In May I was kicked off worker’s compensation(grade 3 hamstring tear) unexpectedly. I work in aviation maintenance, and it’s tough work. I ended up finding what I thought was a good job, and I moved for this position. I ended up getting a major concussion at work, and my boss stepped over my unconscious body to check the wing of an aircraft that I hit. I was regaining consciousness when I saw his foot almost hit my face as he was hastily going to check the status of a 100$ part that I hit. I quit that job, I couldn’t work with anyone that could care more about an aircraft then an unconscious employee.
Well a month goes by and no offers have come through yet. Whatever, something will come up. I ended up accepting this position in my home state that was out in the bush. They paid an amazing salary and all the accommodations were taken care of.
They end up asking me to sign stuff off illegally and not report stuff and had employees be really short with me and not showing any sort of respect. Well, they didn’t pay me when they were supposed to, and didn’t reimburse me for overnighting 850 lbs of tools and told me just to wait until they could make the transfer. That was the final straw and I quit and put a maintenance lien on all their aircraft and they paid me right away.
I couldn’t believe it, two companies just screwed me over and lied as well. I end up spending 6 more weeks of shitty interviews and meaningless conversations with recruiters to finally get five more job offers. One was for a flight test engineer, and after 20 years of being a mechanic, a change sounded nice.
So after 5 interviews, and a long wait for a decision I was offered the position. This position not only was paid handsomely and had amazing benefits, but also had world wide travel with upscale accommodations. A real started from the bottom now we’re here vibe.
Well, I worked on the same premises as this engine manufacturer and the flight test program was at the airframes delivery center. I had quit that job, because I was receiving racism from almost everyone there. When I complained about the racism, they put me on a shift all by myself. So I walked out and reported it to the EEOC. EEOC doesn’t care about anything and said since there was no evidence they couldn’t do anything. Even though the retaliation was as clear as day and had a paper trail of my complaint and then 1 day later I was put on graveyard shift, even though this team has never had a graveyard shift in 40 years of this team operating.
Who cares, I’ve received racism my entire career and I’m used to it now. I have reported all the stuff to the EEOC with evidence and always get rejected to sue the companies. They say you can sue anyone in America, except when it’s about racism, only the government can say if it was racist or not.
Now I told my hiring manager everything that happened at the racist company. He said that I made the right choice and it shouldn’t have any impact on this position. There were three background checks that I had to go through before I started work. They gave me a starting date and I thought I was set. I was very proud of myself for obtaining this position.
I passed all the background checks, and the day before the start date my manager called me up and said it’s very slow and they won’t need me to come in. I found it odd, as if it were slow, it would be great for training. I’m worried about what the previous racist employer has done. My manager made sure it had nothing to do with it, and that they are paying me to stand by.
One day goes by and my mentor calls me up and tells me to stop waiting around for this engineer job and to take a position back in my home state as a manager. He offered the position, and I told him I need to wait at least a couple of days. The job he offered was a really great job with great pay and benefits. I made a bad decision and declined the position and my mentor hasn’t forgiven me yet. It’s been months.
A week goes by and I haven’t heard from the manager yet. I emailed him after calling a few times saying if there is need to worry, I need to start applying for other positions. He emails back 5 days later saying not worry, we’re paying you. You should be happy that you're not working.
Well, a total of 7 weeks go by, and yes they were paying me. During this time I sent the manager similar emails and he would always reassure me that I had one of the best paying jobs in the company and I would be going to work soon and there was nothing to worry about. Well that was a fucking lie.
He called me on a Friday to tell me that my position was being furloughed. And the reason why was that the racist company finally made the decision to not grant me access to their facility. I get fired for this. I haven’t worked long enough in that state or this year to qualify for unemployment benefits. I’m totally fucked. I had so many decisions I made this year, and they were all the wrong decisions. I had other offers that I could have taken and it would have been probably normal and no bullshit.
I didn’t even get a notification that I wouldn’t be working there. I could have taken that management position when my mentor offered. I even had a gut feeling to take it, but didn’t. I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to be in flight test. I wanted to travel worldwide.
I’ve had probably 100 interviews since then. And I’ve had one offer and I accepted it, only for the company to say they rescinded the offer. I’m done. I have had to find work and go to work while I was still dealing with complications from my hamstring tear. I've probably had 200 interviews this year and I’ve developed migraines from the major concussion I suffered. I’m ready to quit life. I don’t want to work for anyone anymore and I want to just take my canoe and paddle into the Pacific Ocean and never be seen again. I’m about to run out of savings and rent is almost due and I'm running out of food. I should just take any job to stay afloat, but I don’t want to do that and just quit everything