I was one of five corporate level fitness faculty members for a company with a significant presence in nine different states. Our responsibilities included, but were not limited to, teaching the basic fundamentals of personal training, facilitating personal training certification workshops, leading a workshop on the company’s fitness policies and procedures, all of which were two or three day events, in addition to overseeing certain aspects of the fitness departments of all of the clubs within the region.

I was the epitome of a successful teacher, especially since the company would hire anybody with a pulse that the club managers thought had what it took to be successful, I had people in my classes that knew absolutely nothing about the human body. That was one of the perks of the job because, while I refer to myself as a teacher, I must relay my favorite quote from Socrates: “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think,” I got to form the foundation of a new train of thought; and I had no trouble making the learning process fun. In fact, here I am 13-months later and still in contact with several of the people I had in my classes. So, on second day back from two weeks of vacation and I’m doing a site visit with my immediate supervisor when he gets a page and informs me that he has a conference call at 12 and I should come in 15 minutes later.

I enter the office, close the door and make myself comfortable. Next thing I know, the two HR reps on the line inform me that due to the [workings of the Obama agenda], they were eliminating the position of fitness faculty to reduce company expenditures. My last day on salary was two weeks to the so I guess that was them giving me two-weeks notice.

As for my responsibilities, they were added to those of the person that taught the “business” aspect of the business to sales people and GMs. The first question from my mouth was, “What does he know about fitness?” Their response… “He has seven personal training certifications.” I responded with “What does that tell me about his knowledge of the human body?” They were positive that those certifications made him an expert, but, as most are aware, all a PT certification tells you is they know how to study the way (insert your choice of any PT cert here) wants you to know how the body works to fulfill THEIR objectives in the way that THEY dictate when it should be your client telling you their objectives so that you can fulfill them based upon your knowledge of how this magnificent machine works. I was pissed, especially I’ve forgotten more since grad school than he’ll ever know, and I let them know it, but what’s done is done. By the way, to supplement my point, he resigned from his new responsibilities just a few weeks into the mission. So because I’m still unemployed, I’ve returned to school for a PhD and they are still losing market share!

This post was submitted by Sheik Yerbouti.

Today is my last day at work. And so I sit and type while my students work through their project. I work for a private, post-secondary school (for the next couple of hours at least) and have been here for nearly nine years. I teach and am the network administrator, but have worn many hats during my time here.

Three years ago my boss, the owner and founder of the school, was approached by some sleazy con-artist who talked him into establishing an online school teaching medical billing. To my boss it seemed like a match made in heaven since we already taught medical billing in our brick and mortar school. Everyone in the school from staff to faculty took an immediate dislike to this person – he gave off such an unsavory vibe.

But the proposal for an online school sounded good to the boss and in the spring of 2007 we started the online school. I was responsible for the tech support and trouble shooting for the instructors and students and for setting up the virtual lecture halls for our teachers to hold live lectures for the students who were scattered all over the country.

Then the guy who sold this bill of goods to our boss brought in one of his cronies to manage the school as the “president” of the school. He was woefully unqualified and had no managerial skills. I will admit, however, that the man could bullshit like nobody’s business and would have been right at home on a used car lot.

To make it short, we were enrolling students hand over fist and making money like we were printing it in house. The sleazy con-artist ran off with a butt load of money leaving the school holding the bag. The living joke we called the “president” of the school mismanaged the place so badly we went bankrupt.

My boss, the best guy ever, lost everything after twenty years. That truly breaks my heart. His only option was to sell the school. The Department of Education gave him permission to sell, but a condition of that sale was that no one who had a substantial administrative role in the online school would stay employed with the organization that purchased the school. Yes indeed, that includes me.

Because of the ass-hat that ran the school into the ground the Department of Education painted the rest of us with a black brush. We have been found unclean and not fit to work here.

So in another hour and twenty minutes I bid good-bye to nine years of my life and one of the best groups of people I ever worked with.

This post was submitted by John Pickens.

I was hired after a long job search as a manager for a not-for-profit agency. My boss was one difficult person with vicious personality. Everyone in the organization told me that the previous supervisor left because of him. At first I didn’t want to believe all the bad I heard about this person. This person was locking himself into an office and was operating with top secrecy at all times. He was only available at his discretion. Working late nights, long hours, criticism were the norm. Needless to say, he decided to eliminate my position. Reason stated: budget cuts. The real reason – I was an adult who didn’t want to take his abuse.

This company is very tough on their employees and they sell EAP and mental health services. The job was a huge waste of time! Not for profits are organizations where a few individuals make huge profits at expense of some well-minded hard-working individuals. I will never give money to not-for-profits again.

This post was submitted by Not to bosses liking.

After years going between grocery stores and restaurants, I finally got a job with an event planning company a friend of a friend started in his downstairs basement office. He’s actually a 3rd party provider who has a website making him look like he has a huge armada of limousines, buses, trolleys, boats-you name it. He had been in the business for over 5 years and had bought a bunch of google keywords so when folks would enter “Bus, San Francisco” his website would come up. I worked there for 2 years for a really great wage, and more flexibility than any other job I ever had. There was some drama with his personal life, but all and all it was a good job, and I didn’t know how good I had it until he laid me off Dec 24, 2008.

I had grown so sick of the revolving door of my worklife, I thought I’d live on credit cards a little while, just until I found some work. It was only 2 months later when my girlfriend and I split up. Then I figured since I wasn’t finding work, I’d go retreat for awhile in New Mexico, thus accumulating more debt. A friend had a business idea in CA that he wanted me to be a part of but changed his mind after I had driven all the way back to CA, only to head back to Colorado, this time with another friend who wanted to start a business. We partnered up, funded it mostly through what was left of my credit and failed miserably. During 2009 I bussed tables for a month at a snooty bistro, and drove a cab for a month, until they fired me for crashing the cab slipping on ice on New Years Eve. My new girlfriend and I were sick of CO and the snow and ice and moved back to CA, and finally, finally-2 weeks ago I started working for $9.50 an hour at a grocery store as a floater, working in different departments and doing janitorial and handyman work. Age 22-34 went by in a flash, and unfortunately I have not established a business of my own and have worked shitty dead end jobs since I was 15 years old. I look forward to going to sleep at night. My girlfriend sometimes makes 10 times what I make doing what she does. I feel like a total loser and her and I are looking for a way to move out of this country permanantly.

This post was submitted by Will Donohoe.

Many of you have noted, that you’ve worked for a company for 5 – 7 years. I worked for Bank One (now JPMorgan Chase) from being a temp hire 10/2005 to permanent hire 1/2006. Of course, all of the rules were followed: don’t call in sick unless you are dying; don’t use phone for personal purpose; don’t use your breaks for smoking; etc.

I only started with Bank One to feed my then 1 year old daughter. I was hired through the “Mormon Network” so to speak. The Bank One call center was close, the pay above average, and management was phenomenal.

I was promoted via my manager’s transfer, or through an internal customer manager until the end of my tenure there. Unfortunately, my ex-husband had caused me problems and thus I had to leave work often. However, I was still within the top 2 performing personnel despite having to leave work early, etc. This is out of an average of 15 other representatives. I would say that’s pretty darn good!

In addition to my ex-husband going to prison and ruining our community property, my youngest daughter was diagnosed with Autism. Now please keep in mind folks, that Bank One/JPMorgan Chase is supposed to be one of the greatest places to work for single women with children….right?

WRONG! Once Chase took over, my annual rating of 3.5 – 4.0 on a scale of 0 – 5 (and we all know a 5 is impossible) went to a 1! All of my years of hard work and making up for the time I had to unavoidably miss due to these issues did not matter at all. At the end of my career there, I had to have surgery that was unavoidable. This contributed significantly to my demise.

I had a co-worker who was also on FMLA leave having her child when she too heard the news that she was being laid off in addition to me. CAN YOU IMAGINE????? Having your baby in your arms and getting that call???

It seems that most of these high and mighty companies did the same thing: they laid off the most expensive employees. The ones that actually used their health insurance, used their short term disability, used their allotted time off….

I still don’t understand how they repeatedly get named “Women’s Corporation of the Year” or “Best Place for Single Parents to Work” in awards placed by supposedly won via awards presented by Forbes, etc.

You get my meaning….

If I am able to maintain an above average skill set as established by my employer and unfortunately am required to use my …. FMLA …. then why am I the one who gets laid off?

SIMPLE ANSWER FOLKS!
1. I used time off which is inefficient per internal company standards.

2. I used FMLA time which, let’s face it, goes back to #1.

3. Was there for over 10 years…therefore my pension was @ 5% of my salary. Hmmmm…..

I believe all of you are aware of what I’m saying. I believe all of you know of a person in the SAME situation as I have been.

So, when it comes to being laid off, make sure you count in the benefits that are not really made for your benefit, but are made “for your benefit”.

Jessica in Arizona

This post was submitted by Jessica.