New to this sub, so feel free to take down if it’s not in the right place, or if the story is not appropriate.
I was at a large company for 5 years (1st job out of college) and finally had enough of the BS. Won’t go into details, but I have high anxiety, sometimes debilitating, and the job got so bad that I put out my resume and was contacted by a recruiter. I interviewed for a 90 day temp-to-hire position just to get out of my current job ASAP because I thought anything would be better than what I had.
There were multiple red flags that I didn’t know about at the time. The interviewers talked about how the “team” is full of middle aged women & it’d be nice to have a younger male on the team. They also brought up how they are a family.
“We take care of each other…if one teammate is out, you can fill in.” Also, mandatory overtime would be needed during end-of-month close. Classic signs that I should have run out of the building.
They ended the interview by saying I was over-qualified for the position & asked if I’d like to interview for a higher level position. I felt like I killed the interview and this “lower-level” position would be much less anxiety-inducing and less stressful, so I asked if I could just keep trying for this position. They agreed & I got the temp-to-hire job. I made sure to let my eventual boss know that during the 90-day timeframe, I have 2 pre-planned events that I can’t skip. Which means I needed to leave 2 hours early one day, and take off two full days for the other. Since I was technically working for the temp agency, she said it was fine & that I wouldn’t be paid (no PTO for a temp). Totally fine with me.
First day, I got another red flag. There is no formal training; I just sat with my “trainer” who is the person that had this job but got a promotion. I sat around watching her do her day-to-day, explaining what’s expected. This lasted 2 weeks & then she moved to a new desk 20 feet away. Because of the lack of formal training, for the next 2-3 weeks when I ran into a problem, I walked to trainer’s desk…something that took 5 min to explain, from someone who actually did the job before me. She was very helpful & didn’t mind explaining things that weren’t covered during “training” because, ya know, 2 weeks isn’t exactly a lot of time. She encouraged me to do this, and it happened a handful of times.
Then, I get this email from my boss:
“Hi OP,
I would like you to only come to me with your training questions. I know (trainer) has been a great trainer, but we need to let her be devoted to her new job. I think you will have questions for your (senior analysts), but it shouldn’t be about (your work) processes. I also need to understand why you still have so many questions after being here for 6 weeks. (Another employee) is rescheduling your 30-day training review so that (trainer) can attend. Also, overtime may be needed during close. I thought you said you were open to that during the interview. Please let me know if this has changed. My “door” is always open, please check in with me more often. Thanks, (boss).”
My anxiety shot through the roof. Not sure where she got “6 weeks” from, but ok. A few weeks later, I get a message from the recruiter asking if I had a few minutes when I was done with work. He said my boss told his company I was habitually leaving early and not doing overtime. The only time this happened is when I left 2 hours early one day and had 2 other days off, which were already agreed to and unpaid.
I learned my lesson the hard way. If you can, don’t ever take a temp-to-hire job. It’s a nightmare.