I have worked one day a week for a company for 3yrs 5months and repeated asked for more days and said I was available for overtime when colleagues were on holiday but I haven't done any additional days in the last 2yrs. When a 5 day a week person left I asked if I could do a job share with the new person and my manager said "we need a full time person" then he employed someone to work 4 days and didn't ask me to do another day. I was basically hanging on for the possibility of covering someone's maternity leave but then they employed an apprentice so I thought there was no chance of progression so I handed in my resignation. My manager accepted this and didn't question it at all.
I've just seen a job advertised on the company website with a slightly different job title at the same rate of pay (nmw) but for at least 2 days a week.
Why didn't he just tell me he didn't want me to work there 3 years ago instead of me turning up every week and dealing with whatever had been arranged for me with the hope that it would lead to something more?