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Looking for Legal Help and Other Suggestions
Posted by: Victim001
Date: 2/17/2008 10:38:52 AM
I made the mistake of applying for a promotion. I was rewarded by receiving nothing but bogus, bad, and "made-up" performance reviews. My then manager kept telling me to find another job outside his department. That was the oly way I was going to survive. My director was upset because I had attempted a promotion. I was with this company for over 20 years. I had received glowing reviews prior to applying for the promotion. Even during the year preceeding my first bad review, I had received several awards for my work. I was finally assigned to a manager who's total responsibility was to criticize, humilate, embarrass, and make me look bad so I would eventually get fired. I have contacted several attorneys and have found no one willing to take my case against my former employer. Unless I can prove sexual harassment or age discrimination, I don't have a case. What can I do? I'm not certain where to turn? Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.
| Reply from: |
goodboss |
| Date: |
2/23/2008 12:58:00 PM |
| Reply: |
Unless management's behaviour towards you is directly because of your race, gender, age, religion, or disability, then (unfortunately) the behaviour is perfectly legal. (That's probably why the attorneys you spoke to wouldn't take your case - because, unfortunately, you don't have a case.) One positive thing - I don't believe that your new manager's total responsibility is to "criticize, humiliate, embarrass, and make [you] look bad so [you] would eventually get fired." This is because, absent a CBA that states otherwise, your employer is legally allowed to fire you any time, for any reason (except race, gender, age, etc.), or even no reason at all. In other words, if this company truly wished to fire you, it wouldn't bother with all this bullying behaviour, it'd just fire you - this would be a lot faster and a lot cheaper. I think there are other things going on, and I think you need to sit down with your manager to find out what they are, and to find out what he/she thinks you need to do to fix them. |
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| Reply from: |
common_sense |
| Date: |
2/26/2008 10:28:00 AM |
| Reply: |
Unfortunately the reply from goodboss is accurate & true. I am currently experiencing the same treatment. My boss even used fake policies to punish me for taking a day off, in addition to giving me a review based on personal opinion and showing no reflection of my job duties. In 2 years she has managed to make me dislike coming to work at a job I love. All lawyers I spoke with determined that I am not in fact being harassed and did not take my case. My manager is a miserable spoiled woman who does not take suggestions, views or ideas from her staff. She also has a proven track record working with other women. So why is it okay for management to demonstrate bad attitudes, and awful behavior at work? |
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| Reply from: |
Victim001 |
| Date: |
2/26/2008 10:35:00 AM |
| Reply: |
A coworker and myself were the oldest in the department of 20+ engineers. Older by 10 years or more. We each had 20 years with the company. Since my previous post, my former coworker was also terminated. A different reason was given for his termination. Both positions have been posted and my company is seeking candidates with far less experience than we both had. Why doesn't anyone believe this is age discrimination? |
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| Reply from: |
goodboss |
| Date: |
2/28/2008 5:21:00 AM |
| Reply: |
common_sense: in an ethical and moral sense, it's certainly NOT okay for managers to bully and humiliate their employees. However, in a legal sense, in the US, it IS okay - unfortunately. In my experience (20+ years' counselling leaders on appropriate management practices), managers of the bullying type won't change their behaviour unless there are legal requirements - with related penalties! - to do so.
And in the US it is still legal to be a bully. Unfortunately, the US is 'way behind the industrialized world in legal protections for employees. (Not just in the bullying area but in many other areas as well, including pay, benefits, and termination processes.) Great Britain, most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Canada all have effective anti-bullying laws. Laws like this have been proposed in the US but so far they've all been laughed out of Congress. Until such laws are taken seriously by US lawmakers, American employees will continue to suffer bullying. Sad but true. |
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| Reply from: |
goodboss |
| Date: |
2/28/2008 5:32:00 AM |
| Reply: |
Victim001: While it's illegal for employers to fire people just because they're aged 45 or older, it's not illegal for employers to fire people in order to replace them with less experienced, cheaper workers - which is what it sounds like this company is doing. I'm not saying that I don't believe you when you say this is age discrimination, I'm just saying that I don't think you have enough proof that it's age discrimination. I think that if you were to make an age discrimination claim against the company, based solely on the evidence you've provided here, you would probably lose. All the company would have to do is show that it let you and your coworker go as part of a larger cost-cutting measure. If said measure included letting other people go, who were under the age of 45, then the company would automatically win.
That said, now that you're unemployed, I think you have the time to explore making a claim with the EEOC (not another attorney - please note that you cannot legally make age discrimination claims without prior authorization from the EEOC, so you have to go to the EEOC first). If the EEOC thinks you have a claim, they'll proceed with it. If they don't, they explain that to you far better than I can here. |
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| Reply from: |
matildagsd |
| Date: |
3/5/2008 11:12:00 AM |
| Reply: |
I'm wondering if one of the reasons one might be bullied at work without being outright fired is to get rid of the employee (their voluntarily leaving the company) so that they will not be able to file for unemployment. I was bullied out of my last place of employment, or rather mobbed, to the point where I quit. During that awful time, my boss made a comment (about someone else, supposedly) who was looking to get fired in order to get unemployment or have a case for severance pay.
I'm not sure what the legalities are surrounding unemployment, because I've never collected it- nor had I even considered it at the time.
But wouldn't secretly and maliciously bullying an employee into quitting (and leaving them unable to point out illegal wrongdoing) be one way to keep them from getting financial compensation here in the USA? |
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| Reply from: |
chew |
| Date: |
3/6/2008 10:25:00 AM |
| Reply: |
Unfortunately, all the above comments are so right on. The only way to prevent future victims is to cut your losses and to report these bosses at ebosswatch.com. At least you are not subjecting yourself to ongoing abuse and making a small difference. But this is only putting a band-aid on a very prevalent problem. If you are truly interested in being an active participant in ending workplace bullying, go to workplacebullyinglaw.org
Help rally for the Healthy Workplace Bill. |
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| Reply from: |
goodboss |
| Date: |
3/6/2008 2:38:00 PM |
| Reply: |
matildasgd: Yes, you're right, your point is excellent - it's all too common for bullying types to bully certain employees so that they'll quit. (This happened to me once, however, lucky for me I'm in Canada where doing this is illegal, so I was able to sue and ultimately got six months' pay for my efforts. Unfortunately, American employees have no such legal recourse.) However, Victim001 specifically said that her boss' sole job was to bully her so that she'd "eventually get fired." And this is what I responded to. |
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| Reply from: |
matildagsd |
| Date: |
3/11/2008 3:46:00 PM |
| Reply: |
OK, thanks for your response, goodboss. I knew I was veering a bit from the original message but after reading the following posts, that point occurred to me. I wish I could have sued but of course, had no legal recourse - my lawyer simply told me to quit. According to him, if I'd been a CEO with the company, I might have pursued the matter further but in my case, it was part time and on the bottom rung of the department, so to speak. |
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