Coming soon - Get a detailed view of why an account is flagged as spam!
view details

This post has been de-listed

It is no longer included in search results and normal feeds (front page, hot posts, subreddit posts, etc). It remains visible only via the author's post history.

3
Should I pursue this or quit?
Post Body

So the small company I work for got a new general manager a couple of years ago. There have been constant complaints about this person (unrelated to my incident) since he took the job including sexual harassment, bullying, racism and theft. It's also important to start that someone in my family was also the HR/Payroll manager at the company. We are very professional and there was never any nepotism or favorable treatment, but due to all of these complaints her and this GM had a very contentious relationship. Still, I had a decent working relationship with the guy, and harbored no I'll will towards him, and he didn't bother me and allowed me to perform my job duties. This changed last fall. The contentious relationship with the HR manager came to a head and she ended up leaving the company. This all happened while I was out of work for 3 months follow a knee surgery (worker's comp case). When I returned things were different. He was breathing down my neck about every minute I was on the clock, and would take me from important task because I wasn't working on what he thought I should be working on, while ignoring any sort of chain of command and talking to my direct supervisors. If I was there he would stalk me around the warehouse and constantly stop me to grill me about what I'm doing. Now, this is within his rights, but it got to the point where he was not allowing me to complete my job. Quick aside, I work in off premise catering as a kitchen manager. We have a central kitchen where food is cooked, then I'm responsible for packing, transporting, and finishing the food on site. So on 12/6 this person, myself, and a coworker went to set up an event. They weren't ready for us so we unloaded our equipment and headed back to the warehouse, with the intent of returning to finish later. When we arrived I went to work on the things I needed to do for my other upcoming shifts (this is a busy time of year, I was going to be catering 7 parties in the next 5 days and had a lot to do). Because I'm sitting at a computer he assumes I'm not working and starts pestering me about what I'm doing. I explained to him what I was working on and he seemed annoyed. He returned shortly after to do the same thing, with the same result. He then returned and said if I was just going to sit around (mind you I was being productive) then I could help in the kitchen or leave and he would go back and finish the set up later. I went and asked out exec chef if she needed help, she said no. I continued what I was doing, then was in the warehouse pulling equipment for my events. He approached me again and angrily said if I'm not helping him I need to go home. Mind you he never asked me to help him, and my job has always afforded me a fair amount of freedom to get done what I need to get done. I feel like he was taking out his anger at my sister on me. So anyway I leave, he does the rest of the setup, allegedly. We arrive on site the next day and nothing is set up. I know he returned, but didn't set a single thing up. So now we're very behind and I'm understandably frustrated. He showed up on site (he was only doing the setup, he wasn't supposed to be at the party) and immediately something into the kitchen moving everything and messing with food in unsafe ways. I told him to stop, and told him I was pissed off that he left us in such a bad place then showed up too late to help and insisted on being in the way and hindering me from my job. I wasn't nice, and I wasn't quiet. He got in my face and yelled at me and I put my hand on his chest to create distance because I felt threatened. He then threatened to fire me for putting my hands on him. After this he did leave me to my work, and we moved on. Then on 1/3, nearly a month later, he pulled me into his office to chat. He wanted to "build a better working relationship" and build "rapport and respect". I was, again, not nice in vocalizing that I felt I had been harassed and bullied by him for months because he was taking out his anger at my sister on me. I told him I just want to do my job without being targeted, and that he doesn't treat other people the same way. I also informed him that no part of executing my job required that I have rapport with or respect for him. This really pissed him off. He has also never replaced Mt sister, and I told him that the meeting should have been mediated by an HR manager. He told me "We don't have an HR manager, and we're not hiring one." He told me he's now the HR department. I informed him that if he knew how businesses work he'd know HR is there to protect to company from things such as harassment suits. He also told me that the incident on 12/07 had been "documented on his end". I emailed him and requested any and all documentation concerning me and any incidents at work for my own records, which he never answered. I left the meeting angry, but continued on with my work, and catered an out of town event the following weekend. There was a debrief meeting if that event that was called on 1/8 concerning that event. The meeting was at 3PM and the email invite was sent at 11am the same day. I was visiting my mother and could not make it on such short notice. This is relevant later. On 1/9 I showed up to work for our weekly meeting to discuss upcoming events. After my parties were discussed I excused myself and was going to clock out and go home since I had no other work to do that day. I was pulled aside by the owner of the company, an 80 year old man that I have a ton of love and respect for. I was looking forward to a one on one with him. We sat down and he asked me what was going on between me and the GM. I gave him a brief statement saying that I told him I didn't want to be bullied or harassed anymore, and was going to go into a more detailed explanation when the GM walks through the door, closes it, and stands over me and the owner hands me an unsigned, undated write up form saying I was being suspended for 2 weeks for insubordination, rudeness, physical altercation, talking poorly about management and the company to other team members, and not having a timeline for the party the previous weekend. I did in fact have a timeline, and talking poorly about management to other coworkers is not only untrue and conjecture on their, but perfectly within my rights as an employee. I feel rhat I have been targeted because of this guy's hatred of my sister. I also feel like I have a chance, through my own complaint to the EEOC, to get some justice for the other people who have just left because of him but didn't take any action. Should I file a complaint and continue working there while I pursue it? File a complaint and quit after my suspension? Cut my losses and just leave without bothering? I don't want to go through the entire process if it's not going to result in any change. I also know that if I disclose the fact that I made an EEOC complaint against him he's dumb enough to get mad and fire me, which turned my case from a maybe to a slam dunk, and more of a "hire an employment lawyer" situation. He wasn't directly sexist/racist/ageist against me, but he has been harassing me and I feel like this suspension is retaliation for me calling him out on his harassment of me.

TL;DR: HR manager was my sister, she left after bad blood between her and GM over him bullying and harassing employees. After she left he began to harass and bully me to the point of not allowing me to do my job because he is still angry at her. I called him out on it and he suspended me for 2 weeks without pay. We still have no new HR manager, the GM (my aggressor) claims he is now in charge of HR.

Author
Account Strength
70%
Account Age
2 years
Verified Email
No
Verified Flair
No
Total Karma
24,694
Link Karma
48
Comment Karma
24,533
Profile updated: 1 week ago
Posts updated: 4 months ago

Subreddit

Post Details

We try to extract some basic information from the post title. This is not always successful or accurate, please use your best judgement and compare these values to the post title and body for confirmation.
Posted
1 year ago