Yeah, OK, so I've been sacked... Again.

But stick to the facts.

but yes, write the letters and stick to the facts.

(I have a job starting 15th Nov, so I may disappear from here after that...)

How do you create a pivot table? I might find that useful...

I'll post the first draft here, and take out the names. Maybe you can tell me which bits are over the top, because I'm sure that some of it is. It's not libellous, it's true, though I no longer have access to any of the files that prove it.

Every single report that I was commissioned to make was mailed out, and assumedly backed up onto the network. But all of my personal shortcuts and queries and macros and shortcuts and things... Whoops, file not found!

Complaint against B***** S***

I raised concerns about compromising the data on financial reports. Figures reflecting weekly sales were being changed after I produced reports. Firstly, I have an ethical problem with this. As a data analyst, my reputation rests on the accuracy of my data, and I am very uncomfortable producing reports which I know do not reflect that data. Secondly, it was "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul." The doctoring of data produced an ongoing knock-on effect which affected the data of subsequent reports. Thirdly, whoever was changing the data was doing so in a way which disturbed the formulas and computations on which the spreadsheets depended. Not only did this double my workload, recoding, but it puts me in a very awkward position. People came to me and asked "Why has this particular figure not changed in several weeks?" and my only response was "Well, that figure hasn't changed because it is supposed to be a formula derived from other data, and someone has taken it upon themselves to overwrite the code."

I objected to procedures being changed without consultation. After several months of liaising with the sales team, we had developed a process to bulk upload and automatically assign web queries to the sales people. Web enquiries rose to nearly half the total enquiries, and the conversion rates and data accuracy rose. I asked for a few minor changes to be made by the web developers, to further streamline the process, and then suddenly, for reasons which were never quite explained, this entire process was scrapped by marketing, and the sales team were told to return to printing these responses out and typing them in manually. This is an intensely time-consuming, wasteful, and inefficient method. I don't know how conversion rates or response times were affected, but even in four days I had started to notice a drop in completion rates and accuracy.

The change in management completely disregarded the terms of my employment. I was hired for a part time, flexi-time position, in fact, it was a prerequisite of the original application for the job when I applied for it online. I made it very clear when I was hired, that I had outside commitments, and that the reason I was accepting a position which paid 2/3 of my former salary was because I required absolute flexibility in my working hours. For six months, this arrangement benefited both sides; my work was always completed on time and without exception, and the "above and beyond" commitments of both B***** S*** and myself were always met. The new management's repeated enquiries into and attempted reversal of this policy was completely unacceptable. I explained my commitments, both in work and outside of it, only to have my schedule totally disregarded – for example "On Mondays, I am extremely busy running the weekly reports" was greeted with "I'm scheduling a training meeting for Monday afternoon."

I found the new policy of "micro-management" intrusive and antagonistic. I am an intensely task-oriented worker and I resent babysitting. I understand that new management need to understand the roles that their staff fulfil. I was perfectly willing to explain what I did. I was not willing to demonstrate technical detail about how I did it. As a programmer, I have spent a decade building up an extensive and diverse skill set. When I am hired as a contract worker, I am paid for that very expertise. I will not – and in fact, I literally can not – explain complex programming and data analysis techniques to a novice in an hour's meeting. Especially to a novice to whom I have had to explain the most basic of Excel functions. It is not, and never has been, a part of my job description to be help-desk, or technical support staff, or to train my supposed superior to do her job.

I have dozens of other petty complaints, from the lack of prioritisation of my workload by my new boss, to the superficial and ridiculous "clean desk" policy. When I first interviewed at B***** S***, I was struck by the friendliness of the staff, and the mutual respect between management and colleagues in my department. Over the past few months, it seems that management have done everything in their power to change a friendly, enjoyable and productive environment to a thoroughly unpleasant culture. And I do not think that it is a coincidence that both productivity and customer satisfaction have suffered as a result.

Also, um, what is a pivot table? Can we eat it?

Do you think that I should mention her by name? Seriously, I left her name out, because it was quite pointed and obvious when the managemnt structure was changed a month ago to make me report to her. I don't want anything to reflect on the other boss (head of sales) who I didn't actually mind.

And Barry, a pivot table is an Excel reporting tool. If one is going to be a marketing manager, I would expect that one would have some kind of training on the tools of marketing. Including a basic understanding of Microsoft Office. I mean, seriously, this woman was asking me how to format text and rename worksheets and stuff like that.

You should probably take the asterisks out of the company name to avoid confusing them.

Obviously, I'm going to use the company's real name. I'm just not posting it on the interweb!

I would take out the bit about robbing peter to pay paul. I think it's pretty standard practise to do that actually & I am sure they are aware of it's consequences.

Trust me, this goes well beyond standard practice. I've worked in lots of sales departments and nudged quite a few numbers. This is going beyond nudging and fudging a few figures to outright lying to the investors. Maybe I shouldn't use that phrase, but I want to let them know that this isn't just "making the numbers dance".

Also I wouldn't use the word 'babysit'.

I used that word very deliberately. Because the last month, I have honestly felt like I'm back in high school.

Ha ha, so long as they don't find the stacks of gay porn I stuck on their network... ha ha!

yo kate, sorry to sound like yr granny, and you've already done it, but if these are true then this is kinda dodgy. i always think that any sort of revenge type shit is a bad idea, even you are totally fuckin incandescent with rage at em, but if yr with an agency...then if youre slingin mud (dont mean that in any pejorative way), then dont give them any to sling back...

but that letter was deadly. seemed just about the right pitch, business like, but appropriately comdemnatory.

They paid me for my time. They hired the use of my expertise and my skills while I worked for them. They don't get to keep it when they sack me under such conditions.

Thing is, if they'd said something along the lines of "This isn't working out, we've decided to let you go at the end of your contract" I might have written some kind of manual, done some kind of handover. They shot themselves in the foot, asking me to leave on such short notice.

"Query this, sucker!"

(not "snog it to 'em, Kate", I'm not the perv here)

I have just had a 20k rant from the former head of marketing (the woman who hired me, who I really liked, who was sacked under very spurious circumstances a few months ago) going into more detail about this than I could ever have guessed. Oh my god...

But this new development is excellent!

ok i dont know anything about this so fair shout.

She came back five minutes later, told me to collect my stuff and go.
i cant beleive this shit though. what the fuck is wrong with management people?!?! are all managers fuckin tits? why would anyone with a brain think that this would be a good way to man-manage, or even to treat another person anyway!?!? FFS

Works for me, pal. They don't want my skills, plenty of other people do...

But to get back to the supportive bit. Sometimes when managers wish to make people redundant or terminate their contracts they start to be nitpicky and find fault and ask heaps of questions. And if the person gets shitty and quits or does something marginally rude, then - hurrah, no hassles backing out of the contract.

Also - because this stuff has been on my mind a bit with a restructuring eminent in our department - I think it is better to act with total honour and try to never be vindictive or petty. If they get rid of someone patently very good at their job for whatever foolish (save money in the short term) reason then they will pay for it sooner or later. Without you needing to do a thing.

Of course in a couple of months I may be jobless and spitting blood with rage. So maybe you are doing the right thing to complain. just be as non-emotional as possible.

At this point, I don't actually care about making any kind of point. I just wrote it to get my anger and frustration out, and it has served its purpose.

I've heard so much from my former manager (who is with a new start-up now, and trying to bring me on board! Hurrah! I *really* liked her, and it would be a pleasure to work for her again - she's one of those bosses who actually leads by inspiring people, rather than coercing them, I didn't think such people existed outside business manuals, but they do, and she is one) that I am nothing but relieved to be out of there, no matter what the circumstances.

They would have to be stupid not to realise that their company is in some kind of trouble. If the high turnover rates and low productivity doesn't tell them something, then surely the slowing sales and customer dissatisfaction must. But they're so stupid that they discount those things, continually thinking that bringing in some overpaid consultant or high-tech toy is going to save their company. You know what will save your company? Not treating your employees and your clients like dirt. End of story.

Glad it's looking to be all for the best. Any news on a possible new position then?

I see the whole employment thing as a bit of a lottery, where hard working, principled ppl with talent just have to hope that one day they will scoop the jackpot; the prize in question being landing a job where ppl with talent are recognised, left to get on with the job and can move up the career ladder by means of their hard work and innovation rather than how much they brown-nose. However, like all lotteries, the winners are a small minority I feel.

Kate, I sent a letter to the president of the company I worked for a few years ago when I resigned. (The letter was partly to thank him for hiring me, and partly to explain why I was leaving.) I never heard from him, but I did find out that right after I left, the director (i.e. the cause for me leaving, although I didn't name her in the letter) was demoted and sent off to an area where she couldn't do any more harm. I'm not sure if my letter was a spark or a catalyst in making that happen, but I like to think so..

You probably won't hear from them - but that doesn't mean that you haven't made them useful information.

I was talking about Bitch Boss with my friend, and basically, what it seems to boil down to, is that she was somehow under the impression that I was nothing more than just her PA. I mean, even something as minor and petty as misunderstanding someone's title or job role, but still. Just because someone technically reports to you does not make them your subordinate.

This is deeply true. I think especially if you are a woman then it's like "ok, little lady, since you smile nicely I'll take this on" not "ok, thanks for reminding me to do the job I was hired to do"

But that is a side issue. I think now you've stated your case try to have no regrets or involvement with that company at all. As you know, they're screwed and they're doubly screwed cos they don't have you doing a good job anymore. Hope all goes well finding another job.

It's OK though because next week I'm going to kill him with a brick.

OK, so I've not technically been sacked. In fact, I've not even technically been made redundant.

I signed a contract until the end of January, which both parties assumed would continue on a rolling basis as long as both parties were satisfied with the arrangement.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I found out that the company are basically in deep financial trouble at the moment. They can't afford to keep me on two days a week, but they say they would like me to keep coming in one day a week. (Presumably until either business picks up or the company folds. ARgh.)

I am struggling to get by, working only two days a week. There's no way I can even cover my rent, let alone survive, working one day a week. I have no savings left to survive on. And having the one day committed would make it much more difficult to get another job, even part time.

Gah. It never rains, it pours, does it?

I knew this job would be taking a risk when I took it. Just didn't realise it would be this much of a risk. :-(

urgh i made exactly the same mistake! i assumed my job would roll on at the end of my contract. hence, i am unemployed as of tomorrow. bugger.

giz a job then, ILX!

It just sucks that the finances didn't allow for it. :-(

What is this fekkin world coming to, anyway?

That might be another alternative, if it really is just going to be a few months to tide over while the company re-finances.

housing benefit is a different kettle of fish, since that's calculated per quarter i believe. again, sign on straightaway, and do as you're told. they're still chasing me for some phantom "overpayment" from a year ago, but i'm not budging cos they haven't yet offered me sufficient proof. Don't let them fuck with you!

I've just discovered that the Managing Director who instigated this whole thread in the first place by approving my sacking way back last year has been SACKED himself for being so utterly crap and running the company into the ground and the whole place is going out of business in three months.

I DANCE UPON YER GRAVE, MOTHERF*CKER!!!

This gets better and better. Now I've just found out that the new managing director is... the total incompetent idiot who sacked me for telling her that it wasn't my job to teach her SQL.

This is the funniest thing that I've heard in ages. I am cheered right up.

I am almost ashamed of how happy this news is making me.

Honestly, this woman couldn't run a bath and now she's running the company. BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!

But no, schadenfreude is not an attractive character trait, as good as it may feel. You're edging ever closer to HELL!

Not always true, lots of employers have the fear of industrial tribunals and hardly ever sack people, esp managers, so they get promoted upwards. Granted it's usually in firms that have their roots in the civil service, such as railway companies, certain postal delivery services, but it still happens far too much.

Kate, sounds like you've definitely landed on your feet - getting out at the right time, and finding your dream job!