The company I was actively working for at the time had just gone through a large layoff so many of us became worried about job security. The job in question had a very vague listing on Monster; against better judgment I applied anyways due to my circumstances.

After leaving the place that morning, I shared my story with coworkers (at this point, we're all so sure the place is going to go out of business, we talked openly about new employment opportunities) and one coworker, Michael, said he applied there as well and was still going to go to the interview the following day. I tried to talk him out of it, telling him that while I know it might sound silly, I had a strong gut feeling that things were not good there and he'd regret this.

Michael did not show up for work the following day and we were all concerned. We tried to tell each other that maybe things went really well and he was so confident that he felt he didn't need to come into work.

He did show up the next day though and we all pretty much immediately started hounding him for details. He confirmed the place and employees were as sketchy as I had previously described, except a bit worse. He said the inside of the small business was dilapidated: poorly lit, yellowing walls (some with wallpaper freely dangling loose), a door hanging by just one hinge, missing ceiling tiles and he could hear a toilet running the entire time he was there.

He said he was promptly led to a van for an "on the job demonstration." They drove to an even worse neighborhood, a good 20 minute drive away. I'm sure many of you see where this is going. It turned out to be a house to house salesman type of job. They were trying to sell knives. There were three other new recruits there - all were unsuccessful that day. Michael said he regretted it quickly and spent most of the day in the van. The manager refused to drive him back to the office so he could drive into work. He was out with them from 8am to 3pm. They did stop for 30 minutes at McDonalds, which had been previously described as the company would pay for lunch but the manager (Gil) accidentally only brought $5 with him so they all had to pay for their own.

We all asked why didn't he just bail at some point during the day and try to walk back to his car. He said there were no windows in the van - that it wasn't a true passenger van, but a basic, stripped out van with the four of them squatting in the back trying to brace themselves against the sides when Gil would make a turn. So he had no clue where he was. This was in 2001 and he didn't have a cell phone, so he couldn't call any of us for help. I know cell phones were pretty common then, but I'd say about 1/3rd of my coworkers didn't have one.