Hi all,
I've been having some problems and I need to just vent. For privacy purposes, I'll be intentionally vague and I'll change the names of everyone.
TLDR: I've been screwed over multiple times by a college I used to work for. I quit, now they want me to come back for a higher position for a laughable amount of money.
I used to work at a college in reception. Several people left due to retirement, firing, or finding other opportunities. What once was a department of 5 full-time people and 4 part-time people is now comprised of 2 different full-time people and 2 part-time people. I.e., it is a completely new department.
On my team there were three receptionists: Hailey – a recent college graduate looking for her first job after graduation, Diane – a retired receptionist looking for part-time work, and myself who is an alumnus of said college in the department we were working for. We were contract employees and not directly hired by the college. It was great at first, then people started leaving and nobody would replace them. One person was hired as an independent consultant that was not approved by the college's admin (her previous job was a Director and oversaw the department. I'll call her Justine. Because the admin did not like that the department arbitrarily hired an independent consultant who used to work there, Justine had to teach everything they knew about the department to us – the three part-time employees. We learned everything that this person knew about the department, back end information, negotiating, absolutely everything. Justine has a Masters Degree in this field of work.
After all the training we went to our Executive Director Eric to ask what this means for us. He completely (intentionally?) misunderstood our complaints and suggested a better delegation of tasks. All three of us were extremely bright-eyed and hopeful that these trainings would lead to full-time and more compensation. Unfortunately, we should've had something in writing before we agreed to any training because more compensation did not come.
Eric is planning his retirement, so the college is focused on getting two full-time workers to take over and undergo a months-long transitionary period. The two people they hired – Tyler and Christopher – are wonderful. They walked in on a lot of absolute craziness that they did not sign up for. Meanwhile, all three of us are scrambling to find new work. Diane finds work first and she leaves. Hailey and I pick up the slack. Then Hailey gets a job in her field of study and leaves me.
HR's response to this is to offer me full-time hours with no benefits for one full month, and obviously no pay increase. The way our office runs is that I'd have to work 26 days in a row without a day off. Thankfully, they gave that offer to me right before spring break so I asked for the break to think about it. I was upset, so incredibly hurt. I came in on Monday and decided that it was time for me to leave with Hailey. My direct supervisors (Tyler and Christopher) completely understood and told me they'd do the same if it were them. They have been without a receptionist and people cannot come for inquiries in-person since Hailey and I left. The entire department right now has 2 full-time workers and 2 part-time workers.
It has been a month since I left and I've gotten no job prospects. The job market is horrible where I am so I don't really have many options. Fast forward to this past Tuesday when Christopher and I met for coffee. He told me about a job they were hiring for. This is a different role than the one I previously was working. It is a manager of my previous role. More money, more hours, with the exact same responsibilities that I was doing when I left. It is important to note that on my job description none of these responsibilities were on there (I know, I was stupid!). Long story short, I can do this job with my eyes closed, no training required and I could start immediately. I was making $15 an hour in my previous position and the new job's hourly range was $16-$21. Christopher told me that if I am interested I could come back to this job. I said pending hourly rate I am interested (mostly because I have no other options). Obviously, to get the rate that I would be making, I had to apply. So I applied because it didn't hurt me to apply.
I get a call from HR today saying that they don't have to interview me and can send me an offer letter. I ask how much the job would be for and they said $17 an hour. Are you fucking kidding me? I was livid! I am so inclined to not take this job and I really don't want to because I would not accept anything under $20. This initial offer makes it very clear that they are not going to get close to what I was hoping to make. I am beyond frustrated. I've been applying to jobs like crazy but the market is so oversaturated I keep getting so many misses.
I'm exhausted and I'm so tired. Just this week I finally started to feel okay and not anxious after leaving my job. Now they want me to return for a laughable amount of money. I'm not sure what to do but I know I don't want to go back there.
Anyway, this is a huge long brain-vomit story and I really hope that it makes sense. Please let me know if there is anything I can clarify.