Hi Reddit,
Long story short, I was interviewed by a property management company through a temp agency. I met with two female interviewers. Throughout the interview, their behavior was extremely condescending towards me. I noticed the constant pouting, eye rolling from one of the interviewers while I was listing my achievements. The other one managed to ask me questions in a mockery tone such as “if you were so great at your last temp job like you said, why didn't they bring you on? doesn't make any sense.” I explained that it was only a short-term position filling in for someone on leave of absence and the last company brought me on with no intention of hiring me. I was out of work for a couple weeks and took the opportunity so I could contribute my skills somewhere. Now that my assignment has finished, I'm searching for new opportunities. They continued to give me an arrogant attitude, again–pouting and sarcastically nodding in agreement with me while looking at each other laughing. I said ok whatever, I don't care because the job fits my skills set and pays extremely high for a temp position (around $37/hour).
A few days later, they called and offered me the job. The first of day of work, I was met with more mistreatment from the two managers that I previously interviewed with. My position is called “Operations Analyst” per my signed contract with the company. However, while I was introducing myself to my new coworkers, who were pretty nice and friendly, as the new “Operations Analyst”, one of the managers standing to me cut me off and proceeded to you the other co-workers “Wait no–she's just a temp,” Alright, no problem, I am a temp, she's right, but from the way she used the word, I had a feeling she associated a “demeaning” connotation to it. Throughout the day, as I began to ask questions about the role, she told me about all the company benefits such as an entertainment, snack bar, but she ended with “Yeah no, those are for the team only. We don't allow temp employees in this area.” So, that means I'm not allowed to touch any snacks, coffee pots, water bottles, etc.
She was telling me about the Apple Watch she won in the year-end raffle. She excitedly told me it was very easy to win because there was only 20 team members that are currently participating. I joined in the conversation and said “Wow that's cool. I would love to win one, too”, and she CUT ME OFF, saying “You can't join because you're a TEMP.” She then asked if I get paid for holidays, I said “No. Just sick days :)” Her eyes widened and said “REALLY? WOW. That's really sad…”
These are just a few instances of these managers treating me like a “second class” citizen. I could tell they never liked me ever since the interview. I was telling about my academic success as a selling point during an interview, and they laughed and said “College means nothing in the real world”. The other manager later used that line against me and was always being rude to me with questions such as “is there a reason why you don't understand the instructions right away? You went to [insert college]. You had such good grades.”
When I was first brought on, I was told the company operates with a hybrid schedule, M-T in office, W-F at home. I was thrilled because this schedule has worked great in the past experiences for me. However, one week in, they decided to tell me in an email in the middle of the day that I now have to be in the office 5 days a week, effective immediately. I was very angry with them for the “bait-and-switch” move. I was convinced they disliked me so much that they don't want me to enjoy any aspect of the job. I was the ONLY person in the office upstairs, there was only 3 other employees downstairs, the technician, receptionist, and a security. That's it. My job can be done fully remote.
I stuck it out for another month, until one day, I was told to leave early, and only come in on Thursday and Friday. It turns out that they have decided to cut my hours, again, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, having no regard of my life out of work. I immediately questioned the change and pushed back. They told me they're moving my role around and one of the managers think I can take on another task of working at the customer service department, answering calls. I told them I was hired as an analyst and was not aware of any responsibilities beyond that, and I already made it clear before the interview that I'm only looking for temp opportunities with a 40-hour work week. I ended up excusing myself to the bathroom out of bottled up anger and frustration, I called the temp agency and asked if I could start looking for new opportunities and told the rep I'm actually not happy with this position at all so far. Everything that was appealing to me from the job posting has been changed and I'm at a role that I was completely blindsided by, working in customer service, in-office schedule, reduced hours.
The temp rep apologized and said they would be contacting the managers if we could work something out. She wasn't aware of these changes as well. However, 30 minutes later, the rep called me back and broke the news to me, I was fired on the spot and I must return to my desk to pack up my belongings, return he equipment, and leave immediately. I said I understand and got out of there within 5 minutes. The temp agency called me a week later to apologize for the experience and offered to continue represent me for other opportunities. I thanked them and expressed my enthusiasm for a new job.
Anyway, just wanted to share this terrible experience with you guys. I'm glad we burnt the bridge because I would have quit myself shortly after the news regardless. I was still in shock of how blatantly discriminating they were towards me. They even told me previously (after the interview, of course) they hire a lot of temp employees in the past and would never hire them for a full time positions. She proudly exclaimed “well that's what temps are for. you don't hire them on ever!”, and then told me I should manage my expectations. I have worked for two companies in the past through the temp agency, I had an excellent record with all parities. With those companies, I understood I was only filling in for an employee on leave of absence and was not planning on asking to be hired as a full-time employee. Regardless, both companies treated me like I was a part of a team. They gave me holiday gifts, was included on company's trip. Both of my managers kept in contact with me. One even congratulated me on my engagement recently. My previous managers gave me good reviews and I aced every previous assignments I've had. Even the reps at the temp agency had a good relationship with me so I was pretty embarrassed about this whole firing incident.
My husband had a theory that there might have been a jealousy issues going on between those women and me, as they both came from the same country with an immigrant background and I seemed to excel much quicker than them in my career. Another theory he suggested was that they came to the realization that they believed they were paying way too much for the position and tried to cut my hours to compensate for the mistake. That could also explain why they were so strict and highly critical of me, because neither of them believed I deserve such a high pay :/