If you learn one thing out there in the working world, it’s that if you’re a temp worker or new to a job, it’s a good idea to keep your head down, your mouth shut, and to go with the flow.
But, apparently, this temp worker didn’t learn that lesson.
And a person took to Reddit to share their story with the world. Let’s see what they had to say.
A temp I barely knew was actively trying to get me fired behind my back.
“This happened a while ago but decided to post today as she rang a member of the office and used the threat of unfair dismissal claim if she wasn’t given a good reference. Not sure if it belongs in here or not.
TL:DR An office temp I’d spoken to a handful of times conspires to have me fired without my knowledge. It’s a very long story so be warned it’s a bit of a vent.
So, we had a temp covering maternity leave that turned out to be a bit of a nutjob. She was EA to Deputy CEO and seemed to think this gave her some sort of status. We’ll call her the temp. I’d spoken to her twice maybe three and was incredibly nice; I make it my business to be nice to everyone.
What she didn’t know is that from about a week after she started I knew she was sending daily complaints (all unfounded and untrue) to my manager about me. My manager and I get on socially and professionally and he was dumbfounded by her doing this. I still have no idea, why she did it to me either and until today I’d put her out of my mind.
We are talking 3 or 4 complaints a day and asking for stuff to be taken further and why wasn’t I getting warned/reprimanded, whatever?
What set our alarm bells ringing though was one day I was leaving early and asked her to cover something that afternoon in person, to her face. She was nice about it and said no problem. I have flexi hours and get lots of time in lieu so I’m not always there 9-5 like other staff.
Often I’m there late or on weekends so I have hours built up and let my boss know I’m cashing them in. We have an unusually complicated leave system and neither of us wants the paper work so I always need to clear when I worked them and when I take them. We keep our own record. On the day in question I rang my boss told him I’d spoken to her and she was doing whatever it was for me.
My boss rang me that afternoon and said she’d come in asking where I was and who was going to do the job she’d agreed to cover me for? She denied we had a conversation and then she complained about my hours saying I hadn’t been there for hours on end and making up days I wasn’t there. We had a record of that of course.
He explained the nature of my job meant I often wasn’t at my desk and am available on a company mobile that she could ring anytime. She deemed this wasn’t enough and basically tried to have me report any time to her where I’ll be and for how long.
This is a temp, not even the CEO expects me to do this, so why does some barely aged 21 and not full time or in my department expect it. When she left my boss called the person sitting next to her who confirmed I had spoken to her. We knew we’d have to watch her.
Here’s where he actual downfall started. In work we supply long life milk only and coffee. Everything else belongs to staff , this is widely known. It was told to people explicitly on their induction, by me. Don’t take other people’s stuff, what’s in the shelf marked staff you can have/share.
I order all of our supplies, office and tea coffee for staff and conferences so the few e mails I would get from her would be complaining about all the stuff she was using was running out and not being replaced I would let her know it was mine she could use a bit but to get her own. I can’t stand long life milk so I always bought my own fresh milk. Unbelievably this will be relevant later.
It kept going and got worse she even took a few microwave diners on me, others were complaining about their stuff walking too. The complaints from her continued and I’d reply (always) by e mail and and say the same thing over and over but no, I was wrong staff were to be supplied with the items she mentioned and I had to replace it and she would be forced to tell her manager if I didn’t do it.
I told her by all means tell your manager I always ask people to give any complaints they have about me to management as I can justify them or explain why something won’t get done.
Of course she never went to her manager, she just kept sending more and more e mails in secret to my boss and now others with her making up conversations we’d never had and doctoring emails, yeah it was getting to this stage.
My boss would come over with staff member a print out every time and I would show him my original e mail replies given I never knew when she’d e mail this was further proof I was telling the truth. He trusted me but the independent staff member was us doubly covering our *sses. We decided to mark what server tapes we used for the backup that day so we could retrieve at a moment’s notice if we had to.
We made note of it all including incorrect time lines and false claims and all false e mails were verified by other staff to be untrue we then just pretty much ignored her constant complaints. Her boss knew what was going on and admitted to ignoring the stuff she was doing and said to me and my boss to her ignore the temps complaints too.
Other staff were now reporting her increasingly odd and vindictive behavior and the deputy CEO apologetically said to my boss and I and several others to ignore the temp as she was desperate to not have to rehire when she had two months left until her usual EA was back from maternity leave.
I’m a big boy and with managements blessing we just ignored the lunatic. If you’re thinking the top managers in this place are sh*t, you’re right. I’m riding this job out until my wedding is paid for and I’m out. So none of this really affected me, I just didn’t want to lose to a moron at this point. I knew she was building to something and at this point I wanted to see her go down in flames.
Anyway in a horrible twist of fate her boss unexpectedly had to go on personal leave pretty much indefinitely and a replacement was rushed in to cover her. Then like two days later the bombshell dropped that the original EA wasn’t coming back and the temps was offered a new short term contract until a new replacement was found. Thankfully this wasn’t an extension but a brand new one, so she was on a 3 month probation again.
Now the new Deputy CEO didn’t know the lay of the land and the temp was ramping up her operations looking for the now permanent job. With her old boss out of the way, she was now including her boss in backdated e mails addressed to my boss and I as if I’d been part of the chain the whole time ramping up the complaints to give off the impression that she is just banging her head against the walls with us doing nothing she asked.
Now we knew with the increase in complaints and her increasingly hostile behavior to me behind closed door we lined our ducks up. We basically had a running record so we killed her with kindness and waited.
The day came and she struck, would you believe it, it started over milk? Even though I’m getting older and should know better, I love milk I’ll have a glass with my lunch often more. Don’t judge, it is what it is. Anyway, she is in the kitchen and I take my milk out of the fridge to take to my desk.
As I’m walking out the door I get “Don’t you think it’s rude to take it all, maybe some other staff might like to use that?” , I was having a bad day and had enough of this f*cking mingebag so I basically said she was too stupid to read e mails so I’d tell her again it wasn’t for staff. “We’ll see who’s stupid” she replied walking out the door”.
I texted my manager and said D Day had landed. Sure enough an hour later the HR person comes in (We outsource HR) and didn’t even say hello to me coming in. She ALWAYS swung by my desk. My boss has kindly printed out everything and is ready to bat for me.
I play dumb when I am called into the room. The new deputy CEO has a thick file that the temp has compiled and she basically starts grinding her axe about all the terrible stuff I’ve done to her referring to the files, times and dates and what not. Now, given the deputy CEO doesn’t know me from Adam and the HR person doesn’t deal with us day to day, they are buying the damsel in distress act.
When I was asked to defend any point I didn’t I said I wanted every complaint read out and once we’d gotten through every single thing she wrote would I then put my case forward. They certainly thought this was strange but obliged me none the less.
We were there for about half an hour, the temp is crying at how badly I have ignored her and how was it the company and my boss have allowed this treatment of her to carry on? It’s getting hard to sit through this absolute character assassination but I do it. They wrap up and I am asked to explain myself.
I ask for my boss to be present and that I have “one or two” e mails that can clear this up quickly. In walks my boss with a stack of everything we’d kept. Her edited e mails, mine between my boss and I, my time records, my job lists and logs and even some invoices proving complaints she’d made about stuff not getting done was lies/wrong.
I then said if that wasn’t enough I also could provide the list of tape numbers from the back up that could prove my e mails were doctored by her and also the list of staff that were present with my boss when he compared them?
Then I finally showed various e mails between the Deputy CEO and I outlining what was going on. The Dep CEO and HR lady just looked at each other and said I wouldn’t be needed anymore.
The temps tears changed to hysteria, she was livid, calling me a liar and that I was only doing this because she’d rejected a pass I’d made at her. the it became that all the staff hated her and it was a big conspiracy to get her fired.
She then tried to provide times and dates of when staff members had done social stuff without her and she was being excluded and harassed. She went on screeching for probably about an hour with anything, you name it about how the staff and I in particular had f*cked her over and that she see us in court.
How any one could have felt so victimized was actually scary to me. We’re relatively small and while I’d be the first to admit the staff here aren’t my best mates or anything they are pretty nice people. This is a nice work place. this nutjob made it sound like she was the plucky Cinderella of the story getting bullied by the ugly step sisters.
The last I saw of the temp was as she was marched to get her phone and her other sh*t at her desk and straight out the door as she wailed like a banshee. Today she rang looking for a reference, she won’t get it. I don’t care about my managers not doing their job as I don’t plan on being here in 6 months time.
They are paying for my wedding and I’m going to bounce. If you read all that thanks. To the temp, f*ck you, I win.”
Jeez…let’s see how folks responded.
This reader said that the temp worker needs a major reality check. Agreed!
Photo Credit: Reddit
Another person said that it sounds like this woman might have some serious issues going on, perhaps even a personality disorder.
Photo Credit: Reddit
Another Reddit user said a former employee who had a drug problem really went off the rails on them, so they can relate to this story.
Photo Credit: Reddit
This individual called the woman a term that I’ve never heard before, but that I definitely will start using: a “professional victim.”
Photo Credit: Reddit
And finally, this reader said that the woman clearly has victim syndrome and that they can be very difficult AND dangerous to deal with. Ugh.
Photo Credit: Reddit
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