During my last quarter of college, I started an internship at ABC Corporation. After transfers here and there, I finally landed that dream job in the marketing department. During my internship I was paid through a temp agency. Acceptance of the position in marketing meant that I was no longer a temporary employee, that I would actually begin to receive benefits, etc. WOW! My first real job. But, there was a catch.

At the time of my hire, ABC was reevaluating some of the hiring decisions they had made and therefore, placed a hiring freeze on all departments. So, to get around this, and to get help as soon as possible, my boss hired me, increased my pay from what I was making as a temp (but not to the full salary I had negotiated upon acceptance of the permanent position) and told me that I would have to continue working as temp for about 3-4 weeks until the hiring freeze was over. I agreed. What an opportunity. I had just graduated and gotten myself perfect job with advancement opportunities, etc. Well, time continued on and the hiring freeze was extended. I was reassured though that I was doing a great job and that I was already considered a permanent employee and a member of the team.

So - what do I do? My spouse and I go and buy a brand new home. Before doing this though, I had to have a letter signed by my boss explaining my temp situation. My boss did so, explaining the situation to the lender and assuring the lender that I would be permanent in no time. Although I was not always busy, I worked my butt off, sometimes 10-12 hours a day. On those days that the workload decreased, I offered help to team members, etc. In comes Martha. She was my direct supervisor but Norma was both my boss and Martha's boss. Martha was never happy with anything I did. She made comments like: "Well you could not have done that good of a job it you did it that fast, etc., etc., etc." The story can go on much longer but to make it short, after promises of permanent employment, a signed letter to my lender, etc., Martha came to me one day and told that they were going to have to let me go due to budget cuts. (This came just a few months ago when ABC was doing all that laying off). So, in the middle of a move from my previous home and waiting for my new home to be complete, I was unemployed. Aside from her bad attitude, the thing that makes Martha a really bad boss is that she smiled the whole time she was laying me off. Really, I guess I never had a chance!

Editor's note:  the person who wrote this told us to include the name of the company and the names of the people involved.  We decided against this to protect the confidentiality of the writer.  The names have been changed. It is not our purpose to embarrass any company with these stories, or to place anyone in an uncomfortable situation.

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