Everyday is a battle. Everyday is a reminder of either our failures or our accomplishments. And everyday we either make the choice to stand up for ourselves, or let others trample over our carcass.

The working world is one of the grittiest places to be. It's every man for himself, a dog eat dog world, leave no prisoners behind kind of scene. You always have to have your best interests at heart.

It's always been important to me that I feel comfortable and happy. But after working for approximately a year I realised the firm where I am employed was the cattiest, most disloyal, disheartening environment anybody could possibly be in. Sure, I had made a few friends along the way but the overall level of negativity was more than I had ever bargained for.

About a month ago, one of my co-workers, Shoes, was abruptly fired. Actually, she was forced to resign. Shoes had a very difficult client who complained mercilessly about her.

Instead of backing up their employee like they SHOULD have, my gracious bosses called Shoes into a meeting, laid down the law, and graciously told her that if she didn't sign a letter of resignation, she would be fired and would not be able to get a letter of recommendation from them.

Despicable.

When I heard the story I was disgusted. She was one of the people in the office I was close to, but far from a personal blow, it felt like a childish and underhanded way of terminating an employee's stay at a company.

An employee who had not only showed up for work everyday, done their job to the best of their ability and invested months of her life into a company that didn't give a damn but also an employee who had been LOYAL, something my dutiful bosses don't know a pinch of salt about.

Butterball of course was in a fit of ecstasy, considering that she has something against every decent human being and was all too happy to see Shoes vacate her desk. I overheard her telling Simmy "It's so sad eh? I mean, she has kids and rent to pay." Like she could give a flying toadstool in Paris about Shoes' financial wellbeing.

But nothing, not even our bosses' sleazy handling of the situation, could rock Shoes' foundation. "You know what," she told me with a smile as she packed her things up, "this company is not the be all and end all.

There are bigger and better things out there for every one of us. They think that we are waiting on them hand and foot. They need us more than we need them and if they keep treating all of you the way they are, eventually they will have no one."

Shoes' insightful statement consumed my mind even weeks after she'd left. Her words were stinging and true, and really opened up my eyes.

If they could do it to her, they could do it to me, or any one of my other co-workers. It didn't matter how hard we worked, how many hours we clocked, how much we put in because at the end of the day we had no support. Not one ounce.

And very soon after Shoes packed up her things and left, after our bosses thought they had weeded out one of the "kinks" and when they thought everything was running smoothly, the real fire storm touched down...

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