Sign Word for HR Later

They used false “help wanted” ads to fire their own employees that were looking for a new job.I worked for a lead generation service which sold qualified lists of homeowners (and their telephone numbers) to financial advisers. Then, they sold those same financial advisers a telemarketing service that would call those homeowners and arrange appointments with them. There is so much that is “shady” about this company that it is impossible to bring up one questionable act without first explaining several previous questionable or downright illegal acts. (UPDATE: if you want more details about how bad it was to work for this place, check out John Hursey's answer to What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?)After a particularly horrifying series of events right around the holiday season, I decided to begin looking for a new job. I got on craigslist, and I found several positions in customer service and data entry that were available right in my city. I sent them a quick email with my resume attached, and waited for a response.The next day I was called into the President’s office. He invited me to sit down. His mother (the vice president of the company) was standing behind him. He asked me if I was happy working for him.Luckily for me, I knew this was a trap of some kind and answered honestly. I told him that I was interested in having more free time with a more flexible schedule and that it would be impossible to do so with my current job, so I was in the process of looking for something else. I also told him that I had informed my direct supervisor of my intentions last week, and that I would give the company adequate warning—at least two weeks notice—before I quit.He and his mother looked at each other. Well, he said, it turns out that one of the companies I had applied to was the very same company I worked for now. I thought that was odd, because I don’t have any intellectual disabilities or mental impairments that would indicate I would apply to the same company that I currently worked for. Nevertheless, I told him that I suppose this was good news, since perhaps I could simply transfer to whatever this open position was and still maintain my employment with his company while working the schedule that was most convenient for myself.Not so fast. It turned out there wasn’t any positions available in those departments. Their strategy was to entice applicants with positions in data entry and customer service and then during the interview inform them that those positions had been filled; those applicants were then offered much less pay and schedule flexibility as a salesman. In addition, current employees that applied for these jobs were summarily fired for being “disloyal.”A month later I was terminated, for reasons I still do not fully understand. I applied for unemployment, and when I explained the series of events leading to my termination the lady at the unemployment office literally scoffed at me and told me that my story was unbelievable. She even called me personally at home to tell me that the company was contesting my unemployment filing and that she expected me to lose the arbitration process.The day of the hearing I got a phone call from the same lady, in tears. She apologized profusely for how she had treated me. She had just completed a five-minute interaction with the president and his mother, confirming not only my story but also her worst fears about humanity in general.

I was Shaken. Felt VOIDAnswer is going to be very long - I have not expressed my feeling to anyone after that day so here is lengthy answer (yeah - another Introvert !). This happened in PUNE.It was a good day with blue cloudless sky and warming temperature, I woke up early since I was in first shift so started earlier to office.signNowed office, had some work that I owned and went with colleagues for breakfast, when came back noticed HR and manger were discussing something in meeting room, I continued my work, until interrupted by manger to come along with him, so I did.In Meeting RoomM: How are you Mr. XXX?me: I am well and good , feeling quite good today.M: hmm, so Mr. XXX, how many years you have been working for XYZ and how was your experience so far ?me : (what the hell he is asking me this, wondering why he is asking this question to me) completed 2.5 years so far (I joined as fresher there ) and told regular rotten things like feels good , good work culture,bla bla bla.M: okay, let me come to the point - there is feedback for you from team mates that you are not doing well and keeps sleeping at nights when you are in night shift , your attitude towards work is not good. Is that true ?me : (I was shocked for few mins and I took me while to get out of it )I am sure there must be some misunderstanding, this is not true (In my mind, I smelled something fishy )M: Well, Mr. XXX, I have feedback in written for you and that must be true and I don’t think it might be some misunderstanding. Let me call HR to join here ( I came to know this later that this was pre-planned and both HR and manger were already hand in hand)While waiting for HRme : (sweated, my throat went dry ) -felt anxious, my heart was beating fastlyM: waited calmly with mild smile on his faceHR joins meetingHR: how are you Mr. XXX,M: hmm, he is quite frightenedHR: hey XXX, relax, do you want to drink some water ? (while opening a bottle )me: did not utter a single word (I was sweating )HR : Forcefully handed over water bottleme: did drink some waterHR : I have a news for you, we here are XYZ no longer require your services and you are relieved from today and you may leave after this meeting.me : what ? what ? (heartbeat on high, could not believe on my ears )HR: Relax, calm down, you will get your 2 months salary and relieving letter along with form 16 and pay slips, you may leave nowme : Almost broke into tears literally, my eyes were RED.HR and M : they were just watching me what I am going through.me: Sir, Madam, there is some misunderstanding here, I kept telling this is not true in different ways.HR & M : both silent - no words spoken.me : again - I kept telling and trying to explain.HR : Please leave your id at me and get your stuff and leave - otherwise I have to call securityme : (coming out of shock , I was explaining like a beggar to someone rich )I am from lower middle classed family, my father is retired from school as clerk and mother is housewife , I have responsibility of younger brother for his education and I have to support my family. (M was very well aware about my background )HR : (in somewhat harsher and loud voice) : Please get out.me : I literally grabbed HR and manager feet to show me some mercyHR : XXX, please leave ASAP.meanwhile, M calls security to escort me to the gate , few mins passed, a security personnel comes in and requests me to come along with him.me : while standing and giving merciful look to both - still hoping they will revert their decision and came out of meeting room and headed towards washroomI asked security personnel to wait outside washroom and let me wash me eyes that were much REDDER and shred me tears.I came out of washroom and asked security personnel to wait at main door and requested not to come by desk very politely, he agreed, went to my cubicle , did not show any sign for what happened, took my stuff as if I am searching for something from my drawer ,just so as not to take doubt among team mates , took my stuff and gave a smile back to team mates who were not having any idea that I am leaving PERMANENTLYI walked very SLOWLY with security guy and came out of building.signNowed room (there was no one at room- room mate was at job, we were just two guys )- I CRIED AND CRIED AND CRIED FOR HOURS - and for the first time in life I experienced GREAT VOIDI was constantly thinking of my family (I was unmarried then ) and their dreams, their hopes - all gone just like that !!(I always used to send 90% my salary to home for support and brother’s education so I was not having any big bucks in banks )On the same day - I got some many calls from my colleagues - news was spread finally , did not answered single one.They all came to meet me and I told what M told me about them and they said no one has given any feedback.I did not broke news to my home - I broke it when I went to home after 1.5 months.I broke it to my room mate after 2 days.Meanwhile - I decided to change my spends towards my lifestyle since I was only having 3k in my salary account and I have to live with that for at least 2.5 months since I could not ask for money at home.I used to eat just a SINGLE WADA PAO for a day and cup of tea - you heard it - just a single wada pao for a day and a cup of tea and I have to prepare for interviews as well with this empty stomach -Whenever I got interview call - I spent money for transport and skipped eating Wada Pao and shamelessly used to ask at interview locations if they are proving free meals for candidatesI lost almost 15–20 kgs in 1.5 monthsThis continued for 8 months and finally I got a decent job !!(I faced so many cross questions like why did you leave your job in middle while holding no offer - since it was mentioned by HR on releasing certificate that I am, XXX, wants to move on )P.S.Later I come to know that HR had hired someone from college pass out from M referral who was relative of M.There were no issues among team mates - my team was really decent team - just t0 be clear.My Room mate helped me a LOT during this periodForgive my poor English and grammatical errorsI moved on and LIFE HAS TAUGHT ME A GOOD LESSON THAT I WILL NEVER FORGET.

“Yeah, this little shit needs to stop making us clean up after him…”I was working an awesome job that I really liked. I was a cashier at a local health food grocery store. Since I was vegetarian, I loved chatting with most of the customers who visited; most of them were hippies, health nuts, or they just had a good amount of money and wanted the best food.When I have a job, I’m extremely committed to it. It was more important to me than school, so I told them I would come in on Monday mornings every week during the school year just because that’s when they needed me. I was working there for...

When I was a broke college student in the early 1990s, I worked in a busy bookstore in a mall in downtown Boston.The register was located at the front of the store, on a raised platform, so we could monitor customers as they came and left.One day when I was working the register, I noticed a cute guy enter the store carrying a metal clipboard—the kind that had a compartment for storing a notebook or additional paperwork.After disappearing into the back of the store, the guy returned moments later and got in line. When it was his turn, he smiled at me, opened the clipboard’s compartment, and ...

I was accepted to Stanford on a full scholarship as a transfer student from a California Community College at the age of 28. My husband was very sick at the time and couldn't work, so we made do on food stamps and AFDC. I worked as much as I could (under the table) to keep a roof over our heads and pay for his medical bills, going so far as to take a nannying job 3–4 nights a week, caring for the 3 year old son of a single father who was also the graveyard shift on-call oncologist at the medical center. He paid fairly well, but we were always one small disaster away from homelessness.i managed to get pregnant at the beginning of my last year, a co-term year during which I earned my master’s degree. You haven't lived until you've spent nine months working towards a post-graduate degree at Stanford, growing more and more pregnant by the day, juggling four jobs in two counties, wrangling with a social worker who keeps telling you to quit school and find a job making $10/hr as a fry cook, commuting 2–3 hours every day from Santa Cruz to Palo Alto and back over a tsignNowerous mountain road with NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS AT ALL to care for a husband who could not walk, needed to be rushed to the emergency room at least three or four times a month and whose doctors gave him only a 50/50 chance of living to see the birth of our first and only child.I would listen to my classmates talk about their family villas on Majorca, using “summer” as a verb, while calculating in my head if I could find enough change in my sofa to buy a bag of dry beans so we could eat for another week until the next month’s food stamps came in. They would discuss their plans to kayak some fjord in Iceland over spring break while I looked forward to working triple shifts and standing in line at the grocery store, getting dirty looks from disgusted customers who didn't like being held up by the clearly lazy and irresponsible welfare queen who was using a WIC voucher to pay for a carton of milk, a can of tuna and a tube of frozen orange juice concentrate. They asked me to come along in their BMWs to go wine tasting in Napa for the weekend while I wondered if I had enough bus money to get back to Santa Cruz to sign papers and advocate for my incoherent husband, who was in the hospital again and in danger of receiving treatment from one of his six specialists that could render useless or even combine lethally with the treatment prescribed by another, because they didn't bother to communicate with each other. And all the while, of course, thinking “okay, I can't afford maternity clothes, so I'm wearing one of my husband’s old workshirts every day, but can you not clearly see I'm as pregnant as fucking octomom?? I can't remember the last time I even had a cup of full-caff coffee, let alone a glass of wine! DUH!”When I got too big to ride my bike around campus, I would take the shuttle to my classes, where too often I would end up standing for the whole ride, because the seats were all full of students too consumed by their phones to notice the whale of a person standing in front of them trying to stabilize her center of gravity because of the 8 pound baby in her uterus and the 30 pound bag of books on her back. I had to battle the urge to challenge all of them to a fist fight for their obliviousness.Toward the end of that year, as I waddled toward the finish line, I found myself almost delirious from chronic sleep-deprivation. The one thing that kept me going was the miraculous fact that my baby was not due until a couple of weeks after graduation. Somehow I became fixated on the idea that I would get to go see a movie, for fun, between the time I graduated and the time I became a mother. It was all I thought about, honestly, as I trudged from one obligation to the next. I would be sitting in the dark, by myself, in a chair that probably was too small for my now-grotesque body, out of which I would have to heave myself every 15 minutes to use the bathroom, but damn was I ever looking forward to it! Two whole hours to myself, with no more bitchy egotistical TAs to contend with, no more deadlines, no more cramming for finals, no more arriving home after a fourteen hour day with feet so swollen and painful that it took me ten minutes to ratchet up the nerve to pry them out of my shoes. Maybe I would even fall asleep over my unbuttered, unsalted popcorn for half an hour!it was with this decadent fantasy in mind that I sat to write my last essay. It was, as I recall, an analysis of William Faulkner’s “Absalom! Absalom!” Twenty minutes in, I began to feel a little funny. I tried to write it off as indigestion, but by the time I was halfway though with the paper, i could deny it no longer. I was in labor.i finished my essay, breathing through the contractions, pushed “print”, sighed a little sadly, packed a bag and drove myself to the hospital, where I gave birth, with no drugs (except a well-deserved shot of Wild Turkey when it was all over), even when the baby went into cardiac distress and they had to rip me a new vagina in their haste to get her out, not even when they put in 36 stitches afterward to sew me back together. When they whisked her away to work on her, and I was alone again, I pulled that last essay from my bag, walked myself down to the nurse’s station, stitches and all, and faxed it to my professor with a note of apology, hoping he would understand why I couldn't be at our planned meeting that morning.I graduated five days later, with high honors. I still have the picture: my diploma in one hand and my baby in the other: My Week in Review.It was hands-down the most stressful year of my life, including the time of my husband’s actual death, which came not too many years later.When I look back on that time, my heart nearly bursts with gratitude, for my incredible husband, who suffered grievously but tried to hide it for my sake, and who was overjoyed in spite of his suffering about the birth of our daughter. I am grateful for his nurses and orderlies, who went the extra mile to care for him when i couldn't be there. I am grateful for my understanding, compassionate professors, who reassured me that everything would be okay and who let me get up in the middle of class whenever I wanted to relieve the pressure on my tailbone. I am grateful for my social worker, whose sternness and admonishments could never hide the fact that she was rooting for us to make it. I am grateful to the government for the $92 a month that allowed us to eat when I could no longer work. I am grateful beyond words for the forces that gave me the opportunity to study with the world’s most renowned minds, to earn a degree in a field that I'm wildly passionate about, at a school that any student would be proud to attend, that gave me the will to carry and deliver a healthy baby and that gave her father the strength to live long enough to receive her into his arms and to shower on her all the love that he could muster, and all his hope for a bright future, in spite of his suffering and the knowledge of his coming death.Now, 17 years later, I'm a tenured college English teacher myself. I never did get to see that movie… but whenever I think back on that time, overwhelmingly and unmitigatedly, what I feel is gratitude.That is what it's like to be a broke Stanford student.Edit: So many thanks for all the encouraging comments. To clarify: I don’t consider myself all that extraordinary. I think most people are stronger and more resilient than they think they are, and this year proved that to me, without a doubt. I didn’t do it alone, however. I had many resources that others do not have, and I never felt for a second that the universe was being unfair to me or my family. Everyday, I see people who manage to spread joy and compassion in the face of what seems like unendurable hardship. My own students inspire me all the time, as I see them struggle through poverty, sickness, homelessness, abusive situations, substance abuse, and countless other stresses.If I could manifest one change as a result of this experience, it would be to free people from their own judgmental reactions when they encounter welfare recipients during their daily adventures. Yes, it’s true that there are some folks who take undue advantage of the safety net that this great country provides (as modest as it may be) but it has been my experience that the vast majority are doing the best they can with what they have, and take their first opportunity to leave government aid behind and join the ranks of contributing taxpayers. I was stunned by the number of nasty comments I got from people as I tried to pay for my meager cart of groceries with food stamps or WIC. Yes, I was pregnant. Yes, for all intents and purposes, I was a single parent. Yes, I was attending one of the most elite and expensive schools in the world . That was only part of the story, though. I wish more people would be mindful of the fact that facing such judgement is humiliating, exhausting and discouraging when one is just trying to get through the day, especially on top of all the other challenges that made it necessary to apply for aid to begin with. I can easily see those comments being the thing that at the end irrevocably breaks the spirit of a person who is trying harder than most people can ever imagine, for longer than seems humanly possible.Once in a while I would receive a word of encouragement or a smile. I remember every one of those moments from compassionate strangers . I stored up their supportive words as defense against the days when it seemed all too easy to just give up. I make it a point now to do the same when I see someone who looks like they might be struggling. I always want to say, hang in there. Things actually do get better if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t give up, in spite of all the mean spiritedness that might come your way. There are more people out there who are kind and understanding, and who are on your side, even if they don’t say it out loud.

Is it the day of the week that is the matter? This seems pretty infrequent. Schedule your appointment for lunch hour or around lunch time (11 AM- 12 PM or 1:00 - 2:00 PM or 12:00 PM-1:00 PM) if that is enough time for you. That way you don’t necessarily need to ask for permission, or you can ask for an extra hour around lunch for the time you need, the extended lunch will get you 2 hours.Otherwise, do you have enough sick leave? Many employees now are regaining the definition of sick time to more than “inches from death sick with malaria and dengue”. Doctors appointments mean much more in t...

First, Congratulations!!Next, as Randall Reade said, it was unethical for HR to ask about your family plans when hiring you.  And, in the US, it is illegal too. I don't think there is any way to get your boss to be happy for you if he isn't genuinely happy already.  If he isn't, I'd start looking for a new job now.  The last thing you need, with a new baby on the way, is to work for a company that is not family friendly.You have probably 7 months before you need to take some time off work.  Tell your boss as soon as possible, gauge his reaction.  Find out what the leave policy is like at your job.  Start planning for how  you will cover your medical expenses.  Are you on your husband's insurance or your own with your new job?There is no reason why you can't apply for new jobs while you are pregnant.   You can start now or after you end your maternity leave.  When I was 3 months pregnant I was recruited to a new job with a 40% pay increase and a signing bonus to cover my expected loss in pay while on maternity leave.  There are good companies out there who see a successful woman as an asset, not a baby-making liability.  There are good companies out there who value work-life balance.  Now that you are entering a new phase of your life where work-life balance will become increasingly important, you should consider the type of job that you want and the type of company that will support you.When I told the company that had made me an offer that I was 3 months pregnant, I listened for the first reaction.  And my future boss's first word was a warm and genuine "Congratulations!"  Any other reaction is unacceptable and I probably would have turned down the job, raise and all.  Now, for your actual question "How to tell my boss [I am pregnant] so that he sees the glass as half full?"Tell him you have very exciting news and have recently learned you are pregnant!!!  Be happy when you say it, that makes people more likely to be empathetically happy with you.Tell him you realize that this means you will be away from work for a bit.  But the great thing is you have plenty of time to prepare for your absense, unlike any other medical issue that could take you away from your job unexpectedly.  Tell him you love your job and you want to keep working there.  Let him know that you have no intention of quitting (a lot of people assume that when a woman has kids she'll quit her job).Tons of people lose months, even a year of work for other medical conditions like cancer, heart disease, back problems, car accidents, etc.  Pregnancy is the best reason to lose a little time from work.  People should be happy for you.  If they aren't, it's their problem, not yours.

Is it possible to be "over qualified" when enlisting in the US military?In practical terms, yes.This is much less a factor when seeking an officers’ commission.I would liken the situation of the recruit about to embark on their voyage through basic military training to that of the prospective police officer. After submitting an employment application, most applicants will receive an invitation to take the National Police Officer Selection Test, or P.O.S.T. Obviously, you must score above a certain minimum level on this assessment in order to be given any further consideration as a candidate for the position. However, you can absolutely score too highly to be given any further consideration as well. Police departments have learned through the years that applicants who do too well on the selection test do not fare well as police officers. While the work is intense and exciting at times, it is often boring, especially for junior officers assigned to overnight details. A lot of young officers who scored exceptionally well on the P.O.S.T. have been found to leave policing for a career that better suits them within several years. In addition, some very talented and gifted officers have been found to be overly ambitious and got carried away in their work, causing problems for the department and the community.In the military, the goal of training is to make everyone more or less homogeneous and to function as a team. Most people with a high degree of innate intelligence absolutely loathe this type of environment and its rigid structure. Many very bright people I knew were on the verge of going nuts about a week into basic training. Some were able to handle it, others, eh, not so much!Note that when you enlist, you sign a contract and are obligated to serve the number of years you agreed to enlist for. About the only thing that changes that is if the service you enlisted in gives you the boot for whatever the reason. In all law enforcement agencies I’m aware of, you are not prohibited from leaving at any time, although you may have to reimburse them for part of your tuition at the law enforcement academy if you leave within several years.Many people who are quite intelligent by nature have developed a personality type by early adulthood that is not a good fit for military life. Many intelligent people find military service to be quite insulting when they are of military age. Most that I’ve known do adjust, kind of like a dog that is hyper when young but slows down and becomes well behaved in middle age. Therein lies the problem: by the time that maturity tempers the active mind of an intelligent person, they’re at the age where they could have retired from the military had they been able to stay in that long!The best personality description for a ‘sharp’ soldier would be one that is observant and somewhat questioning, but can successfully limit it to the task at hand and not be distracted by anything else. This would be a person who is of slightly above average intelligence. Believe me, if you get caught off guard and miss something you were expected to notice or catch even though hours of nothing had passed… you will be hearing about it! You’re not going to like it.Are there jobs where being exceptionally intelligent is a benefit in the military? They’re few and far between and not usually for junior enlisted personnel. They’re positions that you grow into after several years’ time in service, and often not available to those in their first enlistment. The military does need some smart people, but they want someone who is willing to learn and do what they tell them to, not someone who is always thinking outside the box and looking for ways in which to do things differently than they are done. It’s fine to be just a ‘bit above normal’ and to have good, solid academic skills - especially mathematics. That will get you far. You do absolutely need to be someone who is content to be told what to do and how to do it, and then deliver just that. Your chain of command will not be wanting your opinion on how ‘it should be done’, especially if you voluntarily offer it. They may ask for suggestions on occasion, but there’s other reasons for doing that, so don’t take it at face value!Most of the people I knew who were what most people would consider to be geniuses gave no consideration to serving in the military whatsoever. I’ve known some fairly astute individuals who pursued commissions and served for some length of time as officers. I’ve known some people who had a lot of common sense that did well in the enlisted grades, but in most cases they enlisted as very average eighteen-year-olds fresh out of high school and a lot of their growth, mentally, was in the military. I saw a lot of people who were intellectually formidable wash out of basic training, sometimes for medical issues, sometimes because they just weren’t adapting well. I saw quite a few fairly bright people who served one term of enlistment and move on. I saw a few reenlist and stick around, but I’d rate them as only somewhat above average in intelligence and mental ability but with well developed interpersonal skills and a high degree of adaptability. Of those, quite a few had grown up as ‘military brats’ and were used to not staying in one place for very long and knowing that constant change was a way of life.