Again?!

hi @Sophia23 Thank you for relating to my situation with your own ancedote of the similarities your situation shares with mine. It helps me to know that other people can really understand what I'm going through, having gone through the same situation themselves.

Today was very surreal at the temp job.

I was required to leave the property for the last half of the afternoon to attend the company event. The other two property managers left without telling me anything and didn't respond to my texts. So, I texted them that I was required via email to attend and that they were cc'd so to expect to see me there.

When I was there, I saw both of them and they 100% ignored that I even existed. I said "Hi" and they just turned and ignored me.

The one property manager made fun of me, when another employee standing next to him asked who I was. He said, "She's our fat temp."

Since no one still hadn't told me if Friday would be my last day, I asked the woman who gave me the laptop last Monday, at their company headquarters. She got mad when I reminded her that I had emailed her last Wednesday, and that I still hadn't heard from her. Then, she got mad when I asked her, "Is this Friday my last day? How long is this assignment?"

She responded, "I don't really know. We just need a warm body in the front office for a while. When we end the assignment we'll let you know." Then she walked away, rudely.

After 2.5 hours, her drunk sister who is also an assistant property manager (lots of booze at this event) came over to me and said, "The CEO overheard you talking to my sister and told me to fire you, because you have such a bad attitude."

The CEO called my temp agency and told my recruiter that despite no complaints about my work performance, he wanted me fired because his assistant didn't like the way I spoke to her at the company event.

So, then the temp agency owner accused me of having a bad attitude too and asked me if I would return to the role tomorrow. I said no, I wouldn't. So, I drove back to the property and turned in my fob and key to the security guard. Some of the homeless tenants I'd befriended over the past 8 days were there and each gave me a hug when I explained that I was fired and would not be returning. They all felt very bad for me and when they gave me hugs, I nearly lost it. These people who lost everything, who are trying to rebuild their lives, to just survive the chaos that comes with being homeless, showed me MORE compassion then the CEO asshole and his two female assistants/sisters and the temp agency owner and his recruiter.

Why IS that? Why do people who have NOTHING have more kindness and compassion for each other, then people who make 6-figures?

After I got home I did a virtual counseling session with a free walk-in clinic. The grad student reminded me that the only person I should care about is myself and to let go of taking on those other people's opinions of me. She said, look at the positive things that happened: "those people hugged you because you were kind to them and engaged them in conversation and fun trivia questions on a white board for the past 8 days. And, you adopted two kittens from a homeless couple who couldn't care for the kittens."

She also said that what I did - to advocate for myself - is great. And that their reaction was negative because they weren't expecting me to advocate for myself, by asking when the assignment was scheduled to end. They just expected me to stay quiet and not ask questions.

And no, I wasn't confrontational. I just asked if Friday was my last day. Clearly, that woman didn't like being asked that question. She could have just answered my email last week with my end date. That would have been the professional response. Just email me, "Here is your end date..." or "We don't know yet but will let you know as soon as we decide." But that's not the choice she made. She was rude to me for asking a simple question. I have every right to ask a question, whether or not its at a company event.

Being a receptionist can be an awful job for a person who is intelligent, unless there is enough going on to keep you actually busy answering the phone and directing people that come in with a need or appointment. It also tends to be a job where others don’t see you as having any value.

Actually, it is like being an extra on a movie set where you have no lines or any input other than just being a physical presence. It’s like being an extra on Gone with the Wind where all you do is dress as a soldier and lay on the ground dead for however long are needed to do so while they film the part needed in the movie itself. Also, you are not even noticed and are nothing but a prop. The extra that lays and moans has at least a moan, but you are less cause your dead.

I know you can’t stand me but the way they treated you was wrong and other things I can’t say here. I’m sorry.

What the…what horrible human beings. I can’t even wrap my mind around it. It would be tempting to challenge it with comment that they think you had a bad attitude because they were drunk at company event. Outrageous. I am livid on your behalf

Now I wonder since you were a good fit working with this population would you search for a job in shelters? Emergency housing?

There are jobs in homeless shelters or other emergency housing situations in my area. I’d not go through recruiters. These are not very high pay jobs but they are out there at least by me. If you are in metro area and in any proximity tk urban setting, you might have the same thing

I like both of your analogies, for the effects of being a receptionist when the person is very intelligent. I've never been treated as a human being with feelings or acknowledged for my soft and hard skills and other abilities during my contract work as a receptionist. This last role proving that most people view front desk workers as sub-humans who aren't real people with real feelings.

They don't believe that their behavior and mistreatment has any real consequences yet it always does and will.

I'm sorry we disagreed in the past Molinit. I am sorry for what I said to you when I was hurt. I know that hurt you and I regret that. I hope that we can start over.

Thank you for your kind words. They are very comforting.

They are horrible human beings. I agree. LOL. Thank you for being livid on my behalf, too. I'm still livid that people like them get as far as they do, the way they treat people. And they don't seem affected by their assholery.

The property manager was so dismissive (either because he didn't like me, or resented his supervisor hiring me for 2 random weeks out of the blue to "help" him and his team of assistant property managers (who have no property management experience, I found out at the company event, prior to being hired; she cleaned houses for 3 years and the other guy was a delivery driver). It made no sense to me.

Even if he didn't understand why I was there for such a short period of time, he could have chosen to treat me as a human being by interacting with me, but he didn't.

I tried to challenge Bob's stupid comeback that just because a drunk CEO and his 2 drunk assistants/who are sisters said I was mean for asking a question, doesn't mean it's true. Bob is an asshole as far as I'm concerned. Again, I think he tried to gaslight me into backing down and agreeing with him, because he doesn't like women with strong personalities. I stayed true to myself and that drove Bob bananas. How dare I have boundaries too? How dare I stand up for myself. How dare I draw a line in the proverbial sand and tell Bob, "if you cross this line, this is what happens."

Men like Bob and this CEO (who told a story at the company event of how his parents, who owned his property management business that he inherited when they retired, sent him to camp for discipline since he was such an asshole as a teenager, that he got kicked out of that camp, and laughed about it. I watched his employees force themselves to laugh and smile like automatons, like they were on a film set as background actors. It was a very cringy moment) are toxic leaders in every sense of the word.

If I could get a job at the county level working for a non-profit as a case worker, I would totally do it. I don't have the masters in human services or social work to qualify. So, I could seek out nonprofit orgs and homeless shelters where I could help people transition into temporary housing. I could do that on weekends hopefully, so that my week is free to work. It would fulfill me spiritually and personally as I genuinely enjoyed interacting with all of the homeless people I met during those brief 8 days at that section 8 apt complex.

It's unfortunate that those types of housing are managed by assholes who just don't care about people. That seems ironic to me, too.

@Motts I apologize to you too. I have been insensitive in the past with my responses and I am trying to do better. You description of how they treated you made me angry and I cried. Nobody should be treated like that!!!!

Thank you, @Molinit. I appreciate your apology too. It's water under the bridge. We can start new here.

So, update on the temp to hire job, my kittens, and my ankle sprain.

I sprained my ankle on Sunday, yet the company ok'd a mid-week start date. I rescheduled my kitten's follow-up vet appointment, and have to wait 3 weeks to see an orthopedic surgeon to have my ankle/swollen calf now diagnosed correctly, for the right type of physical therapy.

The company told the recruiter to relay that I can't have any appointments for the first 2 weeks of hybrid training. I forwarded my recruiter my doctor appointment confirmation email to forward to her client so they know. I will be wobbling to and fro for the next 3 weeks with a walking cane, wearing a black foot brace on one foot.

Seems like a normal place to work and I like the hybrid split (3 days onsite, 2 days WFH).

Not excited about your ankle but I have hopes for the job. Fingers crossed.

I'm going to George Costanza myself a la "opposite day" (great episode). That's the ONLY way that George Costanza got a real job with the Mets. Ha! So, fake it til I make it.

I am going to create a work character life the way Joey on the tv sitcom Friends did, when he temped at Chandler's workplace.

If acting works for fictional tv characters, it HAS to work for a real life person.

I remember the George Costanza "opposite" thing! YEAH. Okay, I am putting a post-it with "Motts" under the candle I light every day for various things I know people need.

Fake it till you make it is a good plan

Seinfeld has an answer for every situation.

Oh yeah wasn’t Joey a “Joseph” at the Chandler work place lol

Got to laugh to get through this work nonsense.

I need to laugh. Today I learned just how toxic my "team" of full-timers are. The operations manager and the operations supervisor sit at cubicles directly behind my cubicle.

While taking one of their dumb required assesments, I overheard the operations manager who sits directly behind me (our backs face each other) comment to 3 other operations staff about their past and present temps, in very derogatory, perjorative, debasing language.

Think of every curse word and bad name you've ever heard in movies, music, and literature and I heard that all today for about 20 minutes, in between their small choir of snickers.

I pretended not to hear every single word (but I heard every single word).

"We like to keep things casual around here," I was told when I first arrived, by the operations manager.

Casual dress, language, hours (hybrid 3 days onsite, 2 days off-site), drinking (not by me, that's for sure). Drugs (not by me, that's for sure).

It's a complex located next to very beautiful bluffs and some airports. Hell is beautiful, they say. And that's where my temp job is. I hope I run into Sam and Dean. I could use their help escaping it.

******it. Why did I think what I thought, do what I did, to get me in this big ol' mess that is "my life."

Don't think I'm naive not to realize that my time will come while temping there, where they apply those same slanderous prose to ME, yet another temp. I hobbled around the first floor to find out the ENTIRE 2,000 square feet of this global company is a sea of cubicles, with their break rooms resembling intermittent coral reefs, with the tacky mother in law fashion of stripes and polka dotted break room furniture to sit and cry at (and believe me, I did today).

Will I tell my recruiter what I overheard today? Hell, no. Recruiters, like human resource personel, support the company, not the person. Motts will be mute and come in and perform her monkey trained repetitive processes as long as she can (until she hopefully can find a real job and stop Pinochio-ing her way through life, thanks to her Japeto father figure).

Ice cream for dinner, followed by steamed broccoli and carrots with cheesy scrambled eggs.

I’m waiting for the release of your book or sitcom “The Temp”. You’re too smart for these ridiculous work situations, having to contend with the likes of these people.

I've got enough material for a ****ing series, @TishaBuv. Believe me!

I want to write a book, write a movie screenplay, a tv sitcom pilot, some essays....

I am too smart for these ridiculous work situations. So, I'll do what Joey from Friends and George Costanza from Seinfield both did: They stayed true to themselves and took advantage of their situations and the toxic employees around them.

I have to start a morning meditation and bring a notebook with me, to write down all the scathing things I overhear, and take notes about the ****** environment and duplicitous strategems I witness and hopefully am not victim to.

Speaking of which, the security guard from that apt complex for the homeless spilled the beans about why one of the kittens was running around. He emailed me today to inform me that one of the homeless who live there confessed that the assistant twat property manager opened the kitten owners apartment door and let out one of the kittens, HOPING it would get me fired. So, although I got fired for another ******** reason, at least I left with the two kittens who are happily dismantling my apartment, one valuable at a time

I knew it was a strange coincidence that the kitten was running around. Turns out, there was a reason after all. WTF.

Smart people like me get into these situations beacause in my case, I have a chip the size of the Empire State Building on my shoulder, and I never developed a career path for myself in my 20s with the help of a mentor, etc. so I bounce from **** job to **** job, trying to find my way towards a career with no luck whatsoever.

I am going to remove my degrees from my resume and see if that makes any difference with hiring managers., for future job applications.

Good for you for staying true to yourself and your independence. You’re a really good writer. Seriously, do write daily about this. If you can turn it into a creative work, it will pay off greater than the temp pay in the end. And you’ll have the last laugh!

Well, we all knew it was coming -- THE END -- to George and Joey's temp job.

I texted the operations mgr at 7 am. this morning to let her know I was going to be late. She texted back, "Ok, see you when you arrive."

I didn't think anything of it. The other mgr. was nice to me (these two were the same women who slandered their temps yesterday within ear shot of me b/c well, temps are not people; we're an invisible subhuman species - we don't have feelings or an identity).

So, I asked the one operatins mgr for permission to drive to a local vet clinic over my 1/2 hour lunch. I was 15 minutes late coming back (so, my fault, I admit).

Then, my recruiter texted me to ask me to call her. So, I found an empty, quiet conference room and called her. (FYI: she's only been a recruiter for about a year. Prior to her recruiter job, she was an admin assistant.)

I called her and she proceeded to yell at me (yes, I wrote "yell") that the two catty women emailed her to complain about me taking too long with their (I think, dumb) assessments and onboarding tests. Ironic, since they both told me yesterday when I started the onboarding modules, "That test took me forever to pass!"

So, what's good for the goose ISN'T good for the gander? Is that how this one-way toxic **** show works for these two women? They're allowed to disparage their temps, mock how hard the test was FOR THEM, then turn around and complain about my taking too long with the onboarding assessments (which they both told me to take my time with in my initial interview and again yesterday).

Sense a pattern here?

So, at some point during my conversation with the young recruiter, there was a silent pause, and then she said, "F you!" and hung up on me.

I called her human resources director who was not happy to hear what she said. Here's where I lowered my expectations for the outcome. In the past, I would have expected an email apology from the recruiter at the very least (in hindsight, dumb expectation b/c why would anyone want to admit their guilt via email, since email is forever, even when it's deleted it can be recovered). Or a phone call apology with her supervisor in a 3-way call.

The human resources director and the young recruiter's supervising recruiter both called me to apologize for her behavior (which comes across to me, as their way of protecting her from consequences somehow, via the whole out of sight out of mind philosophy: if she doesn't apologize to me, it didn't really happen and she can keep her job). They did say I could leave the temp job since it was not a good fit and that they would try to find me another temp job when one comes up that fits what their expectations are, for my resume skills and background.

What a shitshow today.

What at first seemed like a great temp to hire job, was in essence, the worst environment to work in. When I was on the phone with the young recruiter, one of the operation mgr's opened the conference room door and yelled at me to get back to work.

No one deserves to be treated that way. No one. Assholes.

I can’t even formulate what I want to say, but the behavior toward you has sunk to a new low. I didn’t think it was possible.

Thank you, @Molinit. I went to a DA support group today and when it was my turn to share, I spoke about my poor work choices over the years and how that's tied to my relationship with debt and money.

I think the two (taking jobs beneath my skill level) and my dysfunctional relationship with money are connected in an internal way; fear of underearning and overspending; never having enough money; feeling worthless for not carving out a career for myself in my 20s or 30s but staying stuck on the hamster wheel of underearning because I undervalue myself (or did undervalue myself -- now I value myself).

That's the part I can't reconcile with; not making better career related choices with jobs and just taking whatever job to get by. That's how I got myself here and why I'm constantly dealing with these types of people as a temp, instead of as someone with a full-time work status.

If I can't achieve a full-time job, I can't get away from these types of people or these types of toxic work environments that are especially toxic to people like me, who are in a "temporary" space mentally and physically at the same time. It's all very Meta.