I'm not sure if this is totally legal but I won't put the companies name. I feel something needs to be said, and hey if they come across it good! They need to know they did wrong by me...
I went for a job interview for a Junior Admin/ Reception position at a new college starting up here in Hobart, it focused on people aged from 16 with parent consent on wards and they offered diploma level courses.
Pretty much after the first interview it was looking good for me, my job search agency told me that they had been in contact with the company and that it looked like I had the job, I got a call later that day saying that they would like for me to come in for a second interview, so I dressed up nice and took in my folder of certificates (Certificate 3 in Buisness mainly) and achievements for them to have a look at.
I got to the interview and the boss (lets call her Julie) and her husband (we'll call him Dave) who is also in charge of things was in the interview as well, Julie tells me the reason they called me back for a second inerview was to tell me I had the job! I was thrilled, I was so happy, I really wanted the job because unlike other job interviews I had been to, I had felt so comfortable and confident it helped that Julie and Dave were super super friendly and I felt like they were my friends rather than boss's.
To cut things short, my first few weeks were fine, I was doing a lot of cleaning tasks such as; I had to mop the toilets, and then reoccurring clean them, empty bins throughout the premises, clean everyone's dishes in the staff kitchen (this included their used coffee cups, spoons, forks, knifes and plates) I was being given more and more cleaning to do rather than computer work such as data entry, I felt this was happening because I was never given a job description so it was easy for them to tell me what to do and I couldn't come back with "well that isn't in my job description" I didn't spend 2 years at college studying hard to get a certificate just to be made to be a cleaner/shit kicker. I even had a meeting with Julies husband and he told me that I wouldn't be the shit kicker forever.. so basically admitting to the fact they were having me as a shit kicker...
There were a lot of things I picked up over time that I felt wasn't right such as staff were always telling dirty/sexual jokes, being dirty and sexual towards one another (one woman said she was going to shut and lock her office door as her and another male worker were in there together, implying sex.) There was a day I needed to finish an hour early to go to the doctor about a hearing problem I was having, and I told Julie this and she told me that I could make the time up in my lunch break, which was half an hour, so for two days I would work a full straight 8 hour day with no lunch break, as it already was I wasn't having a 10 minute break and I was hardly going to the toilet (TMI - sorry) in fear of being told off in some way for that, I returned to work and said can this just come out of my sick pay, and Julie said it's okay I'll let it off this time. A few weeks later another staff member had to leave about an hour early and was told to make it up in his lunch break, which he did, and I felt it was so wrong. Staff often "bitched" about one another and they even discussed the students saying things like "there is something wrong with her, she is not all there" about a student who clearly had a mental issue, I decided to say "I actually happen to quite like her, I think she's quirky" and I got back from the staff " you like everyone" "your the only one that does like her then" like how is it okay to make remarks about a student!
I had to take 3 days off one week (I went to the doctor and he told me to take 2 extra days off on top of the day I already hadn't been) the days I had off were Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. When I returned to work on Monday I had been moved, I was no longer on reception and my computer and items had been moved to an almost secluded area where I could no longer see anyone, the jobs I had, had been taken away from me and I was given a new set of jobs such as keeping the staff toilet paper stocked, the staff lunchroom clean and I had to go to the post office every day as apposed to twice a week (this would usually be about a 40min walk for me as I don't have a car or my licence) and no one was talking to me, they were all ignoring me Julie my boss included, I broke down in tears when Dave asked me how I was since I'd had a fair bit of time off and he took me to have a meeting where I found that during one of the days I wasn't there all the staff had, had a meeting about ME and said they didn't want me there, they felt I wasn't doing enough, I was rude to them and students (which is not the person I am! and unless you know me personally you probably can't make that judgment) so I thought right if that's how it is, I'll just quit so I stuck the rest of that day out and went to work the next day, kept to myself was quite, did my work, and at the end of the day handed in my resignation letter and left.
Later that night I received a call from David saying he'd say I was made redundant so that I could go back onto receiving centrelink benefits and they would pay me out for a week.. I feel like he did this as he felt guilty for the way I was being treated..
I had been getting advice from a representative from Fair Work throughout the weeks all of this was happening and they assured me that I should NOT have been doing all the cleaning duties I was being given, and that not having a job description was illegal.
Life is a learning curve, jobs will come and go, I felt so positive about this job and it just turned out to be awful but I've taken it as a learning experience and next time I will stand up for myself instead of being the "shit kicker" I have put in an expression of interest for next year with Tafe to do an animal studies course so I look forward to that!
If your experiencing workplace bullying please don't sit there and take it, in this day and age it's not acceptable and if it was then why do we have Fair Work and such?
I went for a job interview for a Junior Admin/ Reception position at a new college starting up here in Hobart, it focused on people aged from 16 with parent consent on wards and they offered diploma level courses.
Pretty much after the first interview it was looking good for me, my job search agency told me that they had been in contact with the company and that it looked like I had the job, I got a call later that day saying that they would like for me to come in for a second interview, so I dressed up nice and took in my folder of certificates (Certificate 3 in Buisness mainly) and achievements for them to have a look at.
I got to the interview and the boss (lets call her Julie) and her husband (we'll call him Dave) who is also in charge of things was in the interview as well, Julie tells me the reason they called me back for a second inerview was to tell me I had the job! I was thrilled, I was so happy, I really wanted the job because unlike other job interviews I had been to, I had felt so comfortable and confident it helped that Julie and Dave were super super friendly and I felt like they were my friends rather than boss's.
To cut things short, my first few weeks were fine, I was doing a lot of cleaning tasks such as; I had to mop the toilets, and then reoccurring clean them, empty bins throughout the premises, clean everyone's dishes in the staff kitchen (this included their used coffee cups, spoons, forks, knifes and plates) I was being given more and more cleaning to do rather than computer work such as data entry, I felt this was happening because I was never given a job description so it was easy for them to tell me what to do and I couldn't come back with "well that isn't in my job description" I didn't spend 2 years at college studying hard to get a certificate just to be made to be a cleaner/shit kicker. I even had a meeting with Julies husband and he told me that I wouldn't be the shit kicker forever.. so basically admitting to the fact they were having me as a shit kicker...
There were a lot of things I picked up over time that I felt wasn't right such as staff were always telling dirty/sexual jokes, being dirty and sexual towards one another (one woman said she was going to shut and lock her office door as her and another male worker were in there together, implying sex.) There was a day I needed to finish an hour early to go to the doctor about a hearing problem I was having, and I told Julie this and she told me that I could make the time up in my lunch break, which was half an hour, so for two days I would work a full straight 8 hour day with no lunch break, as it already was I wasn't having a 10 minute break and I was hardly going to the toilet (TMI - sorry) in fear of being told off in some way for that, I returned to work and said can this just come out of my sick pay, and Julie said it's okay I'll let it off this time. A few weeks later another staff member had to leave about an hour early and was told to make it up in his lunch break, which he did, and I felt it was so wrong. Staff often "bitched" about one another and they even discussed the students saying things like "there is something wrong with her, she is not all there" about a student who clearly had a mental issue, I decided to say "I actually happen to quite like her, I think she's quirky" and I got back from the staff " you like everyone" "your the only one that does like her then" like how is it okay to make remarks about a student!
I had to take 3 days off one week (I went to the doctor and he told me to take 2 extra days off on top of the day I already hadn't been) the days I had off were Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. When I returned to work on Monday I had been moved, I was no longer on reception and my computer and items had been moved to an almost secluded area where I could no longer see anyone, the jobs I had, had been taken away from me and I was given a new set of jobs such as keeping the staff toilet paper stocked, the staff lunchroom clean and I had to go to the post office every day as apposed to twice a week (this would usually be about a 40min walk for me as I don't have a car or my licence) and no one was talking to me, they were all ignoring me Julie my boss included, I broke down in tears when Dave asked me how I was since I'd had a fair bit of time off and he took me to have a meeting where I found that during one of the days I wasn't there all the staff had, had a meeting about ME and said they didn't want me there, they felt I wasn't doing enough, I was rude to them and students (which is not the person I am! and unless you know me personally you probably can't make that judgment) so I thought right if that's how it is, I'll just quit so I stuck the rest of that day out and went to work the next day, kept to myself was quite, did my work, and at the end of the day handed in my resignation letter and left.
Later that night I received a call from David saying he'd say I was made redundant so that I could go back onto receiving centrelink benefits and they would pay me out for a week.. I feel like he did this as he felt guilty for the way I was being treated..
I had been getting advice from a representative from Fair Work throughout the weeks all of this was happening and they assured me that I should NOT have been doing all the cleaning duties I was being given, and that not having a job description was illegal.
Life is a learning curve, jobs will come and go, I felt so positive about this job and it just turned out to be awful but I've taken it as a learning experience and next time I will stand up for myself instead of being the "shit kicker" I have put in an expression of interest for next year with Tafe to do an animal studies course so I look forward to that!
If your experiencing workplace bullying please don't sit there and take it, in this day and age it's not acceptable and if it was then why do we have Fair Work and such?
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