Some Nicknames are Given, and Some are Earned

As I said before, I will not use real names in this blog for thee companies and for people that I used to work with while working as a federal contractor.  So, I thought that it would be fun to make up company names and their acronyms.  Some names I have made up on the fly and some are their earned aliases.  One of the earned alias’ is Act Like a Broke Bitch.com.  My friend made up this name for a company that I worked for over 10 years ago and it stuck.  The real company no longer exists, however, whenever it has been mentioned and I say ALBB instead, people who remembered or worked with the company would break out into laughter. 

I started working for ALBB in January of 2001.  One of the advantages of the company was that the business was more transparent, so you could feel like you had more control over your job and your money.  For, example, I knew ALBB’s billable rate for me, I was able to customize my insurance and some of my other benefits.  The idea was that this in turn would motivate me into being a better worker.  Well, one of the benefits ALBB had was you were allowed to put some of your pre-tax income away in a separate account.  You could use this money to pay for classes, workshops, or books related to your profession.  I loved this idea.  I had always wanted to go to the Society of Technical Communicator’s (STC) convention but I was never was able to save up the money needed.  This benefit allowed me to take a year to save up for the convention.  After a year, I was able to pay for the convention, flight and the hotel.  Well, when I was ready to take the money out of the account, I called my company and they sent me a check.  I decided to speed up the process by going to ALBB’s bank and cash the check.  When, I handed the check to the teller, she looked at the account and told me that the money was not there, so she couldn't cash the check.  I stood there wondering how this could happen.  I had been having money taken out of my paycheck for the past year.  My company didn't have any financial problems; at least not to my knowledge.  Well, I went back to work, and I called my company.  My account representative went to the owners and told them what had happen.  Later that day, she called me back, she that the bank had made a mistake.  And, I needed to go back to the bank.  So, I went back to the bank the next day and they had my money.  However, I don’t believe that the bank had made a mistake.  After that incident, my friend nicknamed them Act Like a Broke Bitch.com.  The name stuck.  I wish that was the only financial story I had about ALBB, but it isn't.  They continued to earn their name until the very end.