wandakay52
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? California
I have worked for this nonprofit organization for 9 years now. Back in 2004, my position as Learning Lab Technician was eliminated, due to budget cuts. We have a union and was given, I thought a choice of staying the the south county office as Assistant, or transferring to the north county office as Career Resource Technician. Since the north county office was 45 miles from my home, I wanted to stay in the south office and do the Assistant job that I started out in back in 1999. Well, I was informed that was not a possibility, so wanted to meet with union officials and co-workers to see what, if anything could be done to compensate me for the additional 30 miles commute each way. The Assistant at that time, although her job was never in jeopardy, got mad, which I didn't know then, because I was telling her what had been done in the past to compensate employees for temporary extra commute, and asking the staff to stand behind me to help with this additional costs and time spent getting to work.
The Assistant went to the Executive Director crying telling her that I kept telling her that I was going to bump her, which I never did! The Executive Director called me into her office and verbally attacked me telling me "You will never speak to Heather like that again!" I responded that I hadn't done anything! She said "It doesn't look like you didn't do anything!" because the Assistant was crying. I was working in the busy employment center, so told them that I needed to get back to work.
Just a few minutes later, I was assisting customers in the employment center when the Executive Director's two son's walked through the center. The younger one about 9-10 at the time stopped and asked his older brother "Is that the Wanda that they are talking about?" The older brother shuffled him through.
Because of this verbal attack, I missed the union meeting or my chance to appeal to staff about my situation. But that was not all, when I was able to come to work the following Monday (after increasing my antidepressants and anti anxiety pills) I was called into a meeting with the Union Representative, Robert, my Supervisor, the Executive Director, and myself because the Executive Director felt that I had harassed the Assistant and was going to give me an 18 month written reprimand in my personnel file. They had everybody convinced that I was a harasser and a liar!
The union rep. felt that the way that this verbal attack was handled that there were several contract issues that were broken. But the Executive Director hired an attorney (with nonprofit funds) and the union withdrew their arbitration request stating that they didn't feel that they could win.
Thus I started my 45 miles each way commute and worked in the Employment Center in the north county office. I enjoyed working in the north county office because it got me away from the unfair treatment that is administered by the management to their non favorite employees.
I did this commute of 90 miles a day for over 2 years. Then after shopping around, in September 2006, I finally found a house in Montague, 8 miles from the north county office, that I was working in at that time.
In the meantime, in February of 2005, I was cited for DUI, my first citation of any kind in over 25 years. I fought this charge for over 1 1/2 years, vowing to go to jury trial against the public defenders, judges and district attorney wishes. But they finally convinced me in November of 2006 that I would be charged with the much worse DUI if I didn't sign the "Wet and Reckless" charge, so I reluctantly did.
Well in February 2006, I got a call from the Administrative Assistant that informed me that because of something on my driving record, that I couldn't drive any company vehicles. This is what I was afraid of, this would give them the opportunity to fire me now, which is what they wanted to do back in 2004.
The north county Vocational adviser suggested I get my DMV record so that I would know what the charge was, which I did, it took me less than 15 minutes. When I got back, I was told to call the Administrative Assistant, which I did. She said that she forgot to mention to me that I couldn't drive even my own car during company time, which I had just done to get my DMV printout.
Well surprisingly they didn't fire me, instead they demoted me to the Assistant position in the south county office, now 30 miles from my new home in Montague. The thing that is most hurtful is that they refuse to let me work in the north county office even one day because as they say "They do not trust me." They keep me in the south county office so they can keep an eye on me.
Well they hired another Tech to replace me in the north county office which was bilingual and very sharp. She had a long planned trip to Argentina to see her parents for the first time in 3 years. Apparently the Management didn't know the extent of time she was planning on being away, so they fired her. She was doing a very good job and had the additional skill of being able to communicate with our Spanish speaking clients. Coincidentally one of the favorite staff members that had quit to work another higher paying job wanted to come back. Well he is now covering the busy north county office as a technician even though he was and is being paid as a Learning Lab Specialist.
Then the south county Technician quit, and Management hired a girl that had no clerical experience had worked in food service for 7 years. She had one on one training (which no other staff had) for one week then worked with another Tech for one month before the other technician (which lives in south county) was transferred (temporarily in 2006, and is still there) to the north county office to cover after they fired the bilingual technician.
Now I have been commuting 30 miles each way, the gas is getting really expensive. Then we had union negotiations. Everybody that has been in their positions for over two years got a raise to the middle of their class (I had been demoted to Assistant after working as a Technician for 6 years). This made the Specialist that had come back get the biggest raise, and all other staff get over $1.00 raise but me only .75 raise (if I was still a Technician, I would have gotten an almost $3.00 raise. The ironic thing is that I still do the work of a Technician, I still relieve in the south county Employment Center, I still do the job list twice a week, I still do the annual Youth "Get A Job" Days, (all things that I started and was doing as a Technician) and I also pick up the slack where the new south county technician doesn't do her job.
I have mentioned to our supervisor about the errors in the technicians work, only to be chastised as being a trouble maker, how dare I criticize one of their favorites. I just think it is not fair that I can be treated like an unwanted Step Child, while this new employee who doesn't do the job properly gets treated like a queen.
I have also been told since we are an example for our clients that our professional appearance and dress is important, this new favorite doesn't have to adhere to this. She dresses less than professional, has a second job writing articles for a nudie magazine (this might be why her computer has a serious virus that our computer technician has been working to get rid of) and has tattoos.
This new technician is very likable, I think a lot of her, but it bothers me that personality is the only thing that management considers when hiring and treats a long time employee that does a good job as a liability. If there was any more cut backs I am sure that I would be the one that they would fire and justifiably so, because I can't drive company vehicles because of my reckless charge, and so since that is a requirement for the technician job, I would be the one to go, even though the organization runs more smoothly with my knowledge and experience.
I have worked for this nonprofit organization for 9 years now. Back in 2004, my position as Learning Lab Technician was eliminated, due to budget cuts. We have a union and was given, I thought a choice of staying the the south county office as Assistant, or transferring to the north county office as Career Resource Technician. Since the north county office was 45 miles from my home, I wanted to stay in the south office and do the Assistant job that I started out in back in 1999. Well, I was informed that was not a possibility, so wanted to meet with union officials and co-workers to see what, if anything could be done to compensate me for the additional 30 miles commute each way. The Assistant at that time, although her job was never in jeopardy, got mad, which I didn't know then, because I was telling her what had been done in the past to compensate employees for temporary extra commute, and asking the staff to stand behind me to help with this additional costs and time spent getting to work.
The Assistant went to the Executive Director crying telling her that I kept telling her that I was going to bump her, which I never did! The Executive Director called me into her office and verbally attacked me telling me "You will never speak to Heather like that again!" I responded that I hadn't done anything! She said "It doesn't look like you didn't do anything!" because the Assistant was crying. I was working in the busy employment center, so told them that I needed to get back to work.
Just a few minutes later, I was assisting customers in the employment center when the Executive Director's two son's walked through the center. The younger one about 9-10 at the time stopped and asked his older brother "Is that the Wanda that they are talking about?" The older brother shuffled him through.
Because of this verbal attack, I missed the union meeting or my chance to appeal to staff about my situation. But that was not all, when I was able to come to work the following Monday (after increasing my antidepressants and anti anxiety pills) I was called into a meeting with the Union Representative, Robert, my Supervisor, the Executive Director, and myself because the Executive Director felt that I had harassed the Assistant and was going to give me an 18 month written reprimand in my personnel file. They had everybody convinced that I was a harasser and a liar!
The union rep. felt that the way that this verbal attack was handled that there were several contract issues that were broken. But the Executive Director hired an attorney (with nonprofit funds) and the union withdrew their arbitration request stating that they didn't feel that they could win.
Thus I started my 45 miles each way commute and worked in the Employment Center in the north county office. I enjoyed working in the north county office because it got me away from the unfair treatment that is administered by the management to their non favorite employees.
I did this commute of 90 miles a day for over 2 years. Then after shopping around, in September 2006, I finally found a house in Montague, 8 miles from the north county office, that I was working in at that time.
In the meantime, in February of 2005, I was cited for DUI, my first citation of any kind in over 25 years. I fought this charge for over 1 1/2 years, vowing to go to jury trial against the public defenders, judges and district attorney wishes. But they finally convinced me in November of 2006 that I would be charged with the much worse DUI if I didn't sign the "Wet and Reckless" charge, so I reluctantly did.
Well in February 2006, I got a call from the Administrative Assistant that informed me that because of something on my driving record, that I couldn't drive any company vehicles. This is what I was afraid of, this would give them the opportunity to fire me now, which is what they wanted to do back in 2004.
The north county Vocational adviser suggested I get my DMV record so that I would know what the charge was, which I did, it took me less than 15 minutes. When I got back, I was told to call the Administrative Assistant, which I did. She said that she forgot to mention to me that I couldn't drive even my own car during company time, which I had just done to get my DMV printout.
Well surprisingly they didn't fire me, instead they demoted me to the Assistant position in the south county office, now 30 miles from my new home in Montague. The thing that is most hurtful is that they refuse to let me work in the north county office even one day because as they say "They do not trust me." They keep me in the south county office so they can keep an eye on me.
Well they hired another Tech to replace me in the north county office which was bilingual and very sharp. She had a long planned trip to Argentina to see her parents for the first time in 3 years. Apparently the Management didn't know the extent of time she was planning on being away, so they fired her. She was doing a very good job and had the additional skill of being able to communicate with our Spanish speaking clients. Coincidentally one of the favorite staff members that had quit to work another higher paying job wanted to come back. Well he is now covering the busy north county office as a technician even though he was and is being paid as a Learning Lab Specialist.
Then the south county Technician quit, and Management hired a girl that had no clerical experience had worked in food service for 7 years. She had one on one training (which no other staff had) for one week then worked with another Tech for one month before the other technician (which lives in south county) was transferred (temporarily in 2006, and is still there) to the north county office to cover after they fired the bilingual technician.
Now I have been commuting 30 miles each way, the gas is getting really expensive. Then we had union negotiations. Everybody that has been in their positions for over two years got a raise to the middle of their class (I had been demoted to Assistant after working as a Technician for 6 years). This made the Specialist that had come back get the biggest raise, and all other staff get over $1.00 raise but me only .75 raise (if I was still a Technician, I would have gotten an almost $3.00 raise. The ironic thing is that I still do the work of a Technician, I still relieve in the south county Employment Center, I still do the job list twice a week, I still do the annual Youth "Get A Job" Days, (all things that I started and was doing as a Technician) and I also pick up the slack where the new south county technician doesn't do her job.
I have mentioned to our supervisor about the errors in the technicians work, only to be chastised as being a trouble maker, how dare I criticize one of their favorites. I just think it is not fair that I can be treated like an unwanted Step Child, while this new employee who doesn't do the job properly gets treated like a queen.
I have also been told since we are an example for our clients that our professional appearance and dress is important, this new favorite doesn't have to adhere to this. She dresses less than professional, has a second job writing articles for a nudie magazine (this might be why her computer has a serious virus that our computer technician has been working to get rid of) and has tattoos.
This new technician is very likable, I think a lot of her, but it bothers me that personality is the only thing that management considers when hiring and treats a long time employee that does a good job as a liability. If there was any more cut backs I am sure that I would be the one that they would fire and justifiably so, because I can't drive company vehicles because of my reckless charge, and so since that is a requirement for the technician job, I would be the one to go, even though the organization runs more smoothly with my knowledge and experience.
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