Little History Continued

Well I decided to try my luck in the city.  After all, downtown New York was only about 45 minutes from my house in Queens by the elevated A-Train.  I also decided to be smart about the job search and register with a good employment agency, that way my skills would be put to good use instead of losing them. 

The agency sent me out and I was hired very quickly by a large stock brokerage firm.   I was to be an assistant to the office manager who seemed to be quite a nice lady...because I would be working with bonds etc. I had to go get fingerprinted, bonded and background checked.  It would take a few days for that to be processed so I was told to come in the following Monday at 9 a.m.

I was excited, nicely dressed in a skirt, blouse and jacket and of course the mandatory 3" heels....I literally bounced to the train station with excitement.  Upon arrival, I found that the lady manager had been seriously hurt in a skiing accident over the weekend.  Another assistant showed me to my desk and tried to get me started on what she could for the day.  I wound up doing a bunch of typing and some filing...working my way up to the phones.

I was told that I did well the first day.  The second day was very similiar to the first, except the manager felt well enough to call in and actually assign me projects.  No, problem I was enjoying the work.  The assistant came over to me during the day and asked if I could stay and work overtime as they had a problem that needed additional work done on it and they could use me.  I agreed to do so.   The work progressed slowly, there were about five of us who had stayed....again remember no computers...everything done by hand, typewriter etc.

A strange looking man entered the room where we were working, he was tall, thin dirty blonde hair but his face...oh it was very pox marked, very badly scarred.  He came over to our group and one of the girls introduced me as "the new kid on the block" he was a manager of another area of the company.  Because my manager was not expected back for weeks..the company had assigned him to supervise our section.  I worked overtime Tuesday, Wednesday and on Thursday found myself working alone with the subsitute manager.

It was late by the time we finished...the manager took one of the subways home too so we walked down Wall Street together ... we passed one of the little bistros that they had down there...It was like a little pub...he asked me to come in and have a drink. I agreed and we sat down at a small table in a secluded part of the room. Next thing I know he's telling me that he wants a relationship, and I'd better realize just how much he can do for me or not do depending how I treat him.....he reached into his pocket and pushes a gold key across to me.

I asked "What's this?"  He said..well, I have a really neat set-up here in the city...a friend of mine is in Europe and let's me use his apartment whenever I want.  By this point I was a little frightened of the whole situation and wanted out of there.  I told him I'd have to think about it...just to get out of there.  What a creep!  I finally made it home.

The next day..the other girls were not as friendly..I actually asked the first girl I worked with what was wrong? She said she was sorry that I hadn't been warned about the substitute..but it was all over the office about the two of us.  I told her I didn't do anything.
About 3 P.M. I received a phone call from the woman manager who proceeded to tell me that it was unfortunate but I would have to be let go.  She had gotten a call from a higher up and was told to fire me.  I was hurt, angry...

I had a boyfriend who worked on Wall Street...I called him and as I walked down the street of dreams with tears flowing down my face Jimmy found me.  You know you reach that point that you don't care that people look at you and think "What's wrong with her?"  To have it happen again so quickly...I asked Jimmy..do I have a sign on my head? He was angry too, but used some common sense and told me to go back to the agency to complain.

I was still upset when I entered the agency..I had paid them a heck of alot of money to be placed in a good company.  They calmed me down andarranged some more interviews for the next day.  Which was a good thing...

I'm not particularly beautiful, but in my younger days I was considered "pretty"..but being pretty didn't mean that I was loose or easy.... I was beginning to wonder if there were any decent men out there in the work place.