surprise, you’re an assistant

I was working with a temp agency trying to find a job. I was really broke and eager to take anything, even if it was mindless. The agency sent me in to a company to interview for their receptionist position. The HR people liked me and asked if I could start immediately. I was thrilled to have some gainful employment and showed up the next day ready to work. That’s when I started to realize why the position had been open–they’d ‘forgotten’ to tell me that I was supposed to be an assistant in addition to being the receptionist. I was working for a guy who had gotten demoted, so he was being punished by having his assistant only be part-time. His response to the demotion was to act like nothing had happened and assume I was his full time assistant, even when I had plenty of other front desk-related work to do. I’d be in the middle of signing for a huge delivery and he’d be screaming at me to get into his office so loudly the entire office could hear, including the UPS guy, who actually told me he felt sorry for me. When I finally quit, I tried as nicely as possible in my exit interview to suggest they “clarify the job position during the hiring process.”–Submitted by Julia, New York City