Some of you might remember me, EthelG. My dad passed away two years ago and last year I lost our home in a foreclosure. I'd been living different places since then. Last summer I got a job at a second-hand store run by this lady who also runs the hotel I live in. The job at the store is in exchange for the rent. This would be okay except my landlady/boss has been getting emotionally abusive toward me at times, putting me down and stuff. She'll get into irrational rages toward me and other people who work/live in my building, showing controlling behavior and saying very hurtful things, and being downright crass and rude and using foul language at times. Then she'll turn around and act all preachy to me and other people, and when you try to confront her about the way she's treating you she'll get all defensive, saying stuff like "You're blowing it out of proportion", "I'm not hurting you, YOU'RE hurting you", "You choose your own reactions" (to whatever), and like that. Moreover, she's not paying me a regular salary---I can keep my commissions but if there are no sales that day that means I get nothing. She insists I'm a "contract laborer" and keeps talking about having me sign a contract, when in fact I am legally considered an employee (I work set hours, do NOT get to choose them on my own or come and go as I will, and have even put in unpaid overtime). She's constantly blaming me and my co-worker for stuff and doesn't apologize even when there's proof she's wrong; and I could go on and on from there. Oh, she has her nice side, but I don't trust it anymore. I live in a constant state of stress (working in a bad neighborhood is stressful enough), because I'm getting along with her one minute and the next minute she's making me so unhappy I want to leave everything I have and walk off, even if it means living in a shelter. She's getting more and more cruel to the poor people living in the neighborhood and charging very high prices at the store where I work, while underpaying people who come to sell things.

I'm getting more and more unhappy with my situation and trying to find other work (with little success so far) so I can move out of there. The only reason I stay there is because it gives me a place to live and I have no money to live anywhere else. Without income, the charity groups can't even help me. But because of my weird working situation, I can't even collect unemployment. I'm going to try to apply for SSI again and I hope this next time works. Is there anything I can do? I have enough grief in my life without dealing with this person and her Jekyll/Hyde personality.