Another_Jeremy
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York
I worked in a classical sheet music store at a prestigious music school for two years. The two top managers (Merchandising person, Operations Manager) had extensive experience in sports retail, but not experience with classical music at all so they hired musicians for their knowledge. The Operations Manager was totally incompetent. In addition to not even knowing where anything in the store was or being able to answer the most rudimentary questions about our services, he sat at his computer on Facebook and Sportcenter all day and openly treated workers disparately. One girl was terminated for coming into work late on a day for which she had a Doctor's appointment, and had notified the managers of this well in advance but was still scheduled.
After being made full time the situation in the store got very weird. An employee whose responsibility was to purchase text books for the store, was conscripted to improve the website in addition to his other duties: too much for one worker. Apparently he didn't rise to the challenge because the Merchandising Manager started to dress him down on the regular in sight and sound of the whole staff and even customers. Everyone would worked in the back office would leave because no one could work with her screaming. She also drank sometimes, which doesn't offend me or anything, but it was weird because we could never read the environment. Is it laid back or not? Also, it doesn't seem like a good idea to just drink on the job. As time went on, the operations manager became more bold. He would leave hours early and close one of the two cash registers several hours before the store was closed and leave us short staffed, and when he was there he didn't even pretend to do any work. He would schedule himself every Sunday because it was a 5 hour work day and full time workers got back for 8, and he would sit in the back on the computer all day because the Merchandising Manager wasn't there on Sundays. He left money out in the open, he moved books and forgot where he put them and we would have to reorder them, he rearranged sections of the store that we would then have to go rearrange, etc.
So we got fed up with the craziness. Myself and three colleagues went to HR with a list of typed issues and lodged a formal complaint against our bosses. A month later we received an email telling us that since our issue was related to our department, we needed to take it up with the head of our department; as in the people we had just filed the formal complaint against. About three months later, one of my coworkers was fired for unspecified "errors" even though the position he had was made full time 6 months previous and had essentially been created for him because of the job he was doing. My other two colleagues quit a few months after he was terminated, and I quit a month ago.
After the non response of the HR lady to our formal complaint, I began recording my interactions with her and my recording of my exit interview is a real gem. In it she informed me that:
1. In regard to a person being screamed at, she's a realist and not everyone will get along.
2. That me requesting formal notification regarding the resolution of our formal complaint was "not real life," and that it's normal to just be informed that the issue has been resolved with no further explanation.
3. That it's to be expected that when someone lodges a complaint against a supervisor, that the supervisor in question is the one who will determines the outcome.
I caught her on several points, particularly that the school has no formal protocol for lodging complaints or escalating them if they are not resolved and that she hadn't spoken to anyone else in the store about the scenario and had left it to our boss to be the arbiter of her own justice. She said "they" took the appropriate steps, but couldn't say what any of the steps were or what the result was.
What are the odds that my friend who was fired for "errors" could win if all of the grievance lodgers, the fired "I went to the doctor" girl, the guy screamed at who quit, and several other current and former employees stated under oath that the Merchandising Manager treated workers abusively, and that after we raised the concerns to the HR department he was quickly terminated despite having no record or incompetence after making an internal complaint against the very person who fired him? What would we have to prove in court to show that this was retaliatory? I know that New York is an at will state, but is it illegal to fire someone for reporting a bullying work environment? And what of HR telling us to take it up with the people we had just complained against? Isn't that a conflict of interests? I've also read that HR staff can be held personally liable in New York and New Jersey if their handling of an issue is inadequate. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I worked in a classical sheet music store at a prestigious music school for two years. The two top managers (Merchandising person, Operations Manager) had extensive experience in sports retail, but not experience with classical music at all so they hired musicians for their knowledge. The Operations Manager was totally incompetent. In addition to not even knowing where anything in the store was or being able to answer the most rudimentary questions about our services, he sat at his computer on Facebook and Sportcenter all day and openly treated workers disparately. One girl was terminated for coming into work late on a day for which she had a Doctor's appointment, and had notified the managers of this well in advance but was still scheduled.
After being made full time the situation in the store got very weird. An employee whose responsibility was to purchase text books for the store, was conscripted to improve the website in addition to his other duties: too much for one worker. Apparently he didn't rise to the challenge because the Merchandising Manager started to dress him down on the regular in sight and sound of the whole staff and even customers. Everyone would worked in the back office would leave because no one could work with her screaming. She also drank sometimes, which doesn't offend me or anything, but it was weird because we could never read the environment. Is it laid back or not? Also, it doesn't seem like a good idea to just drink on the job. As time went on, the operations manager became more bold. He would leave hours early and close one of the two cash registers several hours before the store was closed and leave us short staffed, and when he was there he didn't even pretend to do any work. He would schedule himself every Sunday because it was a 5 hour work day and full time workers got back for 8, and he would sit in the back on the computer all day because the Merchandising Manager wasn't there on Sundays. He left money out in the open, he moved books and forgot where he put them and we would have to reorder them, he rearranged sections of the store that we would then have to go rearrange, etc.
So we got fed up with the craziness. Myself and three colleagues went to HR with a list of typed issues and lodged a formal complaint against our bosses. A month later we received an email telling us that since our issue was related to our department, we needed to take it up with the head of our department; as in the people we had just filed the formal complaint against. About three months later, one of my coworkers was fired for unspecified "errors" even though the position he had was made full time 6 months previous and had essentially been created for him because of the job he was doing. My other two colleagues quit a few months after he was terminated, and I quit a month ago.
After the non response of the HR lady to our formal complaint, I began recording my interactions with her and my recording of my exit interview is a real gem. In it she informed me that:
1. In regard to a person being screamed at, she's a realist and not everyone will get along.
2. That me requesting formal notification regarding the resolution of our formal complaint was "not real life," and that it's normal to just be informed that the issue has been resolved with no further explanation.
3. That it's to be expected that when someone lodges a complaint against a supervisor, that the supervisor in question is the one who will determines the outcome.
I caught her on several points, particularly that the school has no formal protocol for lodging complaints or escalating them if they are not resolved and that she hadn't spoken to anyone else in the store about the scenario and had left it to our boss to be the arbiter of her own justice. She said "they" took the appropriate steps, but couldn't say what any of the steps were or what the result was.
What are the odds that my friend who was fired for "errors" could win if all of the grievance lodgers, the fired "I went to the doctor" girl, the guy screamed at who quit, and several other current and former employees stated under oath that the Merchandising Manager treated workers abusively, and that after we raised the concerns to the HR department he was quickly terminated despite having no record or incompetence after making an internal complaint against the very person who fired him? What would we have to prove in court to show that this was retaliatory? I know that New York is an at will state, but is it illegal to fire someone for reporting a bullying work environment? And what of HR telling us to take it up with the people we had just complained against? Isn't that a conflict of interests? I've also read that HR staff can be held personally liable in New York and New Jersey if their handling of an issue is inadequate. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
