by Rosana Modugno

Created on: April 18, 2009

I am 46 years old and in my life, I have been fired twice. The first time happened when I was a 16-year-old waitress with a really bad memory for what table got what dish.

The last time I was fired was about 5 years ago when I worked for the State of Florida. It was a small office with a handful of older workers, some of whom should have already retired but decided it was far better to squeeze every last penny from the government while holding a position they no longer were able to do and steal the chance from someone who needed it more.

My job title was more or less a "go-for". I followed orders to type and take copies from about 5 supervisors who were being paid too much to do nothing but sit and talk on the phone, while filing their nails.

Within that conglomerate, there was a tiny little woman who walked around as if she were on a Cocaine buzz. She was the office manager and for the sake of this story, I will call her Pam. People rarely saw Pam because she would shut herself in her corner office and never take any phone calls. One was left to guess and assume what she was doing in there. I was introduced to her only once and I would see her only two more times during my employment.

When you work for the state of Florida, you get one year of probation which means you cannot become a permanent employee until after that probationary period is over.

I worked every day until about 10 months into my title, when my teenage daughter had a vehicular accident that forced her to doctor visits three times a week. But since I was still on probation, I was careful not to miss too many days so I asked Pam if I could take two-hour lunches instead of one and she agreed. Every time I left, I would shoot Pam an email, letting her know and she would reply with an approval.

One day there was a hurricane coming in and Pam and the other supervisors left early, so I had no one to okay my leave. The only person left was Pam's secretary, so I left word with her. I was now dealing with an accident attorney and a doctor's appointment could not be missed.

The next day Pam stomped into my office, which she never did before. She looked around my office and noticed the picture I had of President Bush on my wall, a tribute to 9/11 and a tribute to our troops alongside a photo of our American flag. Whatever she came in to tell me was not what she said next.

I remember her eyes got wide as she stood there and pointed to all the pictures and said, "You can take down all those.decorations", and

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