Demoted

What is the name of your state? Florida

I apologize for the length, but wanted you to have the facts.

I work for a mid-sized retailer. I transferred here (lateral, my request) 12 weeks ago. The store I took over was in a huge mess and I have been slowly successful in getting back on track. My numbers are not the best in my market, but in the middle in some categories, top in others. I was demoted last week. I was told it was because I was being protected from a new Regional Director (demoted from Senior VP) who would expect someone’s head to roll over this store's poor performance over the past 18 months, and that I would be back to manager status in 3 to 6 months. No other managers in my market have had disciplinary action, though many of their numbers are worse. (Yes, I have copies of these reports.) Our company has a clear plan for coaching and discipline including written and verbal warnings. I received none. In fact, I still have not seen a copy of my demotion paperwork, although I am supposed to sign it.

The worst part is that many other managers called me the week before and warned me "something was going to happen". It seems my boss was in each of their stores lamenting that he had to take some action against me. Gossip was verboten in my old market, so I ignored it. But it really irks me that they all were privy to my personnel issues. Today I get a call at home from someone (no idea who) who said that these other managers were pushing me out because they were upset when I got the job over a friend of theirs who was next in line. (Guess who got my old position?)

I could kick myself for moving over 1000 miles into this bee’s nest. I have had a successful track record with this company. I could live with backstabbing, gossiping co-workers, and a weak, deceptive boss. But I cannot live with the 18k pay cut and the additional 5k in expenses I paid out of pocket to move. Plus as Assistant Manager, I am not eligible for my ESOP plan, which is worth another 5 to 12k a year. The ultimate insult is that I am training my replacement, and he will get credit for the 12 weeks I have invested into this turnaround. If I apply for another job, I will have to disclose that I have been demoted, after 3 years as a manager. So, I feel stuck.

We have an open door, but where am I to go? My boss is clearly part of the problem. His boss was a Senior VP who was demoted to Regional Director when his predecessor was terminated. He is angry over his situation, and I do not think he will be receptive to hearing about mine. His boss is a brand new Senior VP who covers more than 300 stores and does not know me from Adam. And that is my chain of command. We have a new Board of Directors who swears that the Good Ol' Boy Network our company is so well known for is out. (We have recently settled class action suits for race discrimination, sex discrimination, overtime and more.) But those memos don’t appear to have trickled down here to Florida. Moving back is not an option as I have my wife and children settled here. Is there anything I can do?

Legally? Not that I can see. There are no laws that require an employer to be fair or manage a business well. You unwittingly transferred into a extremely unpleasant situation apparently rife with internal politics but you don't remotely touch on any issues that might provide any type of legal recourse. Sorry.

I am sure you are correct

I am sure you are correct and thank you for replying so quickly but, I thought that if the company had a clear set of procedures for disciplining or coaching an employee and followed those procedures each time (I have had to follow them myself for my own staff) except for this time, there would be something I could do. I thought the same standard had to be applied to everyone.

I have one additional question. If I choose to use the open door and go above the heads of the people here in my region, and I am terminated for it, will I have any recourse then? I feel if I lose my job at least trying to let someone know what is happening down here, then I will be doing something positive. Despite all that has happened, I genuinely care about this company and planned to be with them for many more years. The meeting they held when the former Regional Director was terminated said it was in part because of his poor employee relations and the high turnover in this region. It seems like someone up higher is trying to do something; or am I being naive and they are just blowing smoke.

Anyway, thanks again.

Most handbooks have a clause allowing a company to deviate from the standard of discipline at their discretion. This is not as unfair as it sounds - if you catch someone with their hand in the till you want to be able to fire them, not give them a verbal warning. If your handbook does not have such a clause, then you MAY have a contractual (not a legal) right to go through the entire procedure. It will depend upon how your state has looked at employee handbooks in the past. I have to tell you, Florida is an employer, not employee friendly state so it's unlikely that without a clearcut guarantee that the entire discipline system will be gone through in each and every case, your employers will be required to follow it.

The "whistleblower" laws apply only when you report ILLEGAL activity to the appropriate outside agency; for example, if you report illegal discrimination to the EEOC. The only exception to this is if your state specifically protects internal "whistleblowers". For the same reason as above, I think it unlikely that Florida has such a protection. You can always check with the state DOL.

Absent a contractual guarantee in your handbook such as cbg describes, the company may violate their own policies.

To put it candidly, jpgenius, there are no laws that would prevent you from getting totally screwed here. It's a shame but that's the bottom line.

I appreciate your candor...

I appreciate your candor, depressing though it may be. I am hoping the situation will resolve itself. Believe it or not I would like to stay on with the company, I just wish I could turn the clock back 12 weeks.

Knowing this company, thought, sooner or later someone will file suit using "inequitable implementation of company policies" or some other such stuff and it will become class action status. I mean recently they were successfully sued which resulted in the removal of the requirement to have the ability to lift 70 pounds from the delivery person's job description. (Crazy as that sounds, I had to hire delivery people who can't lift!) So, who the heck knows?

I really appreciate your time and attention.

JP

I'd guess that the basis for the suit over the 70 lb. weight requirement is disparate impact/sex discrimination. In other words, since women generally have considerably less upper body strength than men do, the weight requirement serves to bar a disproportionate number of females from employment opportunities. As I said, that's a guess on my part though but there are considerable legal precedents for suits of this type.

Law enforcement agencies have been successfully sued over height requirements, which previously were set at a level that ruled out many females and Asians, for example.

Those precedents don't have anything to do with your present situation though.

It's all about the politics!

Believe me when I say, It's in about who likes who in a job, forget about job performance, seniority, etc. it really doesn't matter, if they prefer someone over you, for any reason, guess what? your'e out.

I say this because it happened to me. This has nothing to do with any thing legal, it's just the way it is. I was up for a promotion, along with three other people. I did the same amount of work, actually taught the other two a few things, and assumed that all was fine. Well, little by little, my job responsibilities were being shifted from me to this other lady that was training with me.
Before I knew it, she was running the show. Ofcourse I did not take this lying down, I went to the manager, and told her what was going on. She immediately went to the lead of the dept. and we called a meeting. OF COURSE I turned into the b**** for "standing up for myself" and recieved major "tude" from the dept. from then on out.

Now, the dept. I was training for is coming to our location on Nov. 4. (my birthday, LOL) and guess who DIDN"T get promoted? Yours truly!

I pissed them off, so I got the shaft. Nothing can be said about my job performance, it's remarkable. My boss would agree with me on that one. But because the lead of the dept. don't like me, I'm out, that's it.

So the best advice I can give you is KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! do not complain to ANYONE. It will smack you in the face! do what I am doing, biding my time, making sure I am definately out, and putting in for a tranfer.........................

I suggest you do the same, I would wait the 3 to 6 months,and if I was still in the position I was demoted to, then it would be see ya!

Good luck and remember, it's a jungle out there!

As a retailer myself, I am surprised at the amount of loyalty that you have to this company after all of this. I would say that it's time to shop yourself around to a company that deserves such loyalty. You may have a much better chance of future advancement in a company where your career isn't in "Park"

Thanks

Thank you everyone for your advice and kind words. Yes, it is frustrating. At the end of the 1st two weeks of his management, my replacement has done no better and in some cases has done worse.

By the way, Steve, my company is based in Texas, your neck of the woods. Please tell me they are all not like this. I am willing to go to another company, but I feel I would have a much better advantage if I was applying as a manager rather than a recently demoted Assistant Manager.

JP

It's hard to go wrong by telling the absolute truth. You might be surprised how willing other retailers are to hire you. Good managers are very hard to find. The problem in your situation could be that someone is bad mouthing you without your knowledge with false statements that you can not defend yourself against. I refuse negative reports about employees unless the complainer is willing to put it in writing and give a copy to the person who supposedly commited the offense. This prevents false reports being acted upon unfairly. I also promote or give raises entirely on statistics, not rumor or who's related to who. Try this in your position. It's more fun. Most Texas retailers that I know are just like they are anywhere else. Some could run a country. Others should be second in command of a garage sale. Good luck.