The company had a policy of “team spirit” so we had to act positive and smiley all the time or you’d loose your job. It made things way more stressful having to put on a fake show from 8 am to 3 am shifts. AGAIN 40 hours pay!

Well they laid me off the fist time with no notice and I’d been there for close to 4 1/2 months. Then after their slow season they brought me back, turned out it was so they didn’t have to pay the original temp agency that had landed me the job. So they made scammed the people you help me get a job… then they started with the pay cuts as I mentioned earlier.

Then they wanted to cut me even lower then half of what I was making before and keep me as salary. which on salary you have to do their mandated extra hours and legally you can’t look for a second job!

I felt like a slave they took advantage of me again and again. I looked into it and at the pay they wanted to give me and the direction of the company, I’d make more on unemployment then I would on my pay checks and if I stayed in 6 months if they laid me off then, I’d be making even lower on my unemployment because of my mass pay decreases. So I convinced my department manager to help me out and just lay me off.
Which he was able to do…

So I’ve been searching for a new job but reaching the end of my 6 months of Unemployment… so I need to extend it. My problem is my old job called 2 weeks ago and is trying to hire me back at that lower wage and on salary again! I can’t work like that! If they brought me back at my original pay I would… But I know they wont and if they did in three months they’d give me a pay cut again and make me work these insane hours.

Here’s my questions… On salary can they legally make you work over 80 hrs a week on 40 hrs pay year round?

And on unemployment do I have to take my old job back if it’s at lower pay from what they originally hired me??? They’d take me back at the pay I technically ended at… but that was un-livable after so many pay cuts! I could not survive on that! I’d loose my house while working 80 hr weeks! and would have no time to find a real job and would not be allowed to find a 2nd job. Can they cancel my unemployment as a “refuse a job position” type situation? That’s what I’m scared of.

This post was submitted by Frob.

I enter the office, close the door and make myself comfortable. Next thing I know, the two HR reps on the line inform me that due to the [workings of the Obama agenda], they were eliminating the position of fitness faculty to reduce company expenditures. My last day on salary was two weeks to the so I guess that was them giving me two-weeks notice.

As for my responsibilities, they were added to those of the person that taught the “business” aspect of the business to sales people and GMs. The first question from my mouth was, “What does he know about fitness?” Their response… “He has seven personal training certifications.” I responded with “What does that tell me about his knowledge of the human body?” They were positive that those certifications made him an expert, but, as most are aware, all a PT certification tells you is they know how to study the way (insert your choice of any PT cert here) wants you to know how the body works to fulfill THEIR objectives in the way that THEY dictate when it should be your client telling you their objectives so that you can fulfill them based upon your knowledge of how this magnificent machine works. I was pissed, especially I’ve forgotten more since grad school than he’ll ever know, and I let them know it, but what’s done is done. By the way, to supplement my point, he resigned from his new responsibilities just a few weeks into the mission. So because I’m still unemployed, I’ve returned to school for a PhD and they are still losing market share!

This post was submitted by Sheik Yerbouti.

This post was submitted by RJF.

Monday morning: The previous week my car finally bit the dust and I had something lodged under my conjunctiva in my eye, so I was on the phone with my doctor when an e-mail popped up on my screen. The subject line was Can You Please Come Upstairs?

Didn’t take a genius to figure that one out. Into the phone I muttered an expletive, a nice way to impress the appointment setter at your doctor’s office, hung up and went upstairs. I got a ‘well you’ve probably known for a while we were going to lay you off’ speech, even though I hadn’t. It came as a total shock because I’d just received a new batch of no-on-else-wants-to-do-this-you-do-it work.

I got handed a check and a letter of resignation. He didn’t even pay me a full week, he cut off four hours and used my vacation time to cover the four he cut out.

Seriously, why bother having me come in on a Monday for an hour and a half? Most of which I spent goofing off on the internet, mind you, but why not let me go on Friday afternoon so I didn’t have to get up early and bother getting dressed the following work day?

I keep getting e-mails from him because I guess he still thinks we’re “friends”. How are you doing? Well, I’m about a $1000 behind on my electric, whatever was in my eye is STILL there and oh, by the way, the day you laid me off, I ran over my dog with the new car I’m still working out payments on. The economy sucks and I can’t find a new job. How do you think I am?

This post was submitted by Beckie C..

So in the meantime I was stuck at my home base in this terrible department where the managers were the biggest low lifes. The department i was stuck in is the one department no consumers ever see or could even imagine a bank has. Its called payment processing. They take people who have GED’s (if that) and put them into this factory like setting but call it a bank job. None of the managers had a college education, which is not a big deal if you don’t have a degree, but at least bring some professionalism into your work. These managers all came from these rough upbringings and would swear at employees. You had to tell them if you were going to the bathroom that’s how badly they micro managed. I remember an incident where my manager came up to me and said we need to you start coming in at 6am I said no because I drive my mom to the train every morning. She has the nerve to tell me because my family is wealthy that my mom should just buy a car. I told her that’s great my family is rich but my mom doesn’t know how to drive a car. It was all these different incidents week after week that would just irritate me. So I decided to stick it out till the economy got better.

In the meantime, I went above and beyond everything they asked me to do. I got along with everyone so well that people would come up to me and say thank goodness you’re here because without you I would be so miserable. I became the go to guy everyone would ask for help. So one day the department manager made an announcement that our department was being sold off to another company and starting Sep 1st we would all work for this new company.

Well 4 months later I took a day off of work for personal reasons and got a telephone call from a manager saying please call the department manager a quarter after 12. So I did that and he laid me off. How terrible is that to lay someone off over the phone? The thing that gets me the most is he said to me I hope you don’t think that I couldn’t face you and do this it was just the only time HR had? What a tool you just lay me off and you’re worried about my impression of you?

This post was submitted by Paul M.

I finally got switched to a new team (and boss), but the new team’s funding ran out when a client’s product didn’t pass FDA approvals when they thought it would. I came into work every single day for weeks on end, with nothing to do, day after day. I began to get really worried about my job security in this economy, so I went to the head of my department and told him about my concerns (particularly in light of the fact that my wife was several months along in her pregnancy). He smiled and assured me I was a great employee and that I had nothing to worry about. He said “You’re safe, lay-offs just aren’t in our agency culture. We don’t do that to our people here.” I left his office feeling confident that I had nothing more to worry about and that work would get busy again and I’d be back at it. My wife went into labor a few months later and I took a few days off to be with her and the baby.

When I returned to the office, I was called into HR where they told me I was being laid-off. I was escorted to my desk and told to pack whatever I could. They gave me 3 weeks of severance and said “See ya!” I’ve now been unemployed for nearly 2 months and have not been able to find anything. I am a full-time stay-at-home house dad and watching my savings deteriorate by the day. Unemployment is a complete joke. Going from making over $100K/year to just over $22K/year is laughable. Your bills don’t change, but your income certainly does. I guess the lesson I took from this is that even if the top dog at your firm looks you in the eye and tells you that you have nothing to worry about in terms of job security, don’t take that as gospel…it’s not.

This post was submitted by Adam.

So just remember when it comes to loyalty, there isn’t any anymore. They are so far away, they don’t know a thing. I know the truth. I have a college degree and some certificates. I don’t care about that company and I think it stinks anyway. Boycott. For all I care.

It was a miserable place to work, glad I don’t go there anymore.

This post was submitted by Brenda.

Three years ago my boss, the owner and founder of the school, was approached by some sleazy con-artist who talked him into establishing an online school teaching medical billing. To my boss it seemed like a match made in heaven since we already taught medical billing in our brick and mortar school. Everyone in the school from staff to faculty took an immediate dislike to this person – he gave off such an unsavory vibe.

But the proposal for an online school sounded good to the boss and in the spring of 2007 we started the online school. I was responsible for the tech support and trouble shooting for the instructors and students and for setting up the virtual lecture halls for our teachers to hold live lectures for the students who were scattered all over the country.

Then the guy who sold this bill of goods to our boss brought in one of his cronies to manage the school as the “president” of the school. He was woefully unqualified and had no managerial skills. I will admit, however, that the man could bullshit like nobody’s business and would have been right at home on a used car lot.

To make it short, we were enrolling students hand over fist and making money like we were printing it in house. The sleazy con-artist ran off with a butt load of money leaving the school holding the bag. The living joke we called the “president” of the school mismanaged the place so badly we went bankrupt.

My boss, the best guy ever, lost everything after twenty years. That truly breaks my heart. His only option was to sell the school. The Department of Education gave him permission to sell, but a condition of that sale was that no one who had a substantial administrative role in the online school would stay employed with the organization that purchased the school. Yes indeed, that includes me.

Because of the ass-hat that ran the school into the ground the Department of Education painted the rest of us with a black brush. We have been found unclean and not fit to work here.

So in another hour and twenty minutes I bid good-bye to nine years of my life and one of the best groups of people I ever worked with.

This post was submitted by John Pickens.

I was hired after a long job search as a manager for a not-for-profit agency. My boss was one difficult person with vicious personality. Everyone in the organization told me that the previous supervisor left because of him. At first I didn’t want to believe all the bad I heard about this person. This person was locking himself into an office and was operating with top secrecy at all times. He was only available at his discretion. Working late nights, long hours, criticism were the norm. Needless to say, he decided to eliminate my position. Reason stated: budget cuts. The real reason – I was an adult who didn’t want to take his abuse.

This company is very tough on their employees and they sell EAP and mental health services. The job was a huge waste of time! Not for profits are organizations where a few individuals make huge profits at expense of some well-minded hard-working individuals. I will never give money to not-for-profits again.

This post was submitted by Not to bosses liking.

This post was submitted by The Duke.