Do we really owe our soul to the company store?

[PalmSpringStress]

My husband and I are new resident managers at a mobile home park. Our housing and utilities are furnished to us along with $5.75 per hour pay, based on a 40 hour week. We are required to be on-call 24 hours a day alternating on-call weeks with our assistant manager. If we are fired or quit our jobs we are required to vacate our home within 72 hours. Our boss has been verbally harrassing us since we came here a little over a month ago, calling us 5 or 6 times a day at all hours. The boss has no life outside the parks she manages. She screams at us over the phone and we never know if Jeckyl or Hyde will be calling us. She's adding so much stress to the job that I can't sleep well, my stomach hurts and my chest feels like an elephant is sitting on it. We're in our late 50's NEED to work and have no experience to speak of. This is the only position we could find willing to train us. Please help, we're at our wits end. We want to work, want to do a good job, but the stress she's putting us under is way beyond what we consider "normal" job stress. Are there any legal avenues...perhaps constructive termination? We don't want to quit, we need our jobs, but she's making our jobs impossible to perform. The problem isn't necessarily the phone calls, it's the continuing yelling and screaming, along with the endless mind changes and reversals she does. She's adding duties on a daily basis and always says "I did it so I know you can too" (she did do it 20 years ago when this park was newer, in less need of repairs and at a time when the mobile home residency laws were much more liberal. Is it REALLY ok for an employer to yell and scream?

[This message has been edited by PalmSpringStress (edited June 18, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by PalmSpringStress (edited June 18, 2000).]

 

[lawrat]

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

I sympathize with your situation and know that if you live in california (palm springs?), you are under what we call willful employment.

You may not want to quit your job, but you can walk away without a hitch any time. Now, as far as what she is doing to you, it may be part of the expected or reasonable job to expect so many phone calls from her.

There are lines drawn that distinguish between normal *****ing and moaning by a boss and harassment to the point of civil liablity. Those lines, however, are very narrow. I suggest talking to a lawyer who specializes in employment labor law at attorneypages.com. A lot of them offer free consultations.

Hope this helps.