That's just mean

9 to 5. Those hours we all enslave ourselves to, and some of us even more than that. I was always the first in my position to arrive and the last to leave. I never left when they needed me and came in on my vacation to ensure my team's success, only to have it screwed up by my peer a second after I left. But, she was new, so when I got chewed out I swallowed it for the team.

I always asked for extra responsibility and proved myself time and again to my office. That was never enough for my supervisor who worked 5 hours away and claimed to know us. She didn't see me sneak in every morning so I could be ahead of my orders, volunteering to head up every single project thrown to us by our branch manager, and she didn't see me training the reps to make everybody's life easier since I knew I would leave one day. She knew that I was a leader but smothered out my fire because of it. She never ceased to find some error in what I was doing, and always found a way to frustrate and irritate not only myself but our entire team. She did not see the hard work we put into the success of that office and had no problem firing a peer when a non-contracted employee came along. Lucky for me I was a full time employee, or so I thought.

It was Tuesday when I got the call. Actually to be more specific it was an email asking me to be on an important call that started in a half hour. Of course, I did not see the email since it was sent during my lunch break. The frantic call from my co-worker alarmed me and I quickly called my supervisor. I regret the quickness of my response and wish I had been warned! What I was about to hear was outrageous and made me quickly regret all those long hours and nights working hard for a company that had no respect for any of the things I had done for it. She started with a lie about some of the business travel I had been allowed on and put me on final written warning and 2 week suspension without pay. She also notified me that I owed the company $1326 by Friday, or else. dun dun dun. It was very ominous and scary, I guess.

She was such a bitch. Then every HR person that I spoke to treated me as if I were some sort of criminal and that I knew this was coming all along. I just thought it would be another Tuesday, and now I'm probably going to lose my job. A job that I brought definition to and that I worked so hard for with such an unworthy salary! As if it wasn't bad enough that she gave me a poor review, now I had to go through this. Was this a joke? Corporate America was screwing me over and pointing to the policy to justify and validate itself. Which policy did I violate? It's been a couple months and I am still unsure.

When did we lose sight of the human person behind the computer? Why are employees treated so poorly and then just thrown to the wayside? The RVP used to answer my phone calls and texts, but now he avoided me. I guess you learn who is true in situations like this. All that "I care about each individual employee" was just a show, money is the bottom line and I wasn't in sales so I was out.

All along I thought I was working towards something important, proving my worth and value to the company time and again. But in reality, I was insignificant and easily disposed of.

Corporate America has screwed over another person for the last time. I would have made somebody a lot of money one day too. Now I make it for myself and the boundaries of working 9 to 5 are erased and I work tirelessly day and night.