So, my recent job endeavor has come to an end and I couldn't be happier. This was the most insane place I've ever worked and the people that owned the company were the two most ridiculous people I've ever encountered. I thought they might have been normal people that just ran their company badly and didn't know how to manage people...but no, I think they may very well suffer from mental illnesses.
From the first day I walked into that place, I thought "what the hell did I get myself into?" It was such a shady beginning. I interviewed for a full time job and their job description (if that's what you want to call it) was posted on employeebenefitjobs.com as an Account Executive. My first clue that this company wasn't quite right was the fact that they had no ability to apply for a job online and when I clicked on apply, an email was generated from the aforementioned job site and clumped my resume into a bunch of run on sentences. I got a call from the "recruiter"...I put that in quotations, because later I found out that the "recruiter" is also the payroll manager, the HR manager, the compliance manager, and a bunch of other crap that she was not qualified to be. The interviews were awkward with her and she talked in a very dull and monotone voice and was reluctant to tell me too much information about the company, but I pushed to get more info. I learned that the owners were married and reading between the lines it seemed that wasn't a good situation. When I first met them for an in person interview they had me interview in a conference room in an office suite, but I didn't see their actual "office". I thought they seemed like nice people and energetic, so that put to ease my concerns of the previous phone interviews.
Upon meeting with them the second time in person, they finally showed me this so called "office". Again, I put this in quotations, because what they called an office was a tiny little room that was half the size of my single dorm room in college. Yet, they had four people work in it!! One of them had a desk, the other had a couch, and the analyst had a tiny little desk shoved in the corner by the window. I was the fourth and I got to sit on a hard plastic cafeteria chair on the other side of my managers desk. She was always territorial with her precious desk and I never felt comfortable working there. I had to go to the chiropractor each week because they were killing me with that chair!
But, wait, I jumped ahead of myself. The job offer...this is a doozy. So, I interviewed for a full time job and they filled me with all these ideas in the interview process that they were growing so much as a company and they were going to get all this new business and really needed someone to own that process. Sounded exciting to me, I thrive in a busy environment and they seemed to really need my knowledge. So, after I get through the last interview (and wasn't entirely scared off by the dorm room office) I get a call on Saturday (my interview was the day before on Friday) from the "recruiter" offering me this shady deal in lieu of a full time job offer. She told me that they were still trying to get through interviews (as if they had SO many people knocking down their door) and that they didn't know if they were going to hire one or two people, but they needed someone to step in right away and handle some things while the owners traveled. So, as a "temporary" solution to allow them to get through the interview process they offered me a part-time position working roughly 30 hours or more a week until they got through some meetings in Vegas and could determine what new business they would sign. She asked me to make my decision that day and start on Monday. I should have known this place was going to be a disaster just from that alone. Stupid me...I agreed. Hindsight is 20/20 people....
This "temporary" position lasted from September to January and they avoided discussing the full time job that should have been offered to me months before. The job description changed on a daily basis and it was clear they had no clue what they even needed and they certainly weren't getting new business. Their processes were insane and made zero sense, yet they shut out any feedback on a better way to do things. It was their way or the highway pretty much. Their way was getting them nowhere fast!
Anyway, once I started I observed that they fought all the time and would yell about ridiculous stuff. I seriously thought that at any minute Ashton Kutcher would jump out and tell me I was being punk'd! My one manager had to put the phone on mute during conference calls so that her husband/partner could have a tantrum...and that's seriously what it was most times. I've never met a nearly 50 year old child before. I don't think I actually ever saw him do any work, I'm still not clear what value he had to the company, other than attempting to call people all the time that had no interest in talking to him. I'm surprised some people didn't get restraining orders on him...actually, maybe they did. Did I mention he picked his nose non-stop every time he was in the office?? OMG, he was the most disgusting male specimen. His hair never seemed clean...he never seemed clean. He always wore the saddest clothes, that looked like they should have been thrown out years ago, or that he picked them out of the trash. He left stains on the couch where he worked. I never wanted to touch anything he touched.
My other manager was completely neurotic, but that might be because she was on a million different medications (or so it seemed) desperate to have a baby. She would take like 2o vitamins at a time and chug them down with water. Um...sorry, but no amount of vitamins makes up for shitty nutrition. I never saw her eat anything healthy. I think it's God's way of telling her that her husband should not reproduce anymore. I never met his children, but I heard plenty of stories about them and how rotten they were. Oh...oh..oh...ya, all the stories about his ex-wife. It was insane! There was a time once when my manager was working at home and my other manager was in the office and we were on a conference call and she freaked out thinking his ex-wife had broken into the house and was going to kill her. It was drama all the time!
They created rules as they went along and their favorite responses when you questioned the rules were "it's my company and it's never ok to talk to me that way", "no other company gives their employees time off", "no other company lets you listen to your iPod", "you have to trust me I know what I'm doing". I question whether or not either of them ever worked for a legitimate company before starting this business, because they had no concept of what real companies were like.
This blog could go on and on and on because that's how much insanity existed at this place. It was awful. In the last weeks I was actually working in the office, I commiserated with the analyst that worked with me and that was the only sanity I had. I feel bad for that kid and I hope he gets out of that place fast! He has no concept of what a real company is like and when I would tell him stories of what a legitimate corporation was like, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. Poor thing.
At any rate, I am finally free from the drama and insanity and I am saved from having to have the expense of getting a therapist to sooth the mental trauma of it all!
Although, I'm not completely free of the drama, because the morons have actually tried to fight my unemployment claim. The unemployment specialist I worked with debunked all their stupid claims and said they had nothing to block my claim from going forward. I can't believe they even tried. Pathetic people I tell ya.
I'm yet again enjoying some free time and taking full advantage of living life! Hiking, biking, exploring, writing....ah good times. I have some really good prospects right now and I think when one door closes (especially a door on a white padded room) a window opens.
I do wish them good mental health and I hope they get treatment soon. I do have sympathy for the mentally disturbed.
