Boss Contest

The Worst Boss

I worked in a small 3-person office.  Even though there were only 2 of us, my employer never "had time" to properly train me in any company procedures.  I learned to do things on the fly.  Not one complete process was ever shown to me.  She could talk to her kids 5 to 10 times a day, her father and several friends once or twice a day, but she would not train her employees.  When an assignment was not complete or had an error or omission, I would be asked if I was stupid or what the hell was I doing.  Office and shop employees were yelled at or degraded on a daily basis.  On March 13th, an incident occurred in which I told the truth and was actually slapped in the head.  There is no legal action I can take as there was no physical mark from the strike, and the rest of her activity is just "workplace bullying," which is not illegal.

Karla

Unethical Supervisor

I was injured on the job and had to be out of work for an extended period of time.  I did not have enough sick time to try and cover some of the time that I was going to have to be out as I wanted to use what little I had at the beginning so that I would still have a pay check coming in at full rate. First I was told that I could not use the time when requested a month in advance and then told 2 days prior that I could use it.  On the day before I was to go on leave, I was told that I would not be able to use the time.  My plan was to spend all the vacation time that I had acquired and burn it until I had to go on workers' comp.  I worked 16-hour days and weekends for more than 7 months out of the year and regular full-time days the rest of the year.

I was about a week away from having surgery and I got a call from my doctor and he stated that something was wrong with a HIPPA form that he had received earlier and one that he had received that day.  The form had been changed and another doctor's name had been added without my consent.  I had a copy of the original and the doctor showed me the other.  There had been a change made and I knew who had done it.  It was the HR Director.  I had this person on record stating that the particular doctor that was inquiring to my doctor to see my medical records had been added after my signature.  I was furious.  I asked the question of why was it changed and was told that it was not changed.

This was totally unethical and I had to tell someone that this had occurred.  So, I reported the incident to the CEO of the company and he said that he would investigate the incident.  About 2 weeks later, he contacted me by letter and said that he had talked to the person who I said had changed the form and that they stated I was the one who had altered it and wished me a speedy recovery.  Shortly thereafter, I got a notice in the mail that I had been demoted and I was to have no contact with the employees by phone or otherwise and that my remote access to my email had been suspended.  My position was given to someone else within the company, but the title of the position had been changed.

When I reported back to work on a release from the doctor, I was told that I could not enter the building and I must meet with the VP of Operations and the Director of Human Resources.  I was not to talk to anyone in the company or to have contact with them.  In the meeting, I was told that I did not look good and was not sure if they were comfortable about letting me continue.  I said that I wanted to come back and that I had devoted 15 years of my career to this profession.  I was told that my office had been moved, I was not going to be allowed to direct and make decisions as I did before and that I was not to play any role within the company.  I was asked if I would consider resigning and I stated once again that I wanted to come back.  I saw that this was not going in a direction that was going to come out in my favor, so I told them to let me think about it.

I left the office, came home and called my attorney and also dropped by the EEOC office and filed a complaint.  I did send the company terms on which I would considering leaving, but I still did not want to do so.  They sent me an agreement and said that I had a minimum of 10 days to reply.  The company's own attorney couldn't even get the wording right in a termination agreement.  My attorney had a field day with this bunch.

I was told that given my past relationship with one of the Directors, that it would be best if I would resign.  I left the office on that day with the company believing that I had accepted the terms, but proceeded with the EEOC claim and also the lawsuit.  Needless to say, when the company received all of the notices from the EEOC and the legal issues, they changed their tune really quick.  To this day, the person who changed the HIPPA forms has his job and, in fact, he has been promoted.  This is in Major League Baseball.  Simply amazing that this is allowed to go on.  Such an illegal act is allowed even after reporting it and I am the one that gets pushed out the door.

Steve

The Witch Hunt

My boss uses witch hunts as her greatest tool.  She pushes people to talk poorly of others by leading the conversation. Not unusual, she wants you to think she trusts you and not them to get you to speak negatively.  She ran such a hunt against me when she ran out of any other possible means to terminate me.  The poor people who had been tricked into this never, ever would have gone along if they had known what she was doing.  I was a thorn in her side.  She didn't know how to do her own job, didn't really know how to do mine, but since she couldn't figure out how to create her director position into a job of value for the company, she sat at her desk all day doing my administrative job.  I did have to teach her how to use the programs, though.

Well, I got taken to HR yesterday for what she claimed was JUST a discussion.  I point blank demanded she tell me if she was terminating me and she swore she was NOT.  She didn't.  She and HR laid out the rules: voluntarily resign today and we will give you severence, and not stand in the way of you getting unemployment.  Do NOT resign immediately, and we will terminate you in the very near future, no severence, no unemployment, and we will make sure your personnel file has a black mark for at least 10 years.  I don't have 10 years.  I'm 58 years old.  They had to do it that way because they clearly did not have grounds to terminate me.  The boss knew I was fed up with having no work and had my fill of her pretending it was appropriate for a director to create powerpoint presentations and visio graphs.  Don't doubt how glad I am to be away from her and the company that would allow such behavior, but this is not a good time in my life to be facing the task of finding a new job and she knows it.

Rosann
Lynnwood, WA