The names have been deleted to protect the guilty.

About three years ago, I went to work for XXXXXX as a consultant in NJ.  After 10 months, I moved on to another project that was a high priority with the Controller. The project involved determining what made up a $17 million balance in four tax accounts and establishing procedures that entailed accounting, analyzing and reporting the data.  They were afraid a broker owed them tax dollars, or they owed the IRS the taxes, a combination of both, or something else that might require them to write off the balance if this wasn't resolved.

XXXXXX told me what she wanted done, but left how she wanted things done to my discretion. I developed a process from the ground up even though I knew next-to-nothing about it. Approximately two months after I started, two people from the Corporate Office came to visit me to document what I was doing because they might get an internal auditor or top-notch accountant if they weren't satisfied I was doing it correctly.  Both of them left impressed commenting that I was the right person for the job and had it down to a science.  XXXXXX also said I did a great job and could not have done what I did.  As a result, I stayed on the project and as I became more familiar with the process, I re-engineered it several times, almost to the point of perfection. As a result, I resolved everything ahead of their schedule and the company didn't write off a penny.

In 2002, XXXXXX told me that a department from NY would be relocating to our office that she would be responsible for and not everyone would relocate, thus creating job openings. About a year later, she approached me and said she posted some jobs and if I was interested, to go ahead and apply.  I applied for two positions and interviewed about two months later. Several people in this department asked me if I applied to the jobs she posted.  All of them said things like I was a shoe-in, a lock, had the inside track and one person even said they saw my name on an organization chart that did not include temps and/or consultants…and saw this back in February, before I ever applied.  They made these comments based on XXXXXX speaking highly of me to them. As I was waiting, most of them weren't even asking if I had heard anything, but instead were asking if I got hired yet. I am a believe-it-when-I-see-it type person, but it was hard to ignore what 15 people were saying.

Whoever interviews from outside the company has to walk by my desk to get to her office. Right before my interview, two other temps interviewed with her for another department she managed. Between these two temps, they had one person from the outside interview and were offered separate jobs a few weeks later. For 10 weeks, I watched and waited as approximately 30 people interviewed.  XXXXXX called me into her office on July 1 and said she offered the job to someone who had more relevant experience than I.  She also said I did a great job on the project, was grateful I bailed her out and she notified my agency my last day would be July 18. I asked her about the other job I applied to and it was like I had to remind her of that. During the interview, she asked me no questions in regards to experience or anything that had to do with Stock Options specifically.  She also asked which job I preferred and I said the higher level job.  She said that was the job she had me in mind for despite the fact she said I didn't have the relevant experience for it later on.  Nowhere was there any benefit-of-the-doubt that I could learn whatever I needed to know despite the fact I demonstrated that very characteristic during my two years here.  Also, since my lack of relevant experience should have been obvious during the two years, made me wonder why I was kept here all this time if I wasn't going to be hired, especially since this was no longer a high priority project. Two days before my last day, she asked me if I was interested in working on another project. The next day I said yes. She also told me she would let me know about the other job I applied to.  

The person she hired instead of me started.  One responsibility this person would have would be to do the monthly analysis of the activity.  So, I had to train her on the process since there was no one here besides me that knew had to do it. Since XXXXXX never really took the time to sit with me to get an idea of what exactly I did, not even she was familiar with the methodology.  This was a process I developed, and spent many hours re-engineering it and took great pride in making it full proof. While I was training her, she said the following things:

* She did this type of work in another job and found it boring
* The four times I trained her, she was always yawning
* Her father worked in the company for 30 years, in the same building where my boss worked
* She had been unemployed for the last 5 1/2 months
* Four weeks after she was to start this job, she was going on vacation for four weeks to Italy (I worked for the woman for two years and never took a day off).

Two weeks later, a supervisor she hired started and XXXXXX brought her around to everyone's desk for introductions.  When she was brought to my desk, I was training the girl on the process with XXXXXX explaining to the supervisor what she would be doing.  The supervisor asked me what I would be doing and before I could even answer, XXXXXX said I would be working in another area until the end of the months, and more or less would be gone after that.  This is how I found out about the other job I applied to, not by her telling me directly, but instead saying it in front of others without telling me first.

A week before I was supposed to leave, I resigned. On my last day, I went to my agency and raised holy hell with them about XXXXXX. They weren't pleased with what I told them saying she really didn't do anything ethically wrong, just morally wrong. They wanted to approach the company, but I said no because...

Someone had told me to talk with the new VP of the department, who came over from another company during a recent merger. His philosophy was if you have consultants and temps here for a long period of time, the must be doing good work. And if so, then why haven't they been hired yet. I considered taking to stances: the squeeky wheel gets the oil or don't burn no bridges. I took the latter. When we met, his exact words were "we have a bunch of temps/consultants who need to be converted to permanent and we have to find a way to get your name on that list." Even though I was bitter, I refrained from voicing complaints against XXXXXX, but I was sure tempted. The entire ordeal rubbed me the wrong way and I didn't bother to make any correspondence to him afterwards and I never heard from him either. I do know seven months after we met, they still haven't converted anybody yet due to the post merger reorganization. Someone told me I should write/call the VP to see what is going on. I know I should be working there, no ifs, ands or buts about it. I saved them money, probably saved her job and she stabbed me in the back.

Opinions are welcome.