This is a sad story of an evil boss :-(

[Ninth Dimension]

This is a sad story, it’s a story or Trust and Betrayal, a story of an evil boss who has no kindness, or any simple set of morals. This is a story of my life at FoneLink, and why True Gamers should be boycotted. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

It all started on the 11th of September (what a fateful day) which was the date of my interview with FoneLink, I turned up at the office in Sidcup, dressed to impress, with a CV full of reasons why I should be hired for the sales job that was on offer.

After being invited into the office, I took a seat, and the very first thing said to me by my future employer was “I think you have applied for the wrong job”. This felt to me like it was going to be a dead end interview, and I felt like getting up, thanking him for his time, and going home, but I stayed, and that was the start of this whole painful affair.

It turned out that that he was talking about my background in IT, and he was wondering why I was applying for a sales position, anyway, the interview finished, I got a job as a web site developer, and for a few weeks, I was happy.

During my twelve and a half weeks with FoneLink I developed a number of sites, True Gamers, a sites providing news and reviews of all the games available to buy, a site selling pornographic videos and DVD’s (even though I’m morally against pornography), and a site selling Sony audio visual equipment (which due to bad management by my boss, was put on hold until after Xmas.

This, in my opinion, was quite an achievement for twelve weeks work, and the only way that I was able to complete all this work was to spend a lot of my own personal time working on the sites, and even though this weekly routine of hard work was making me feel physically exhausted, and even though I was getting paid a tiny £10,000 a year, I keep at it because I wanted to impress the boss, and get a nice reward for it, however the reward I received was not the one I expected.

ON the 6th of December I was called down to the office, and without a word I was handed an envelope, inside this envelope was a letter explaining that my employment had been terminated and my last day was one week later on the 12th of December.

I was shocked, my heart beat increased and I broke into a sweat, all I could ask was why? The answer I received, in my opinion, was not the best, it turned out that I was being fired because I had no experience in marketing and that I was not passionate about the sites I had developed.

At this point in the story I would like to highlight out a couple of things: first of all my job description states that I will be working as an IT Technician, which as a job involves developing websites, configuring any PC equipment in the office, and other general IT duties, this however does not include any type of marketing, and even though I’m more than willing to learn about marketing, he did not want to employ some one that would have a steep learning curve.

Regarding his second reason, as the developer of the site, and after spending the amount of time I had on the sites, both in the office, and at home in my personal time, it would be impossible to state that I was not passionate about the sites I had developed. Many a night I would have been up until 2am working on the sites, trying to make them perfect so that my boss would have been happy, but this fact must have escaped him.

So at this point I’m now screwed, It’s two weeks until Xmas, I’ve got no job, no money, and almost no chance of getting another decent job until January.

Now I’m not the type of revenge, however in this case I feel that it’s worth it, and even if (as stated in some faiths) this bad karma will come back upon me three fold, I feel that this must be done.

That is why I’m trying to boycott True Gamers, my own site, elements of my own blood, sweat and tears in it, the project that was going to help give my career the boost it needed.

I’m not telling anyone to do anything, I’m just asking, please do not give True Gamers any support, just let it die and allow it to follow the path set by many other sites such as boo.com.

Thank you.

[Reeve of shinra]

It seems to me that the reasons they listed were just HR acceptable bull****. They probably needed to downside and didn't want to officially lay you off since the might then be inclined to offer you a departure package of some sort.

Unfortunately **** does happen, but your a hard worker and you will find a job where that is going to pay off big time. December is traditionally bad for telcom hiring though so you may have to just sit tight and get the interviews scheduled if you can.

Good Luck to you bro, ...

[Ninth Dimension]

Hi, thank you for the words of wisdom, I'll keep looking for another job, but in the meantime i've got a few personal projects to work on, and with any luck one of them might make some money, you never know

[Hooper]

I once worked for a very large company. I was promoted to general manager simply because of the skills I had obtained over a number of years. The position was exhausting. At a later date the company decided that a pager was needed for the companies general managers. After a 60 hour work week I was then strapped to a pager. To make a very long story somewhat shorter. The pager was beeping at all hours of the night and morning. At an early hour one morning the pager decided to do it's normal duty and inform me that my sleep was not very important. Not happening previously, I flew out of bed in a rage of madness, proceeded to thoroughly thrash the pager through the house until it no longer beeped. It must have been thrown and kicked quite a few times for there were a few marks and a dent in the wall that I later discovered. Soon after this brief moment took place I found myself sleeping a few hours more. At the usual "Up and at em" time I proceeded to go to work. Upon entering my place of business I was informed by the companies marketing president that I indeed had an important meeting to attend and that this meeting was of utmost importance to me. I still cannot to this day say that I didn't see it coming but I proceeded to the conference room where the marketing president, vice president and another corporate executive that flew in earlier "Just for me" waited.

I then realized just how important I must be. I mean, here they are. President, vice president and someone from the corporate office who hopped a plane to meet with me. I was nervous but firm with my thoughts pertaining to the pager matter after a 60 hour work week.

I was the life of the meeting. The meeting was just for me. They proceeded to go around the meeting table probing me for the information as to why I decided to not answer when duty called. I gave them several reasons for the situation but found that they didn't see quite "eye to eye" with me on my answers. I was given notice of the importance of the calls and that the my duties had gone undone. At the end of my corporate interrogation I was told that I no longer held the position that I had. I asked if they were firing me. They said that they were demoting me. I told them to go screw themselves and walked out . Later I won a lengthy case over the unemployement compensation.

I would do the same thing again. Not once, but anytime the opportunity warranted. I took the experience and turned it into an asset. Today I am much better off than what I was. I don't have to work a 60hour work week to make the money I once made there. And I refuse to wear a pager for anyone.

I was once responsible for millions of dollars. Responsible for a portion of the companies assets, responsible for employees, and responsible for the Profit and Loss associated with such. Today I am responsible for less, but I haven't found the need to have the fit of madness I once had.

Best wishes,

[Ninth Dimension]

Wow, that is a very interesting story, did the real (first) reason for the meeting ever become clear to you?

I'm glad that you managed to turn it to your advantage, I, on the other hand, am not able to make such a comback, esp after being there for only 12 weeks, but I am using it as a spring board to bigger and better things.

I'm starting my own company with one of my friends, and i'm also going to continue to develop my own personal sites, you never know, one of them might take off

Thank you for the story

[Hooper]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by danielhollands
Wow, that is a very interesting story, did the real (first) reason for the meeting ever become clear to you?

Thank you for the story

[Ninth Dimension]

Chin up - Check.
Ready to start a new day - Check.

Thanx

[geniuscrew]

Good luck for the future mate

[Ninth Dimension]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by geniuscrew
Good luck for the future mate