How have you been mistreated by an employer?

I was once fired from a foodcrafts company because I was unable to make purchases using their credit cards. They had not paid the balance in several months and requested that I and other employees make purchases using our personal credit cards, to be reimbursed at the end of the week.

I refused and legally there was nothing they could do about that specific failure to comply. Due to the loss of credit access, several promised items for events were simply not provided. This is what they used to terminate me, saying I had no idea what I was doing (and I didn't. I had never worked in food services before this point, but I am a damn good admin and that was the role for which I applied and was hired on to perform). The person over me was impossible to deal with when it came to explaining processes and procedures, therefore a few of those directives were completed incorrectly.

When I filed for temporary unemployment benefits, the company fought my claim. My supervisor sent a seven page document to the Department of Labor, most of those pages were emails proving *my* side of the argument. I had asked for help and was outright denied at every turn. The DOL granted me benefits and I found another position elsewhere rather quickly. (The economy then tanked and I decided to become a stay at home wife.)

I kept all of the documentation from the case and I occasionally look through it to remind myself of the things we have to go through to get to better places. From that experience, I learned that I really want to become a professional writer, proof-reader and copyeditor. A friend of mine is sending a book a friend of hers penned for me to edit. It's a small step but it's definitely one in the right direction!