I was raised in a good morale home and taught to tell the truth and I still stick to that principle!

I am currently 53 years old and spent most of my working life working in the banking industry, but because I stuck up for myself and an abusive boss at U** Federal Credit Union in Tampa, FL, I have become unemployable due to her own paranoia, lack of self confidence and she has/had a “God complex”.  To make a long story short, I asked her a question about a procedural change that she agreed to, but when she prepared the documents, she didn’t follow the new procedure and she didn’t inform anyone in the department that she had changed her mind and decided to continue the procedure the old way.  I proceeded to ask her in a professional, non-confrontational voice why the new procedure wasn’t followed, but she didn’t like my question so she proceeded to rip me a new one and yelled at me at the top of her voice in front of the whole dept. “THAT WAS A DECISION I MADE…OK!!”  I was well within my rights to yell back, but I acted like an adult, just looked at her and said OK.  I wasn’t about to let this behavior stand so I went to the HR Dept. during my lunch and the HR Manager told me to talk to my supervisor and tell her that her behavior was inappropriate.

(I think the HR Manager should have handled the problem).  I met with my supervisor the next day and told her I wasn’t going to tolerate being treated like that and I told her that I went to HR about it.  When I told my supervisor I went to HR, she told me that I wasn’t allowed to go to anyone about a problem except her!!  I just looked at her and said, “I don’t think so”.  She was so mad that I went over her head she turned 20 shades of red.  The HR Manager told me that my supervisor felt like I was trying to take her job (which I wasn’t).  When I had a couple of more incidents, I decided it was time to quit so I turned in my 2-week notice.  When I went to HR for my exit interview, I gave the HR Manager a 7-page memo about why I was quitting, dates, etc.  After I left the credit union, I got another job via a relative, but the company tried to cheat me on my annual performance raise, so that job didn’t last long.  I’m sure I got the job because they took the word of my relative that I was good and they didn’t check my past employment history (explained further below).  So from 2007 through today, I have yet to be able to find employment and probably a good percentage is due to my supervisor at the credit union.  I found out through investigation that my supervisor decided to be vindictive because I wouldn’t go along with her narcissistic behavior and spilled the beans on her unprofessional behavior towards me.  I discovered that when I completed an application to work at another company, the prospective employer followed protocol and called my past employers to check on me.  My ex-supervisor was giving me bad references, lying about me and therefore I’m unable to find a job (and I have written proof of this).  I’ve applied to so many companies that even when I apply to one of them now, they already have a file on me, so they look me up, see the bad reference and send me a “thanks, but no thanks e-mail”.  I still fill out applications, sometimes get an interview, but they all turn out the same way.  When I’m being interviewed for a possible job, the interviewer always digs into your past jobs and wants to know why I left a company, so I tell them.  I don’t sugar coat it or try to downplay it, because the interviewer always wants to know more and keeps asking you to elaborate on this or that.  I’m not one that will say that I left the company “to spend more time with my family”, “I’m leaving for a promotion”, etc (As you can probably tell, I’m not good at playing politics)  I just tell them why I left because I’m not going to get tangled up in a web of lies and tell different people different stories because that will just cause trouble---just tell it like it is, professionally, and if the interviewer doesn’t like my answer then that’s not my problem.  I always hear from people that you should never say anything negative about your previous employers, but if I left for a negative reason, then I’m going to give them that reason.  I also hear from people that just say to forget about what happened and move on with your life, but I can't because when you complete an employment application they ask about the last 10 year of employment--and it's been less than 10 years since this has happened--so I can't just "move on".  I’ve sought legal assistance against the credit union, but I found out too late that my ex-supervisor was giving me a bad reference illegally and the statute of limitations has run out.  If I lie to a company about my past and they find out, they can fire me for lying, so no matter how I handle it, I’m screwed.  Too many companies these days will treat someone who tells the truth as a criminal and unless you answer their question exactly the way they want, they won’t hire you.  I especially have to be careful about telling the truth, because if I work with money, confidential information, etc and my new employer finds out I lied on my application or during the interview, then I could really be in trouble and be accused of embezzlement, giving out confidential information, etc.  I REFUSE to be deceptive and lower my standards.  MY ADVICE TO ANYONE IS “STICK TO YOUR BELIEFS” even though the “world” tells you to do it a different way, because “YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE”!!

So in a nutshell, that’s my story and I don’t think I’ll ever have a job!!