So I worked for this shitty security company in TX and they laid me off randomly on Valentine’s Day. Don’t even care about the holiday, I just thought it was funny. In the two years that I was working there, I never got a raise. I asked for one and my boss said that he used to pay employees less than he was paying me. Basically making it seem like I should be happy with what I got. I explained to him that I understood that but inflation was making it hard for me to live on my currently salary. I worked from home and I worked independently which I did love, but I don’t think they realized how long it took me to actually complete every task that they asked for. I completely redesigned the company website (with wireframes and everything) did the design, created logos for the company, made flyers, brochures, business cards (also paid for my own btw) fixed their presentations and made them look professional too. I also paid for photoshop, adobe creative cloud, canva, and B2B lusha out of my own pocket because they would not pay for it even though it was stuff that I needed to complete my work. It equated to about $70.00 a month. I also did the market research. I’d give them awesome ideas, and threw out a bunch of cool ideas with social media and stuff that we invested in and shot me down every time. They did not want to invest the money into the company. I started a social media account and they did not like that so I deleted my post. They were extremely old school and I felt bad, but I knew that their old school-ness was holding them back from making more money. I also made a list with about 200 contacts that they could reach out to, and they never reached out to one. I got a second job because I could not afford to live on $20.00 an hour. It did not affect my work performance. I used my lunch break to attend required meetings and was working 24/7. Nothing was ever not submitted on time. Oh also want to add that I have a degree in information systems & data science. So it’s not like I don’t have experience or the degree or anything like that. I feel like they were sexist too. I was the only girl working there. I felt like they never took me seriously. My boss found out that I had a second job, and he bitched me out saying that he did not hire me with the intention of me having two jobs. I told him that the two jobs were not affecting my job performance and that my second job knew that they were the priority. Which they did. I told them during the interview that I had a primary job. Boss was still not happy. He offered me another position making less than I was making, and I turned it down. Didn’t hear from him again other than when I turned in needed work. Called me out of the blue to tell me I was laid off at the end of the day. He did not want to pay me for that day either even though he called me at 4PM. Did not pay out any of my vacation either because the state of Texas does not require them to even if it is acquired. So I saved 4 weeks of vacation for my wedding, didn’t go anywhere and basically got fucked. My “severance” package consisted of 1 week of pay LOL. I asked the CEO and President for a recommendation letter, and the president (my boss) just straight up didn’t reply and the CEO asked me to write one for him and then said what I wrote was not something he’d ever write. Keep in mind, I worked directly under these two dudes. Fuck them though. My new job is paying me double what I was making there and they actually care about me. VP is already super impressed with me and I have a meeting to hopefully move up. Moral of the story is fuck startups. Always doing 5x the work to get fucked in the end. I am a very professional lady, so I would never say who they are or burn them but I am sure their company is going to fail anyways since they are not willing to invest in their employees or their business. The day they let me go they were already trying to throw my work onto someone else, and what was great was that no one has the programs or experience that I do. New job is paying me much much more than I was making at the other place. I’m not losing any sleep. I just wanted to rant because I am human and I am allowed to be upset for wasting so much of my time at a shitty company. Sorry this is all over the place lol.