slave-driver employer tricked me!

Blanche is 28, married with no kids and has a strong work ethic. She was thrilled to pieces to get a permanent job offer after nearly six months of job hunting, but her slave-driver employer made her do the work of two people and then betrayed her.

"I couldn't believe my good luck when I was offered a job by one of the most prestigious companies in town," says Blanche. "I was expecting a second interview, but when I received a call two days after being interviewed asking whether I still wanted the job and whether I could start immediately I didn't stop to consider the reason for their haste."

"At the time I was waiting on the results of several interviews," explains Blanche, "but this job was the prize of a lifetime and when it was offered to me I just jumped with joy and accepted on the spot."

"It really was the perfect job," says Blanche. "It had everything going for it - money, location, prestige and staff benefits - and honestly I would have worked there for half the pay if they had asked me to but they didn't. They wanted me and were willing to pay top dollars for me!"

"It was a permanent job," explains Blanche. "There was a proper contract, and I had reams of paperwork to fill out relating to insurance and staff benefits. I felt like I was signing up for the long haul, and they went out of their way to welcome me and make feel at home."

"They encouraged me to sign up to participate in several events that were to be held down the line," explains Blanche, "and I even started paying into the Xmas Club the day I started!"

"The first week was terribly stressful because there was an endless heap of work on my desk every day - most of it I had no idea what to do with."

"I was eager to learn everything and show them what a hard worker I was," says Blanche, "and my efforts to please were rewarded with heaps of praise. They were thrilled to bits with me and said so every day."

"Because there was so much work to do I had to start earlier and finish later than the others," adds Blanche, "and sometimes I worked through my lunch break, too. I even took work home to make sure I wasn't making any mistakes."

"The managers and staff were fantastic, and gave me every opportunity to shine and do well," says Blanche, "and by the end of the first week even the department head stopped by to praise me."

"I was looking forward to the second week being a lot more relaxed," says Blanche, "but apparently two staff members went on leave that week and my heavy workload literally doubled."

"I didn't mind," explains Blanche, "because by then I knew how to do the work and was still very eager to please."

"I stayed back later and later to get the extra work done," says Blanche, "and everyone continued being very nice to me. I was feeling very pleased with my progress."

"Two week's later the two staff members returned from leave and I looked forward, finally, to getting back to a normal workload," explains Blanche, "but then two more girls went on leave and rather than their workload being farmed out to everyone I copped the lot. I started to get suspicious."

"In my fourth week at this perfect job I was literally snowed under with extra work, most of which involved stressful deadlines," says Blanche, "and I was working so hard that I never had time to take a break or go to the bathroom."

"I was stiff, aching and tired but still very thrilled to be working for the company and I was looking forward to attending the first of their monthly social events," explains Blanche. "It never occurred to me to complain or consider that they were taking advantage of me. I reasoned that when the second lot of two girls returned to work everything will settle down."

"At the end of my fourth week I remember mentioning in passing to my manager that my back was a bit sore," says Blanche, "and she very kindly encouraged me to take regular breaks - which I did."

"Other than that, I never said anything about being overworked and nobody had any reason to complain about my work because I met all deadlines and never left until I had finished whatever I was doing."

"In the fifth week," continues Blanche, "I was happy to see the return of the second lot of two girls who took leave. This meant that my workload would return to normal - at last!"

"I had hardly sat down before I was called into my manager's office."

"Imagine my shock to be told that she was recommending my discharge on the basis that I couldn't keep up with the workload and was liable to injury."

"Hello? Hadn't she dumped the work of two girls on me and seen how I took care to protect my back from strain?"

"Suddenly, their whole rotten slave-driving scheme dawned on me. I was not given a proper job at all. I had been duped. I had been betrayed. In effect, they had hired me as a temp worker to do the work of four people they knew beforehand were going on leave. They knew that regular temps don't work very hard. The only way they could get someone to work hard was to dupe them into thinking the job was permanent."

"The permanent contract, the social events, the Xmas club and the friendliness of everyone was a sham from the start."

"Now that all their regular staff had completed their leave, they had no more use for me and had to trump up some reason to get rid of me."

"By accepting this 'perfect' job, I had lost the opportunity of accepting a real job from some other company."

"Not only that, but I now have a blot on my impeccable employment record."

"I have never been fired or terminated in my life," explains Blanche, "and I have no idea how I am going to explain to new employers why I was terminated by the town's most prestigious company."

"I looked into my manager's eyes and saw shame writ large," says Blanche. "She was obviously doing what she had been told to do - but this did not make it any easier for me."

"She said I would be given a week's discharge pay and indicated that I should leave immediately."

"They fired me with as much haste as they had hired me," says Blanche, "which just goes to show that seizing the day, grabbing opportunities, making hay while the sun shines, etc, is not always the smart thing to do."

"I was dazzled by the job," sighs Blanche, "and while I was definitely betrayed, I take responsibility for not having the nous to figure out what was going on."

"My husband was furious and urged me to take legal action but I felt it was better to learn from the experience and put it behind me."

"I certainly won't be doing any more than a fair share of work in my next job!"

This story first appeared as perfect job betrayal

the 4am alarm call job

Jody is 28 and was thrilled to pieces when she told her friends about a fabulous new tourist industry job she had been offered, but when she added, very reluctantly, that it required a 5.30am start and a 4am alarm call they laughed their heads off.

"They said that no job was worth waking up at 4am for and that if I accepted it I was mad and wouldn't last a week," laughs Jody.

Undaunted by her friends' taunts, Jody accepted the job offer but a 4am alarm call was not going to be her only problem.

Poor Jody's car fell to pieces three days before she was due to start her new job.

Faced with the option of getting to work by cab - and giving most of her pay to a cabbie - or going by public transport, Jody chose the public transport option. She consoled herself by saying it was only going to be for a short time until her car was fixed, or until she could afford to buy a new car.

In a last minute flurry she called the information services for bus and train timetables and received more bad news.

The bus service at the end of her block did not start operating until 5.30am - the time she was supposed to start her new job - and although the trains operated early morning services it was a 45 minute walk from her place to the nearest railway station.

Faced with the prospect of calling a cab for the trip to her local railway station, or walking it, Jody decided to walk. It was summer and she needed to lose a bit of weight. A 45 minute walk in the cool of the early morning of a hot summer's day sounded like a great way to save money and lose some weight.

"I dared not think what the walk would be like in winter," laughs Jody, "but I am a great one in crossing bridges when I get to them!"

And then Jody realized that 4am was not exactly early morning - it would be black dark!

Worse still, in order to do the 45 minute walk she would need to get up at 3am, not 4am! Jody had sometimes walked home from the railway station at 3am after a night out on the town, but doing the walk from her home to the railway station at 3am sounded bizarre.

It not only sounded bizarre - it sounded unsafe.

A call to the railway station to talk to the staff about the early morning train assuaged Jody's fears somewhat. It was perfectly safe they assured her. There were quite a few passengers on the early morning train, two guards on duty at the station and a guard on the train. She wouldn't be alone, trapped with a drunk or a rapist in the carriage!

But what about the walk to the railway station? Was that safe?

That night she decided to do a trial run - actually, a trial walk. No, she didn't get up at 3am. She cheated.

"I did the walk at 11pm which was late enough to give the effect of a 3am walk," says Jody, "but early enough to scream for help if I got into trouble."

Half way to the railway station, Jody decided that the walking option was ridiculous.

"I spent most of the time looking behind to see if anyone was following me," says Jody, "and I was terrified when I came to a stretch where the street lighting was poor or non-existent. To do the walk at 3am was totally out of the question."

Back to the taxi option. Could she afford it? Jody did some quick sums and realized that she really could not afford to either call a cab every day, or hire a car. And it was far too much hassle to beg friends to lend her their car.

The next day, Jody telephoned the company, told them her problems and asked whether she could start at 6.30am until her car was fixed or until she could afford to buy a new one.

Catching the first bus of the morning at the end of her block would solve all problems, and surely an hour later wouldn't matter.

"It did!" laughs Jody. "They said 'sorry, no go - even for a week or so - it was 5.30am start or nothing'."

"I then asked if they would reimburse me the cab fares to the railway station," says Jody, "and they said no way, that's my problem, not theirs."

The wonderful job wasn't looking very wonderful after all. It was almost as if her car had broken down for a reason. The reason being that this job was not going to be worth waking up at 4am for - and certainly not 3am - and realizing how she had been blinded by the glamour of the job, Jody opted out.

Later, Jody was to learn that nobody had stayed in the job for more than a month so she made a wise decision to quit before she started.

"The job didn't really require graduate qualifications," confides Jody. "It was the glamour of the job that appealed to me, but I guess those early starts took a toll on young women who weren't used to getting up early."

"Also," adds Jody, "the company paid scant attention to the very real fears and concerns that female staff had about early morning shifts. Had it been a good company, one that wishes to retain staff, it might have operated a free company taxi service for it's early morning female staff - guaranteeing their safety, avoiding the hassle of private vehicles breaking down and generally making the 5.30am start less of a miserable experience."

"Actually, the company ended up employing males only on the early morning shift," laughs Jody. "Apparently, males never complained about 4am wake-up calls and weren't fearful of traveling alone at unearthly hours of the early morning - but I bet they didn't look as cute as the women in their red and gold uniforms!"

"I know this is going to sound like sour grapes, " laughs Jody, "but I bet the company will lose money by hiring men rather than women. Businessmen want to look at cute women, not men - especially at 5.30am!