diff --git a/bin/aleesa-telegram-bot b/bin/aleesa-telegram-bot
index 21819e7..ddd2702 100755
--- a/bin/aleesa-telegram-bot
+++ b/bin/aleesa-telegram-bot
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ my $runAsUid = $<;
 my $piddir = "/var/run/" . basename (abs_path ($0));
 my $C = loadConf ();
 
-# if we run under root, create pid dir and set correct owner for it
+# if we run under root, create pid dir and set correct owner for it, same for debug log if it is defined
 if ($< == 0) {
 	my $user = $C->{user};
 	die "Unable to run as root, please define unprivileged user in config.json\n" unless (defined ($user));
@@ -60,25 +60,22 @@ if ($< == 0) {
 		}
 	}
 
-# script intended to run as "unit" user, so drop privs to "unit" user
+# drop privs
 	setgid ($gid) or die "Unable to switch to group of $user($!)\n";
 	setuid ($uid) or die "Unable to switch to account $user($!)\n";
+} else {
+	$piddir = $workdir;
 }
 
 # double fork attach to /dev/null all stdio and go background
 daemonize ();
 
 # write pidfile
-my $pidfile;
-
-if ($runAsUid == 0) {
-# TODO: handle case where we run with unpriv. user
-	$pidfile = sprintf ("%s/%s.pid", $piddir, basename (abs_path ($0)));
-	logger ("Creating pidfile at $pidfile");
-	open (PID, ">", $pidfile) or die "Error opening $pidfile: $!\n";
-	print PID $$ or die "Error writing to $pidfile: $!\n";
-	close PID;
-}
+my $pidfile = sprintf ("%s/%s.pid", $piddir, basename (abs_path ($0)));
+logger ("Creating pidfile at $pidfile");
+open (PID, ">", $pidfile) or die "Error opening $pidfile: $!\n";
+print PID $$ or die "Error writing to $pidfile: $!\n";
+close PID;
 
 # set correct proctitle
 $0 = abs_path ($0);