Hi there, about a week ago I sent in a complaint to HR about my Salon manager. About 3 days after that I went ahead and warned my GM about it as a sort of professional courtesy. (others in the salon had complained to her before but never in a formal complaint) and not even 2 hours later I was pulled into the managers office with my GSL, GM and Assistant store manager, and a printed out copy of my complaint. The GM handed my complaint to my GSL and proceeded to tell me that because I had called out for 1 shift over a week ago I was considered an at risk employee and for that reason they we cutting ties with me. I never had been written up prior to this incident. I will admit I was late 1 shift early in my career at petco, and I had missed a day due to miscommunication between me and a manager about when I was expected to come in. So 2 attendance issues from months ago in which my GM spoke to me and I fixed it. Ever since I had always been on time. I did my job and got better at it every single day, and I had zero issues with my coworkers besides my GSL. My recent call out that was over a week ago was because I was violently ill, both my GM and GSL said it was ok and just to come back the next day. Over a week goes by and no one says anything about it. But all of a sudden as soon as I mention the formal complaint, now I’m the issue? Is this not retaliation? Or maybe wrongful termination?

the following below is an almost word for word copy of my complaint, I’m just blacking out the names. GSL-M GM-T Me-CH

Hello, My name is CH and I have been experiencing some major issues regarding my GSL M at store #2424. These issues are causing such a hostile working environment and thus I feel it needs to be handled ASAP.

BULLYING- M has seen fit to bully everyone in the salon in order to get her way. She has taken an authoritarian approach to her management style and it is causing WAY too many issues in our salon. M sees fit to yell at everyone in the salon over arbitrary and miniscule things. This abuse has caused such chaos and stress in our salon that I have had multiple coworkers confide in me about how they feel about this mistreatment. We have been so stressed due to the work environment that she is creating that it is even going so far as to cause issues in our personal lives. We are literally so stressed at work that it causes issues in the home. Many of our partners at home have even expressed concern regarding the amount of stress we are under at work. One of my coworkers has even started a stronger anxiety and sleep medication and another coworker whose anxiety was managed fine without medication previously is now asking their doctor to put them on anxiety medication due to stress that M is causing. Working with M is a 50/50 shot as to whether or not it's going to be a good day. Some days she comes in very relaxed and helpful, even to go so far as to compliment the team and praise us on a job well done. But most days we live in fear waiting for the next “M Bomb” to drop. Just waiting to see what little thing will set her off and cause her to yell at everyone, going so far as to make MULTIPLE people cry while at work. This is unacceptable.

ARBITRARY RULES- For example, M has seen fit to treat us like children who can not have access to their phones at work. According to her we are required to leave our phones in the car(this is texas and in the summers it gets too hot to safely leave a phone in a car without it exploding) or we should leave them in a locker in the breakroom, or the office. This is unacceptable. We are all adults who do not deserve to be treated like high school children. I know that some of us have seriously ill family members, including myself, and if someone needs to get a hold of me in case of an emergency, they should be allowed to do so.

SAFETY CONCERNS- M has been caught on multiple occasions bringing her child(under 2 years of age) into the grooming salon, both into the kennel area and the cutting room! This blatant disregard for safety can and should not be tolderated. M has also taken it upon herself to yell at everyone about the rules of the salon, yet will pull certain people aside and tell them that certain rules may not apply to them, and nor that some rules just “don’t apply to her”.

ATTENDANCE- M’s attendance must also be in question. I have personally seen M commit time theft( in which she herself has worked off the clock). As well as for the last 2 weeks she has been making these goodie bags with coupons to drum up business, and yet in all the hours she has been gone “handing out” flyers, not a single person in the last 2 weeks has showed up to redeem these coupons. It makes the rest of the staff wonder what she's been doing when she's not in the salon working. M claims to be a team player and tells us she will be here to help, yet when we tell her how she can help, or set aside tasks that she's said she would do, she doesn't come in and it leaves the rest of us to clean up after her. She would even go so far as to offer to simply check in and out dogs for us when we’re busy, but when we ask, then will turn around and yell at us claiming she’s “not our secretary”. We have not asked her to be that, we’ve only told her how she can best help the team when she asks how to help.

M is creating a toxic, hostile, and unsafe work environment. A common theme we have noticed is that M seems to be only picking on those of an ethnic background. I am not the only one in the salon who feels this way and we need to see something done about it. We have brought this to the attention of upper management and have seen nothing done about it. Our GM, T, told us she quote “doesn’t care”. I sympathize with M as a person and as a parent who needs to provide for her children, but that does not excuse the abuse she is putting us through. She is doing the absolute bare minimum of her job requirements, and sometimes not even that. She is reaping the rewards of a hard working GSL while doing none of the effort. I hope to see something done about this, I know I am not the only one in the salon who feels this way and I think I speak for everyone that we feel we would be much, MUCH better off without her.

I expect to hear from you soon. Best regards, CH