What I Did:
I was hired as the office receptionist/ and inside support to 7 outside sales reps. It was a Mom & Pop publishing firm with 12 people employed there when I started. On my first day of work there was no one there when I arrived and the doors were locked. Finally after 20 minutes one person arrived and she was the only one to even say Hi to me that first day. The boss and his VP were on a business trip so I sat at a make shift desk for 3 days trying to figure out what to do. I should have ran out the door on that first day as I was told the girl prior to me did. This company reeked of disorganization from the start.
Why was it a bad job?
The owner was ADD/Manic Depressive/recovered alcholic (seriously, he would brag about it) and he called his VP "his second wife". she would run around and get his medication for him whne he forgot to take it.
No one had a clue what the other guy was doing and the employees just made up rules as they worked. The boss started to hire more people... all of his family and AA friends and they didn't do a darn honest days work, some were even fresh out of prison! They never lasted long and it just created more chaos and confusion when we were trying to get a magazine out. But he always found another relative to replace the one he'd just lost. Oh and he would pay them very very well even if they did not know how to turn on a computer. His wife was also on the payroll even though she could hardly speak english, she had her own office and all the frills but never came in. So we used it as a storage area. Several times we could hardly meet payroll and was asked maybe not to cash our checks right away. The 90,000 a year Mom & pop VP would hold on to her checks for months without cashing them - then was told by the bookkeeper she had to. Oh, and her husband worked there too..so he could not cash his payroll checks unless she said it was ok.
The boss spent more money then we made ( I think he thought he was Donald Trump ) he paid all his living expensives through the business and started buying BMW's, Hummers and cars for his family, trips and last minute air line flights that he would miss quite often. (which he thought I could get all the money he wasted back) Needless to say he drove the company under with his spending and other business investments. I liked my work just could not stand who I doing it for.
I was an older employee and he and the VP hardly spoke to me
in the 4.5 years I was there unless they had to. I had come from a corporate enviroment with high work ethics and very proficient computer skills that were never recognized or acknowledged here and was sorta glad the day came when they laid me off in 2007. Since then, he has lost his cars, magazines and heard now he is loosing his wife and house. Oh well...
Tips and Tricks
- If you have to work for a Mom & Pop office, check to see how many of the employees are the owners relatives, friends, ex-con's.
- In the first few days of your new job if you see signs of chaos, confusion - get out then!
- If no one is there on your first day to greet you or have at least a manual of your job duties - get out then!
- If they tell you not to cash your check for a few days - get out as soon as you can.
- If your boss asks you to run to Starbucks for him every other day and never has any money to pay for his - say no and get out then! it never gets better!
