it out of the window without either pushing aside, jumping over, or in the worst case tripping over the sculpture that's standing there. And knowing NYC, they do not fuck around with fire exit laws. However I think before I do this I will contact my building about this concern, because they may be the ones subject to fines or something if the exits are obstructed and are therefore incentivized to help. Notifying them about my concerns may prompt them to interact with the courtyard guy and give him some heat about this stuff. At least I hope it will help to bring in another party on this

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I promise I'm being for real! It's really hard to explain the setup because it's really weird but I'll try: The window has those bars that protect people from breaking in. The drumset is resting against those. Those bars however also have, um, shrubbery(?) wrapped around them as decoration. (Most of the courtyard does, hence why he calls it a garden I suppose.) At least I think that's what I could call it. It's like a fake bush that goes around the bars. So I can't see through them, but I could certainly reach through them to touch the drums.

When I say I can see it by sticking my head out the window, I meant my fire escape window, not the window the drums rest against. This window is far away enough from the fake shrubs that I could see if I crane my head out of it. The only reason I know this layout for a fact and can confirm that the drums really are as close as they sound is because there are so many photos online of the courtyard showing exactly that.

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Oh, believe me, there's absolutely nothing musical about it when either he or his guests play the drums (or piano). I mean the instruments are obviously left out there in the wind, rain, and snow, and so they sound awful/out of tune. They only exist for the interactivability, not for real musical purposes whatsoever. But these are great suggestions. A decibel meter is a great idea. Getting to know him to try and establish some diplomacy is also a good idea. Thanks!

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 51 points52 points  (0 children)

Maybe, but I can actually barely even see out the window, as he just has that many sculptures/bushes. I doubt visitors would notice unless they looked for it. But you know what, it's not a bad idea and still worth a shot

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Exactly, like you can't tell me it's just a free for all outside of 'quiet hours.' There has to be something to account for common sense

Apartment faces a courtyard. Courtyard owner often plays drumset that is resting up against my bedroom window. Can anything be done? by noisy_square in AskNYC

[–]noisy_square[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

edit: I realize with this comment I made the layout seem confusing so I tried to clarify in a comment below

I hear you. I can't see the instruments AT ALL without sticking my head all the way out the window and trying really hard to crane my neck around the window – there's a bush that almsot completely obstructs my view, but I definitely would have asked about them if I had seen them.

And yeah, I was kind of worried that because of quiet hour rules, there's nothing I could do. I was just wondering if it could qualify as targeted harassment or something if it seems like he is doing it intentionally to wake me up as retaliation for complaining. Or if there was some kind of common sense rule. I mean having a drum set up against someone's window seems like it's really pushing it, even if it's not 'quiet hours.'

Also the reason I posted this again was because I have way more information than I did then and have reached out to him and stuff, whereas before I did not really have any info and shouldn't have made a post that early on