Rewind to 1996 or so. I was around 20 and living in Reno NV at the time and was really good at fixing computers. There were a number of local mom and pop computer shops, and I needed a job. A working interview consisted of 10 breakfix cases inside of a day. They'd have been happy with me handling 5. I was hired. I was confident that I'd do a good job for them.
The first sign that there was a problem was when the guy who also interviewed that day got hired. If you go back that far, you might remember that there were two piece power headers on motherboards. If you didn't install them correctly (with the ground wires in the center) and forced them the wrong direction, you'd let out the magic smoke. Somehow they thought hiring the guy who made that mistake was a good idea.
The first week wasn't so bad, but then the bullying started. Verbal abuse. Name calling. Giving me nickname that they'd use to remind me of every mistake I made. Harassing me over mistakes I made to the point that I wanted to cry. If I didn't know something that they knew, even if I couldn't be expected to, I was berated and treated like an idiot. I was young, and so badly needed that job because I was living with my grandparents at the time and they made it clear that I was to get on my own ASAP. They were kind, and didn't kick me out (and it wasn't threatened) but I wanted to be a Good Boy and Do The Right Thing. But it wasn't easy.
Then there was the shop talk. Sometimes they'd talk about work, but most of the time it was talking about strippers and drugs. I was in a shop full of coke addicts.
8 weeks in, I was let go. I was never more glad to be fired from a job in my life.
The first sign that there was a problem was when the guy who also interviewed that day got hired. If you go back that far, you might remember that there were two piece power headers on motherboards. If you didn't install them correctly (with the ground wires in the center) and forced them the wrong direction, you'd let out the magic smoke. Somehow they thought hiring the guy who made that mistake was a good idea.
The first week wasn't so bad, but then the bullying started. Verbal abuse. Name calling. Giving me nickname that they'd use to remind me of every mistake I made. Harassing me over mistakes I made to the point that I wanted to cry. If I didn't know something that they knew, even if I couldn't be expected to, I was berated and treated like an idiot. I was young, and so badly needed that job because I was living with my grandparents at the time and they made it clear that I was to get on my own ASAP. They were kind, and didn't kick me out (and it wasn't threatened) but I wanted to be a Good Boy and Do The Right Thing. But it wasn't easy.
Then there was the shop talk. Sometimes they'd talk about work, but most of the time it was talking about strippers and drugs. I was in a shop full of coke addicts.
8 weeks in, I was let go. I was never more glad to be fired from a job in my life.