The answer to the OP is yes. I’ve been fired numerous times and I’ve never once worked with Scott Baio.
The upside is that I was talking to the son of one of the secretaries one day and found out that the asshole left a couple of months after I did. I don’t know the circumstances but I hope he got his ass fired.
Pretty much. A better term is egoism, which, contrary to the belief of many, is not a mark of high self esteem. Instead, it’s a manifestation of low self esteem.
I should state that once, as a low man on the totem pole, I took it upon myself to fire a couple of temps, going over my boss’s head. I did it in collusion with another temp, in fact (Sue).
Four of us, including Sue, worked in a mail room. Two called in sick one day. The two of us left could not possibly handle all the work alone. So we called our boss (quite possibly the most incompetent moron on the face of the Earth) to request a temp. It took us a good hour to track her down, as she wasn’t anywhere she was supposed to be. She had a habit of being nowhere sometimes.
Finally we got her permission to get two temps. When they arrived, we found out that our boss was not, in fact, the most incompetent moron on the face of the Earth. She was at least third on the list. The two temp boobs had managed to reach new dizzying heights of stupidity. They couldn’t handle advanced concepts such as the alphabet. Sue and I spent much of the late morning fixing what they’d fucked up. These temps were actually causing us more work.
So we decided, over lunch, to just let them go. “Hey guys!”, I said, “Great news! You did such a great job that all of our work for the day is finished!” It was a colossal lie, as Sue and I were looking at staying 3 hours late just to fix the mess. “So take the rest of the day off. With full pay!”
They were thrilled. And proud of themselves. The temp agency didn’t get the glowingest of reviews from us, of course. And boss lady was ripshit that I’d go over her head. But I made it clear that somebody had to be the competent one. So she had nothing valid to say about it.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Obligatory *Office Space * reference here…
that’s what you get for not putting the cover on the TPS report.
Inferior/superior - bottom line, she wasn’t confident and comfortable in her position, and took it out on you, is what it looks like to me. Or she’s just a raging bitch - I’m not sure of the psychological term for that. 
I wonder why some non-psychologists feel compelled or suited to lecture people about psychology? I can tell you that in psychology circles, we don’t really use the term “inferiority complex” either. In fact, “a complex” is a very dated and mostly Freudian term, so unless your circle of psychologists includes a bunch of older men with white goatees, you probably won’t hear the term at all. Perhaps your ersatz supervisor fired you for speaking smugly and authoritatively on topics you are ill-suited to lecture others on. 
- Hentor the Clinical Psychologist
Yes - V75.09 Raging Bitch Syndrome. There is no known non-physical intervention.
Well I guess we better shut down the SDMB then, since there’s obviously no need for people to smugly lecture others on topics they are ill-suited to speak on. :rolleyes:
My ex-wife’s name describes the condition you mention; I look for it to become a standard diagnosis.
Well, she might have to fight Martha Stewart and/or Leona Helmsley for the honour.
anamnesis, don’t get your panties all in a bunch (there’s another clinical term for ya). Your correcting me didn’t bug me; why should Hentor’s correction bug you? I learned something here from both of you - I will be more careful slinging psychological terms around in the future (especially when Hentor’s around.)
Did I hear a “whoosh”?
Years ago I did a lot of secretarial/admin type work. Both as an employee and as a temp. And a number of times I canned temps I had “no authority” over. This is how the scenario would have played out:
We have temp employee. Does a good job. Temp employee needs more flexible hours. My boss says “yeah, that works for us.” He gets in his car goes home and rethinks. “Gee, we’ll never get this done with a few hours a day…I really just need someone eight hours a day. But I can’t fire the temp, I just told her this is ok. She’s being flexible for us.” So boss tells me as he leaves for lunch - “we really need someone who will work regular hours, will you tell her she is no longer needed.” I interpret this (not knowing the original conversation) as “we have a problem with temp being late.”
I’m not saying this happened here (sounds more like the admin took this upon herself), but its possible. There are two sides to every story, and a few days in the office is not really enough to figure out what sort of “complexes” everyone has or what sort of office politics play out.
Anyone has the authority to “fire” a temp as long as the person who contacted the agency doesn’t care. And they really never do unless its a long term assignment. The admin in question can can you cause she doesn’t like your looks and tell your boss you didn’t come back from lunch. The agency might place a satisfaction call or follow up, but isn’t going to tell the manager his admin is lying - not in their best interest.
When I was young and easily stepped on, I fired real employees for managers as well - a much stickier situtation which I should have never been asked to do (and which I shouldn’t have done, but I was seventeen and didn’t know better).
But I’m confused re-reading your story. Was the assignment supposed to end that day “this being your last day on this assignment and all…” or did she actually fire you? And if she actually canned you, is it possible she wasn’t aware of the extension? i.e. why didn’t you say “well, this really isn’t the last day of the assignment, Bob extended me.”
No, it was the last day, hence the “darn, fired on my last day, there goes my pension” joke I made. The way everything went down bothered me more than the fact that I was actually “fired”. I’m not sure what anyone told this girl, but as far as I knew, she was aware of the fact I’d be coming in late each day. It was the being ten minutes late on top of that which she fired me over. She did not have the authority to do this, and the agency told me that they made her aware of this fact upon speaking with me … the only reason I didn’t make a scene about it was because I was representing the agency and it was in my best interest remain professional, something she was suggesting I wasn’t doing because I was arguing with her about being ten minutes late. So, as the agency often suggests when clients become obnoxious, I just shook my head, said okay, rolled my eyes, and left.