My Supervisor was demoted.

[PrimaTX]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TX

My supervisor was demoted today back to her old job and shift. She isn't even out of her 90 day introductory period. The reason they gave her is that they 'feel she has become too stressed since taking the position". She has been intimidated and badgered since she was given the job and never been allowed to make the decisions afforded to our previous supervisor. They also told her it was effective immediately and that they have already hired an outsider to take her place starting tomorrow..and they want her to train the new person!
This is humiliating of course, but I'm wondering how they can make their own determination of 'her being stressed' when she has never been spoken to about poor performance or anything else. Myself and the other members of her team have been very happy with her as our supervisor and we stand behind her 100%. For all we know they could have hired a friend or relative to take her place and why didn't they offer the position to the rest of the team if they didn't feel she was doing a good job? Is there any kind of breach of contract going on here between her and the company? Just curious if there is anything she can do.
The intimidation has been witnessed by all of us.

 

[cbg]

Based on what you have posted, no, there is no breach of contract or anything she can do. Unless she has a legally binding and enforceable contract of employment for a specified period for a particular job for a particular length of time, the employer can change her job duties at any time they want for any reason they want that does not violate the law. Under the circumstances you've described, she would have a hard time making a claim for most of the usual legal violations fly. The employer is not obligated to counsel her for poor performance or justify their position.

 

[PrimaTX]

Based on what you have posted, no, there is no breach of contract or anything she can do. Unless she has a legally binding and enforceable contract of employment for a specified period for a particular job for a particular length of time, the employer can change her job duties at any time they want for any reason they want that does not violate the law. Under the circumstances you've described, she would have a hard time making a claim for most of the usual legal violations fly. The employer is not obligated to counsel her for poor performance or justify their position.

Thank you for responding so quickly. This also means they are going to fire the person that has her old job..again, without notice. We know they will not reassign her.
I feel they will be coming after me next because they have made no secret that they prefer my shift to be a male. I do feel that is sexually discriminating if they decide to go that route. We have no males at all on our team.

 

[eerelations]

How have they made this "no secret" - emails, memos, job postings? Verbal statements with witnesses? Anything that can be used as evidence?

 

[cbg]

Demotions because "they prefer (my) shift to be a male" are not the same, legally, as demotions because they are not satisfied with her performance.

 

[commentator]

What you and she (supervisor) need to be doing is looking for other jobs, while you are still working there. The person they're going to fire needs to wait till he/she is fired, and file for unemployment benefits, regardless of the reason why they are giving for the firing. Neither you or the supervisor needs to quit this job until you have found another really good one to go to. Then move along and forget about them.

If they come to you with some level of harassment, trying to get you to quit, so they can fill your job with a male, keep behaving sweetly, doing your job to the best of your abilities. If even the slightest word is spoken, the slightest hint is given by anyone in the company that the reason they are getting rid of you is that they want your job filled by a male, document this, try to get witnesses who heard it said, save (on hard copy in your own records) any company emails or memos that say anything like this.

Then, if you are terminated, you first file immediately for unemployment insurance benefits. Work the whole issue of whether they had a valid misconduct reason to terminate you out with them. Memorize and use frequently the statement, "I always did my job to the very best of my abilities." (Do your job to the best of your abilities in the meantime. ) Then, after you've already done this, file a complaint with your EEOC either state or federal. It will take many many months for them to get around to reviewing your claim. Eventually they'll make a decision, and may possibly give you a "right to sue" letter if they determine that there was an EEOC violation possibly involved in your termination. At that point, you'd obtain an attorney and begin a court action against the former employer.

If this sounds like a lengthy and convoluted and tiresome process, you're getting it. EEOC complaints also tend to look for a pattern of discrimination across the board, not just in individual cases so much. If your company blatantly refuses to promote females across the board, this is a commonly known practice among employees, and the employers are not shy about letting people know how they feel about women in such positions, the chances of prevailing are better.

AA I've said here many times, most people really believe they have a lot more rights in the workplace than they do. You don't even have the right to demand courtesy or respectful treatment or kindness or fairness, except what you expect yourself as a person. If you demand such courtesy, they have the right to fire you for demanding it.

 

[PrimaTX]

How have they made this "no secret" - emails, memos, job postings? Verbal statements with witnesses? Anything that can be used as evidence?

When we were hiring part timers for the overnight shift on the weekends, management said they preferred it to be a male and gave preference in the interviews to men. They ended up hiring a male, but then he called and quit before his start date and they ended up hiring another female. But it was during that time that they openly told us they preferred a male in the overnight shift during the week and the weekend and yes, others were present.
I've been there a year full time with no security issues and there is nothing that a male could be doing better than me.

 

[PrimaTX]

What you and she (supervisor) need to be doing is looking for other jobs, while you are still working there. The person they're going to fire needs to wait till he/she is fired, and file for unemployment benefits, regardless of the reason why they are giving for the firing. Neither you or the supervisor needs to quit this job until you have found another really good one to go to. Then move along and forget about them.

If they come to you with some level of harassment, trying to get you to quit, so they can fill your job with a male, keep behaving sweetly, doing your job to the best of your abilities. If even the slightest word is spoken, the slightest hint is given by anyone in the company that the reason they are getting rid of you is that they want your job filled by a male, document this, try to get witnesses who heard it said, save (on hard copy in your own records) any company emails or memos that say anything like this.

Then, if you are terminated, you first file immediately for unemployment insurance benefits. Work the whole issue of whether they had a valid misconduct reason to terminate you out with them. Memorize and use frequently the statement, "I always did my job to the very best of my abilities." (Do your job to the best of your abilities in the meantime. ) Then, after you've already done this, file a complaint with your EEOC either state or federal. It will take many many months for them to get around to reviewing your claim. Eventually they'll make a decision, and may possibly give you a "right to sue" letter if they determine that there was an EEOC violation possibly involved in your termination. At that point, you'd obtain an attorney and begin a court action against the former employer.

If this sounds like a lengthy and convoluted and tiresome process, you're getting it. EEOC complaints also tend to look for a pattern of discrimination across the board, not just in individual cases so much. If your company blatantly refuses to promote females across the board, this is a commonly known practice among employees, and the employers are not shy about letting people know how they feel about women in such positions, the chances of prevailing are better.

AA I've said here many times, most people really believe they have a lot more rights in the workplace than they do. You don't even have the right to demand courtesy or respectful treatment or kindness or fairness, except what you expect yourself as a person. If you demand such courtesy, they have the right to fire you for demanding it.

Thank you for this great advice. We have both been applying for other positions for a week or so now, but we are trying to hold out until mid December when the Christmas bonuses are handed out because they are substantial. If we leave even up to the day before, we will lose that bonus.

I had my annual review just over a week ago and my supervisor gave me an excellent review. The very next day I was called in by the Office Manager where she confronted me with a write-up. It was some exaggerated bogus thing that I refuted on the reverse side, but now they have something in my file when up to that point I had never been disciplined for anything, have never missed a day of work the whole year, have never been late, covered many other shifts and attended every meeting even if it meant losing sleep for my shift that night. I'm sure it's just because they don't want to give me my annual raise. My raise has not been mentioned even at this point. They were also angry with my supervisor for not backing them up in this meeting and agreeing with the write-up. She had just given me an excellent review the day before..why would she suddenly turn around and agree with them? That really was the beginning of them plotting to remove her from the position. This is an example of the bullying tactics they have been using on her.

I also have a lot of PTO time (we all have) that I have accrued and my office manager is denying every application for me to try and use some of it. The handbook clearly states that anything over 40 hours will be lost after my anniversary hiring date of Oct 26 and I'm at 62 hours (my supervisor has almost 100). Even though my shift will be covered and it was approved by my supervisor, I am being denied from taking even 2 days. She claims the anniversary date is not my anniversary date, it's the company's anniversary date of next June when we had a change of management. I've never heard of such a ridiculous thing and I'm sure she just wants me to lose that time when my year rolls over. Are there any repercussions for the Office Manager for giving me incorrect information like this?

Update: My supervisor went into work today to work in her demoted position and management handed her a sheet of paper with a prepared 'speech' on it. They wanted her to attend a meeting and read the announcement of her 'new position' to everyone. When she saw the speech, she broke down in tears and left the building. It was just too much for her for them to ask her to make the announcement herself and try to act happy about it? Just ridiculous.

 

[commentator]

She needs to file a claim for unemployment insurance immediately, telling them she was "forced to quit." She needs to emphasize that she was willing to work and try to work in the new position, but she was forced out as they gave her this speech and demanded that she present it to the employees in a designed to be humiliating "walk of shame" type situation. This was, she should argue, a valid job related reason to quit.

You yourself, need to keep working, be sure you do nothing that you have been written up for doing. DO NOT QUIT. Let them fire you if they are going to. Try to hang on until they do that. Keep careful records of the times you have requested time off. Eventually, aftr doing a lot of homework, I might set a time, and go on and take the time off. You may want to talk to the manager above this person who is telling you this before you do it.

If you return to work and find you have been fired for asking for time off and then taking it, the you need to file for unemployment as you move on. It is not unreasonable to be able to take paid time off at sometime during a year. You know that your supervisor is giving you bogus information concerning the leave. Try to contact HR yourself, see if you can get them to tell you clearly when your anniversary date is, when exactly you will lose the paid time off days if you do not use them.

It really does sound like you need to find something else. At least this one supervisor is not a good person to work for. Maybe someone higher up will be able to assist you. If not, move on, but make sure it's her who is the driving force who terminates you if possible.