RainmanP

OK, now the picture becomes a little clearer. Sounds like he is a good guy, just forgetful. Maybe we can work with that. Now you have some decisions to make. Do you like the boss/shop/atmosphere enough to try to make things better or do you want to hang it up and go somewhere that you just have to worry about working on bikes?

I have read and believe that the manager/employee relationship, assuming everyone is acting like rational adults and not playing games, should be as follows: The manager/employee relationship is a sybiotic one. The manager's responsibility is to make sure that the employee has the training, tools, equipment, environment, etc., to do what he/she is supposed to do. The employee's responsibility is to take these tools and make the manager look good. Some may quibble, but if you think about it, that is what it comes down to.

I assume the boss has provided the physical requirements for you to do a good job as well as a reasonable environment. The forgetfulness generally, and forgotten pay days specifically are making the environment less than ideal. If you want to give it a shot, maybe you could try to help set up a system or systems to help the boss do a better job. Now, how can you go about this? Tell the boss he is forgetful and you are going to help him? NO! NO! NO! One has the authority to tell a subordinate what to do, but not a boss!

Try this. Do you have a job board of some kind? At a relaxed time when things are calm, tell the boss that when things get hectic, YOU sometimes feel a little overwhelmed and have trouble keeping track of what needs to be done first. Suggest that YOU set up a simple bulletin board to pin up job tickets so you can see at a glance what is in the shop. If he goes for that and you get it set up, MAKE IT WORK. After a week or two, mention that it is really helping you by making it easier to keep track of things. Then, again in a relaxed moment, you could suggest, "Hey, maybe you could stick up notes on things you have to order, repair, etc., and make a note on it when you order it or plan to do it. That way, when a customer calls and you are not available, I can tell them that the part was ordered or when you plan to get to that difficult repair." This can have at least two major benefits. It really CAN help you, reducing your stress, and it will help him, which also helps you.

If you can get something like this working, maybe you can think of other things that will help everything get more organized. The more organized things get, the smoother they will run, and maybe, just maybe, the paychecks will get done on time, too! This is not a quick fix. It won't guarantee that you won't have to ask for your pay next week. But maybe in a few months things will even get that organized.

It is seldom productive to "confront" a boss about something. Even if he knows in his heart you are right, he will more than likely react defensively because he is embarassed. You would be amazed at what you can accomplish by suggesting little things that will help YOU do YOUR job better that will also help him do his job better.

Running a small business, and I would think especially a bike shop, is a stressful occupation. The owner is ultimately responsible for everything. When things are going great, he may do well. When business is slow, he is the one who is on the line for the rent, utilities, paying the bank loan for the parts inventory and all those bikes gathering dust on the showroom. All those people as well as employees, expect to be paid timely, whether a bike gets sold or not.

You may already have a job board. If so, that is fine. My intent here is to suggest an approach on how to help your boss, and ultimately, YOU. Learn all you can about running the shop and constantly look for ways to make your shop the best. After all, you may want to buy it some day or start you own and you will know how to run a good one.

Now I am going to say a couple of things that may sound harsh. THEY ARE NOT DIRECTED AT YOU PERSONALLY AT ALL. They are aimed at a common response. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE OFFENSE.
Here it is: PLEASE DO NOT post a reply saying "But..." or "That would never work here because..." Such thinking is counter-productive. IT IS TRUE. What I have suggested may not do any good at all. BUT SOMETHING MIGHT. You know the shop. You are there. The point is to start a thought process about what COULD be done to make things more organized and therefore better.

I hope you realize that NONE of this is to suggest that you are not doing a good job. Suggesting ideas to help oneself do a job better is kind of camouflage for suggestions that will help the boss. But for it to work, the employee has to be sincere and does have to work the suggested system whole-heartedlyand attribute improvements to it. The boss must never know the suggestions were aimed at him or it will never work again and he might even be ticked. He has to think, and it has to actually be so, that your intent was to set up something to help YOU do a better job for HIM.

Hope you are able to get some things going and resolve your initial concerns. The shop sounds like a pleasant place to work if you can just help get the boss more organized. Your boss sounds like a very accomplished mechanic. I mean, he actually does his own welding? That is pretty amazing to me. But even the best mechanic does not necessarily make for a truly effective small business operator. It sounds like he runs things strictly by the seat of his pants, probably with no training in accounting, inventory control, salesmanship, or the other skills that help make a small business work better. A very few people pick up these skills automatically. For the rest of us it is a difficult learning process.
Best of luck!
Raymond