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1 month later after the CHAOS.. what to do now?

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AznNiceGuy

Guest
What is the name of your state? California
I worked for Company A from early July 2002 to early January 2003. Roughly about 6 months and I was thought of myself being an honest and true person. My job title was 1st Asst. Manager of a retail store. This is where it gets very crazy.

When I first started working for Company A. I noticed that things didn't seem right with the whole situation. My store manager never came to work on time, made me do a majority of the paperwork, called me in to work not on my schedule, change my schedule without notice. He also shaved minutes from the employees to keep payroll precentage low. He docked off any overtime that was accumulated by them also. After 2 months he accused my 2nd Asst. Manager of stealing money and products from the store. He informed my D.M. and he wanted me to set my 2nd Asst. up by making me open the store (was not even part of my schedule) and have her open the store solely by herself, so she would be accused of stealing with no other employee as an eyewitness to testify otherwise. I didn't agree with it and my store manager did the action himself the following day.

A few days later, my 2nd Asst. was fired. While in charge as store manager, a woman from E.D.D. called in regards to what happen to my 2nd Asst. dismisal. I told them the truth about her getting blame for products missing and due to that, she was fired. Later, I learned that my D.M. tried lying to E.D.D. about her actually quitting. They fired my assistant based on slanderous lies/ deface her character and I didn't appreciate that form of shadiness.

In the time being, I being the 1st actually realize it was in fact that my store manager that was stealing. I inform H.R. about my suspicions. Also, in the past few weeks before the firing of my 2nd Asst., I left voice messages to let my D.M. know that money was missing. My confidential paper, with the sworn statements of other employees stating that that it was my own store manager that was suspicious prior to my 2nd Asst. firing. I was told my H.R. that it was going to be confidential. A few days later, I learned from trusted co-worker that my D.M. called my store manager and told him about my suspicions against him. I was mad because I thought "Confidentiality" was protected. One week rolled by. My store manager quit rather than have an investigation. I took over the Store for a short while. I was told directly by the D.M. that it was, "my store" and she would get me some help. Store was doing well for a while. Sales were the highest they ever been.

Then, they brought in another person. She was a store manager of a much lower volume store. She spoke very broken English. She used to be the 1st Asst. for my former Store manager. She took over title as Store Manager and I was demoted back to 1st. From, the start she was very annoyed that I already knew the paperwork and other tasks that needed to keep operations running smoothly better than she knew. She wanted me to not do any work and learn from her. That was quite funny because I was a store manager before she came in. So, I reluctantly did less and less managerial task. I was just annoyed sometimes how stupid she was. It would take me 10 minutes to do the same daily, weekly, monthly paperwork while she took 3 hours. I already knew what type of manager she was. Inside, I always hated those lazy-ass/ back-room managers. She took days just to make employee schedules and try to make it seem so hard.

In about a few weeks later, I was talking to my former 2nd Asst. and she told me that the old store manager contacted her to let her know that he personally spoke to the current the store manager to "make me pay". I just took her warning and was cautious. The next 2 weeks, I was put in charge for rebuilding shelves because the store manger told me only "Men" do that work. The next thing I knew, every time I worked my store manager, and she kept calling me "kid". I took offense to that since I am only 21 but I fulfill my obligation as management better than I think anyone could. Next thing that happen was when I had Chinese customers, my store manager (her being Chinese) refused to talk to them and told me to talk to them. It was not even my ethnic background being Chinese and I was somehow fluent in Mandarin and I could communicate to the Chinese customers???? That was very bizarre to me. I am of Asian decent however; the only language I know is English. Then, she hired a new 2nd Asst. Manager that spoke very little English and only Mandarin. He and my store manager would only talk to each other in that language a majority of the time while I was present. I then felt really alienated. One day the store manager brought up the fact that she thinks I am working too many hours and that I shouldn't. A few days later, my store manager openly accused me of stealing a product upon me arriving for an after-noon shift. I carry no backpack or any carriage bag of any sort. I didn't understand her reasoning behind it. I then told her she was a liar and I don't appreciate the shadiness. I then stated, "you know what, don't talk to me!" It grew silent until she left for the day. The following days, she told me that the 2nd Asst. Manager would now perform the nightly closing procedure. It was to my understanding that the higher-ranking manager was responsible for the store. Again, I did this reluctantly. I basically did the procedure that the regular associates did, basically re-facing and mopping. One day later, the 2nd Asst. Manager did not open the store. I arrived for my Mid-afternoon shift and was extremely irritated. The 2nd Asst. Manager eventually showed up in the afternoon and said he forgot and he then left. A few minutes later, my store manager said I was in trouble and accused me of being irresponsible for sending the 2nd Asst. Manager home. Which I did no such thing. Later in the day, my store manager (her day off) came to the store to tell me that I was going to get written up for not opening the store. She was starting to piss me off and I knew she was doing illegal stuff. The next day, she got confirmation from my D.M. that writing me up was legit. A few days later, the D.M. came to me and accused me of insubordination. I asked her what insubordination meant and she couldn't even tell me that So she asked me what it meant? I defined it as having refusal to comply with a superior's direct order. The D.M. was mad because I showed her up. She then attacked my creditability of 6 months compare to the store manger's years. A part of me thinks it might have stem from the Corporate Headqaurters finding out what I told to E.D.D. My D.M. pissed me off because I realize she was trying to find any reason on me, even to concur make believe ones. A few hours later, my store manager came up to me with a Final Notice before termination and accused me of insubordination. I quit that day.

What can I do against my former employers? I was subjected to harassment and I being the decent manager could not stand there and take it anymore. I know that Company A is corrupt.
 
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Beth3

Senior Member
Managing badly (even horribly) is not against the law. I expect this company's business practices will catch up with them at some point but as the situation relates to you, they have not violated any employment laws.

I can only suggest you try to put this awful situation behind you and move on. At 21, that will be an easier task than if you were 30 or 40 years older. Good luck.

P.S. "Confidentiality" is not protected. They had no legal obligation to keep your concerns about the thieving manager confidential. An ethical one of course but not a legal one.
 
A

AznNiceGuy

Guest
Thanks for the advice Beth but.....

I do whole heartily realize that the situation I went through was an ordeal I rather forget. However, I think I realize a lot from the experience. There is corruption out there and it is naive to think that there are other people to trust other than oneself. In my brief short period of entering the "Real World", it has come apparent to me that the higher one gets in management, the higher the responsibilities, the higher the power, and unfortunately.... the greater the risk to misuse that power.

Also, I realize that I was fortunate enough for my age group to get into such high management in only a short while. I worked my ass off to climb up. But the view above isn't too bright. I seen some of my fellow employees around my age group be so fearful of their superiors just because of their power. Dang, I had to tell my employees to chill out because I was just one of them, there was nothing I would do to be a hard-ass. I was closer to their age group than any other supervisor was. But then most of the people who had my position were always around mid 30s and beyond. I don't like the general assumption that older folks have more experience and would be better managers. I don't entirely disagree with that. But being still young, I take pride that I am not shaped by past experiences. I consider myself always thinking and self-evolving. I always was thinking outside the box to improve and deep desire for innovations. I always kept thinking to prove to "corporate" what I was made of. New projects, reorganization of old procedure that need a little tweaking, more smooth operation, Plano grams, and constant addition of knowledge for every employee that didn't know or wanted to. Store morale was great. During my reign, the store's sales were the highest in the history of the company from one store alone. I am pretty sure that my D.M. was bragging to her bosses about how great she was.

I wasn't saying that I knew it all. However, I believe that I learn things at a much quicker rate than the older peers. I can't really understand why they made P&L reports so drawn out. Month End reports, inventory, and store weekly, monthly changes so......... made it a life or death situation. I just didn't like or tolerate laziness or maybe trying to make lower subordinates think what MANAGEMENT does is so important. *LAUGHS* All the paperwork is easy. Gosh, I would die from boredom just doing the same task over and over without learning anything new. My brain can't be set on CRUISE all the time.

I thank you Beth for telling me that no employment law was broken. But, MORALES............*sigh*, they all seem to not matter in the "Real World". For crying out loud, I had a manager wanting me to set up a fellow employee to be accused of stealing while he only quit and walked away with thousands of dollars missing before he left. An innocent co-worker was fired and the D.M. tried passing sole blame on her to her bosses. No police arrest was made and that a-hole walked away. I also, seen an employee leave to the hospital for a week because she was seriously injured in a mugging and have her not have her job anymore when she wanted to return back and have the Family and Medical Leave Act totally disregarded and yes, she met all qualifications. I, myself had to deal with racially bias Chinese Store Manager that did things that didn't feel right. Maybe it was not me but her hate for what my descendents (Japanese) done to the Chinese. I had an inclination of the hostility. However, that too would be too hard to prove in a court of law. Or she is just strictly pure evil. Or a straight out B****! One would grow crazy to when they have to deal with high pitch English, day after day. Always needing spelling and me to double-check her letters to corporate headquarters, both grammatically. All this being done by someone she refer on a daily basis as a kid. I don't really fault or blame her for having her position. It was my D.M. that hired her and made her my manager. She should really pick someone that was qualified. Ohhh wait, my store manager is in her late 40's with no previous retail experience but plenty of life experience. She must be ideal candidate to run a multi-million dollar store. Not!!!!

I wish these employment laws were much simpler, maybe I even hope that common sense and morality may play some part of the decision process of what is fair and what is wrong. Unfortunately, it is not. I hate the real world. I decided to go back to school. Maybe pick up a P.H.D. and teach evolving concepts to students on the importance of Law and Ethics. I would deeply emphasis on the word ETHICS. We need more of that in a Capitalistic society and sometimes.... corrupt world.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Azn, don't let one (really bad) experience color your view of the entire world of employment. Yes, there certainly are some bad places to work and some bad people to work for. But there are many fine companies run by talented and very ethical business people. Since I began my working career, I can tell you I have worked with far, far more fair-minded and ethical managers and business owners than I have bad ones. The awful situation you describe is a lot less common than you may be thinking right now.

Good luck to you.
 
J

jgo

Guest
corrupt world IS the chaos of the capitalistic society in which we live. You are a brave one and appear to be striving in great leaps and bounds for understanding with your experiences and some from self-evolvement-bravo. An understanding of the ruling class of the U.S. and whose interests are best served from direction from this class(which notably make up a small percent (tiny yes) are the similiar and heinous notions of what make the corporate swine exactly that.
 

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