Sacked like a potato
Last year I got a call from the agency I was going through as they had an opening for a position in a furniture store. I was given an interview where it was determined that since I had just recently moved to town, and had no experience in the furniture business, that I would be a perfect candidate for the job as they were looking for a fresh perspective. Shortly thereafter, I was hired as their Inventory Supervisor. Job duties included: Unloading incoming shipments, placing display items out on the floor, supervising the delivery drivers and the delivery schedule, and keeping track of inventory. Some of the highlights of this job:

1. Dealing with the owner, who would be your best friend until he caught you doing something wrong; at which point he would vent all his frustrations on you at a volume level reserved mostly for airport runways.

2. Dealing with the Store Manager, who would be your best friend and sympathize with you about being yelled at by the owner, then go behind your back and lie about you to the owner, getting you in even more trouble.

3. Attempting to supervise delivery drivers who a) know more about delivering furniture than you do, and b) have no respect for you because they've seen the way the owner and the manager treat you. (See #1 and #2).

4. "Pitching in" to help out with things not in the scope of the job description, like spending a week on the roof of the store in 115 deg. weather (46.1 deg C for the rest of you) repairing the air conditioning system.

5. Doing your best to work with a receiptionist whose attitude was that of a woman on the rag, 100% of the time.

So the contract period came and went, and I mentioned this to the manager, who said he'd check into it. A week later, I reminded him again, and got the same answer. A week after that, I spoke to the manager at the agency I was going through, who said she'd give the Store manager a call. A week after that, I was called into the store manager's office an hour before quitting time, and told that the owner had decided that my position, which had been newly created when I was hired, was not cost-effective and was to be eliminated. I was given the choice of leaving then, or staying the extra hour. Care to guess which option I took?

So that's the injury, and here's the insult: The very next day, my "eliminated" position was listed in the employment section of the local paper. Fucking cunts.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that during my stay there, they regularly asked for my ideas on what they could do to improve the store. I had plenty of ideas, but they were never acted upon for one reason or another. Now that I'm gone, though, I've noticed at least 2 of my ideas have been implemented.
(WillF http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverfischdotnet/, Thu 23 Feb 2006, 18:40, Reply)