Complaint Review: FitCorp USA - Busy Body - Fitness In Motion

Office Space.

Dilbert.

All those horror stories we've ever heard about office politics and random stupidity. I never thought they were true. I've been fortunate enough to have more or less avoided them in the past. Now I know better.

It all began innocently enough. I'd been out of work for about a year, when I was finally extended a job by Varsha Patel of FitCorp USA, Inc. I was relieved. Excited, really. At last, I thought, my career was back on track.

The first few weeks were fine. I started at the beginning of February, 2005, as an office assitant in the accounting department. Sure, it was a step back from my previous position as an office manager, but the duties were comparable and the pay was..... well, it was pay. $10 an hour isn't much for what I do, but it sort of covers the bills.

Now, when I interviewed, I was told that I would be responsible for certain things: screening phone calls, running errands, purchasing office supplies, filing, typing, things like that. I was required to have a car. My husband and I only have one car between us, and between my interview and when I actually started, he got a job that required him to have the car all the time. I told Varsha that, and she said we'd find a way to work around it.

So for the first few weeks, I was basically in training. Kim Allen was responsible for detailing to me all my duties and showing me how to do them. Hedy Soskolne, also in the accounting department, was to help fill in anything Kim missed. I made a list in Outlook within the first few days so that I wouldn't forget ANYTHING. I'm responsible for printing invoices off a report that Hedy gives me each morning. I pull certain reports from a big conglomerate of reports that get printed up before I even get there and give them to the appropriate people. I check e-mails from each of our 12 Busy Body or Fitness in Motion stores, and take care of getting them their office supplies. I sort the mail, and I key in any overhead invoices that come in. I sort the packets of daily business we get in from the stores. I check over prescriptions and tax exemption forms that we receive from customers who have a prescription for the fitness equipment they purchased from us. And that all takes me only a few hours.

I answer phone calls and deal with customer queries in regards to their tax refunds. I key in the tax refunds for accounts payable purposes. I keep track of office supplies, and make a once-monthly order for anything we're low on or out of.

Easy enough, right? Well, sure. And my 90-day review came, and I was told that there were no complaints about my performance. Except for the fact that I had no car of my own. I was basically given an ultimatum: get a car, or find a new job. Now, I'm paraphrasing, but only slightly. The threat was only implied, after all.

Well, the car wasn't working at that point in time. The brakes are a little funny, and we needed a new starter. With what I was getting paid, I couldn't really afford the extra money to fix the car, but I did it anyway (and I've been regretting it ever since, financially.) So I had the car at my disposal, and still I wasn't being asked to run any errands. Other people were doing it. I made it plain that my car was available now, and I was essentially ignored. Until Friday, June 3rd. I was asked to go around to four of our stores, and do a surprise inspection. I was to count the cash drawers, check their supplies, and make sure the stores and their restrooms were clean. I did all that. When I was there, the stores were in great shape. One of them needed a carpet cleaner, but that was about it.

I gave my report to Varsha verbally, though I had learned that e-mail is best, so I could document everything. I told her that a couple of the stores were a little short in their cash drawers, and gave her the reasons the managers had given me. Today, I was told that I told her they were all fine.

I should have known. A few weeks ago, I was given an on account invoice for a property management company that had taken delivery of some accessories for fitness equipment they had at their clubhouse. This assignment came from Hedy. I called the number on the invoice, and it was invalid. So I called the manager of the store it was purchased at, and he told me that Trever Glanger (one of the two owners of FitCorp) had purchased these items on behalf of the property management company, because he happened to live at one of their properties.

That done, because I hadn't been instructed to do anything except find that stuff out, I reported this back to Hedy. That was on a Thursday. The following Monday, I had a lovely little e-mail in my inbox (from Hedy) demanding to know why I hadn't followed up on that, and saying that when she asks me to do something, she expects it to be done in a timely manner. It took her a full workday and the entire weekend to forget that I HAD followed up. I then overheard Varsha telling Hedy the EXACT same thing I'd told her on the previous Thursday.

I finally wrote back to her, and cc'ed the e-mail to Varsha. I hadn't done it that day because I wasn't sure how to respond. Maybe I was going nuts and I hadn't really followed up. But I knew better. I've been doing work like this for years. That'd be a rookie mistake. I was, frankly, afraid to respond. I didn't know if I had a right to stand up for myself.

That's not the only instance, but it's one of the ones that sticks out in my mind. There have been other things. Varsha has been telling me that Kim and Hedy have both come to her saying that I've been asked a number of times to perform a task, and still hadn't done it. Now, with as little as I have to do in the course of a day, there's no way I'd overlook anything. But Varsha can't seem to give me specifics. It's all just a vague accusation.

Kim and Hedy are condescending to me on a daily basis, so I avoid talking to either of them unless it's absolutely necessary. I am consistently treated like an imbecile, and made to feel extremely stupid. For example: I have a list of the invoices that I'm supposed to give to Kim before I key them into the computer to be paid. This is a list that she herself gave me one of my first days. So I go through the mail and give her those when I run across them. Invariably, they are brought back to me, and I am told in the most condescending way that those are not, in fact, supposed to go to Kim until AFTER they've been keyed in. I brought up that I had a list, and Kim cut me off. She didn't want to hear it.

I've also been told that I'm not allowed to stretch to relieve the pressure on my back from sitting in an office chair all day. It's inappropriate and unprofessional. I've been told that because I take my work seriously, which means I'm not bouncing off the walls and all idiot smiles for the entire day, that I obviously have an attitude problem and am not happy at my job. I've been told that people have to tell me repeatedly to do things, which just flat out isn't true. And there have been other vague implications I don't even understand enough to put into words.

What it comes down to is this: my job, the only source of income (and therefore survival) that I have, is in danger. If I don't fix these things that are supposedly wrong with my work, I will lose my job. But when I ask HOW to fix whatever it is they think is wrong, I'm given no answer. I have been consistently harassed by Kim and Hedy (and occasionally by Varsha) since about my third week there. I don't understand it, and I don't know how to handle it. It's like junior high all over again, except there's a lot more at stake.

Marian
Richardson, Texas
U.S.A.