Working as a temp can be a great way to get your foot in the door and gain industry experience.

But it can also be a one-way ticket to being treated like garbage.

That’s exactly what the temp in this story found out when they made a mistake on the job.

Read on to find out what happened as a result, and how it had clear consequences down the line, too.

Gaslight me at my job? Ok, well I won’t always work here…

Years ago I worked for a small nonprofit with a great mission. It helped a lot of people, but the office environment was toxic.

I worked there for six months and was gaslit like crazy. There were lots of small petty day-to-day things, but the piece de resistance happened toward the end of my tenure.

I made a mistake with something public-facing, which I fully owned up to and apologized profusely for. They could’ve (and probably should’ve) fired me with cause for this mistake, but… they didn’t.

I was told that everything was fine, nothing further needed to happen, and to please be conscientious moving forward.

Let’s see how the employee felt about this.

I won’t lie, I was surprised, but these guys were so in my head at that point I had this idea I should stick it out and prove myself at this job, so I took them at their word.

The next day, suddenly my main responsibility was delegated to someone else. So, everything’s not fine? “Nope! What are you talking about? Everything’s normal!” “Am I getting new responsibilities?” “No just stick with what you’re doing!” You mean, half of what I used to do? Ok…

The following week a coworker asked if I was coming to the holiday party, I said no, I was contract-to-hire and had been told by my manager so sorry, the party was full-time/salaried only. Whatever.

Two days later the CEO’s assistant emailed saying “we never got your RSVP to the holiday party!” So…my manager lied? Hurtful and rage-inducing, but at that point I didn’t want to go anyway, so I informed them I was not able to attend.

Sadly, what happened next was less than surprising.

The office closed for the holidays, and immediately after the new year I went in as normal, and was almost immediately called into a meeting. You can guess where this was going.

Apparently due to budgetary concerns my position had been eliminated and they had to lay me off.

What else could I say but ok? I collected references from the decent people, packed up my stuff, went home, and destroyed the company mug they gave me on my first day with a hammer for some catharsis.

Six weeks later I checked the company website while compiling my work history, and shocker: they had a new employee with a suspiciously-similar-but-legally-distinct job title, and responsibilities that were identical to mine!

By that point I was well and truly done with that place, and was knee-deep in unemployment, but I filed that tidbit away as a good reminder of how awful that place was to me.

But for this ex-employee at least, things were about to get a whole lot better.

Fast-forward several years: I was well-established in a much better job at a very well-respected company full of excellent people!

I liked the org so much I volunteered on an internal committee led by my friend Michael, and we would partner with local orgs and nonprofits to help with community improvement and advocacy.

While discussing potential orgs to partner with at our annual meeting, Michael mentioned the name of my old nonprofit! He said that there had been some preliminary conversations with the org about potential opportunities, and that it seemed like a good fit!

So… after the meeting I hung back and I asked Michael if we could talk for a few minutes.

Yikes! Let’s find out what happened next.

I laid out every bit of two-faced nonsense that had happened to me there, and since Michael and I were friends I did not spare any details.

Michael also happened to be very high up in HR! He had a… shall we say ‘unique’ perspective on just how awful the nonprofit was to me. That, perhaps, it was an indication that they were probably doing things I didn’t know about that were even worse.

Well, after our discussion, Michael reached out to the nonprofit and let them know we wouldn’t move forward with a partnership, then he put the nonprofit on our company’s blacklist. They don’t know I was involved, or that by not treating me better when I was an employee, they missed out on a HUGE opportunity.

Last I heard, they’re in a near-constant state of circling the drain. Meanwhile I’m up for a promotion. Living well is definitely the best revenge.

Good for this employee, who was the adult in this scenario and ended up with a great outcome.

Meanwhile, their gaslighting former boss is still part of a failing company.

What goes around truly does come around.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person had, unfortunately, similar experiences.

While others thought the employee could’ve sued.

Meanwhile, this Redditor called out the nonprofit’s poor business acumen.

The way that the nonprofit treated their employee doesn’t say a lot of good for how they treat humans, regardless of the work they might do in the community.

It’s disgusting that they lied to them so clearly, rather than simply being clear about the damage the mistake had done.

Instead, they created beef that harmed them down the line.

That’s just bad business.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.