I'm so mad I could spit
Mar. 2nd, 2008 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeThis is a work-related rant. Not my current work, but my previous job. Fitness!Girl and I are still in touch with some of our former coworkers, and the news from Boomerang Inc. is not good.
Long-time readers of this LJ will remember the hostile work environment we had to put up with on a regular basis. The director was a misogynist and the supervisor was very fond of abusing what little power he had and being verbally abusive with his employees, when he wasn't sexually harassing Fitness!Girl (I told her that if she ever wanted to file a complaint that I would back her up, but she never did). By the time I was ready to leave the place, I was being pulled into the office for "disciplinary" meetings at least once a week, most of which lasted at least half an hour, sometimes more, in which they heaped abuse on my head, threatened my job, and told me I was incompetent, dishonest, hypocritical, and was lucky to be employed.
During the very last of these meetings they pulled my entire shift (myself, Fitness!Girl, and K.) from our stations and marched us the long way through the entire company —around the front lobby, up the stairs, and through all the hallways— to the board room in order to tell us what shitty employees we were. There's a shortcut to the boardroom through the back, so this was very obviously an intimidation tactic to show us what trouble we were in. They kept us for an hour and a half, telling us that we were solely responsible for the poor morale of the security central, that the reason everything was going to shit was our fault, and that we had bad attitudes.
Then there was my "exit interview," in which the director pulled me in for another hour to tell me what a shitty employee I was, and to warn me that I would never last at the RCMP because I was (repeat ad nauseam) dishonest, hypocritical, incompetent, etc. Then he had the nerve to ask me what I thought they could improve at the company, and hinted that he "knew" that people were threatening to leave and that it would be in my best interests to tell me who they were. I gotta say, that didn't go over very well, and the interview didn't exactly go the way he thought it would.
End of background information.
So things have not gone well at Boomerang since I left. Half of the security central quit, starting with the entire evening shift (me, Fitness!Girl, and K.), and ending with three other employees quitting in rapid succession after that, not to mention that the people they got to replace the evening shift were all useless and had to be let go after two weeks.
So instead of admitting they had a problem, the director and supervisor decided that heaping more abuse on the remaining employees would be a good strategy to build team morale. One of the two night shift girls is now on medical leave for burnout due to harassment. They bullied her, laughed at her (literally) when she asked for a shift change because she was finding the night shift too hard on her physically, and openly mocked and derided her in front of the other employees. When she brought in her doctor's note for her medical leave, the supervisor yelled at her, and has since called her at home to accuse her of malingering, of making things up, and to yell at her some more.
The only good thing is that her doctor is backing her up 100% and wrote on her medical note "Burnout due to harassment in the workplace and hostile work environment," but that's it. She's had at least one breakdown that she can't even remember because of how badly they f*cked her up.
One of the girls on weekend shift is also *thisclose* to burnout. She's Fitness!Girl's best friend, and Fitness!Girl told me on Friday that she had to pick up the pieces and glue her back together the other day, because she broke down into a sobbing mess thanks to the supervisor. This girl is a strong, self-assured woman, at least that's how I knew her when I was at Boomerang. She doesn't take shit from anyone. The fact that she was reduced to tears speaks volumes about what's going on there.
I am so angry at what they're doing there that I want to go over and break legs. I am halfway tempted to call up the HR guy (the only decent guy there as far as I can tell) and tell him to wake the f*ck up and look into what's happening in the security central. The central was always set apart from the rest of the company, and so no one ever knew what was going on in there.
Gah. There are no words to express just how furious I am about this.
Long-time readers of this LJ will remember the hostile work environment we had to put up with on a regular basis. The director was a misogynist and the supervisor was very fond of abusing what little power he had and being verbally abusive with his employees, when he wasn't sexually harassing Fitness!Girl (I told her that if she ever wanted to file a complaint that I would back her up, but she never did). By the time I was ready to leave the place, I was being pulled into the office for "disciplinary" meetings at least once a week, most of which lasted at least half an hour, sometimes more, in which they heaped abuse on my head, threatened my job, and told me I was incompetent, dishonest, hypocritical, and was lucky to be employed.
During the very last of these meetings they pulled my entire shift (myself, Fitness!Girl, and K.) from our stations and marched us the long way through the entire company —around the front lobby, up the stairs, and through all the hallways— to the board room in order to tell us what shitty employees we were. There's a shortcut to the boardroom through the back, so this was very obviously an intimidation tactic to show us what trouble we were in. They kept us for an hour and a half, telling us that we were solely responsible for the poor morale of the security central, that the reason everything was going to shit was our fault, and that we had bad attitudes.
Then there was my "exit interview," in which the director pulled me in for another hour to tell me what a shitty employee I was, and to warn me that I would never last at the RCMP because I was (repeat ad nauseam) dishonest, hypocritical, incompetent, etc. Then he had the nerve to ask me what I thought they could improve at the company, and hinted that he "knew" that people were threatening to leave and that it would be in my best interests to tell me who they were. I gotta say, that didn't go over very well, and the interview didn't exactly go the way he thought it would.
End of background information.
So things have not gone well at Boomerang since I left. Half of the security central quit, starting with the entire evening shift (me, Fitness!Girl, and K.), and ending with three other employees quitting in rapid succession after that, not to mention that the people they got to replace the evening shift were all useless and had to be let go after two weeks.
So instead of admitting they had a problem, the director and supervisor decided that heaping more abuse on the remaining employees would be a good strategy to build team morale. One of the two night shift girls is now on medical leave for burnout due to harassment. They bullied her, laughed at her (literally) when she asked for a shift change because she was finding the night shift too hard on her physically, and openly mocked and derided her in front of the other employees. When she brought in her doctor's note for her medical leave, the supervisor yelled at her, and has since called her at home to accuse her of malingering, of making things up, and to yell at her some more.
The only good thing is that her doctor is backing her up 100% and wrote on her medical note "Burnout due to harassment in the workplace and hostile work environment," but that's it. She's had at least one breakdown that she can't even remember because of how badly they f*cked her up.
One of the girls on weekend shift is also *thisclose* to burnout. She's Fitness!Girl's best friend, and Fitness!Girl told me on Friday that she had to pick up the pieces and glue her back together the other day, because she broke down into a sobbing mess thanks to the supervisor. This girl is a strong, self-assured woman, at least that's how I knew her when I was at Boomerang. She doesn't take shit from anyone. The fact that she was reduced to tears speaks volumes about what's going on there.
I am so angry at what they're doing there that I want to go over and break legs. I am halfway tempted to call up the HR guy (the only decent guy there as far as I can tell) and tell him to wake the f*ck up and look into what's happening in the security central. The central was always set apart from the rest of the company, and so no one ever knew what was going on in there.
Gah. There are no words to express just how furious I am about this.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-02 08:23 pm (UTC)http://www.cnt.gouv.qc.ca/fr/recours/harcelement.asp
(That's the harassment page, specifially)
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Date: 2008-03-02 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-02 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-02 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-03-02 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 11:14 am (UTC)My aunt experienced such a horrific, abusive, degrading work environment that she suffered a breakdown that led to a medical leave that she is still on, some twenty or so years later. She is physically and psychologically incapable of working.
This is a very serious problem and prevalent in a number of work places, with employees suffering daily and feeling unable to change things. I makes me incredibly mad.
Hostile Work Environments
Date: 2008-03-04 05:28 am (UTC)I haven't read it yet, but I've heard it praised:
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
Re: Hostile Work Environments
Date: 2008-03-04 02:53 pm (UTC)Powerlessness
Date: 2008-03-03 12:17 pm (UTC)Re: Powerlessness
Date: 2008-03-03 12:54 pm (UTC)Re: Powerlessness
Date: 2008-03-03 06:23 pm (UTC)For one thing, abuse happens gradually. It's insidious, because it only gets worse in small increments. What you suffer today is only fractionally worse than what you suffered yesterday, and so you think "It's not that bad," and decide that you can tough it out, lest you seem as though you're incompetent or weak.
Victims feel isolated and helpless, and become convinced of what the abuser tells them: that they're no good, that they deserve what they're getting, that they will never find anything better and don't deserve anything better. They buy into the paradigm of "better the devil you know" and keep plugging away, hoping that things will improve.
It's a vicious cycle, and one that's very hard to break from the inside. I've been there a couple of times, and although now I know that I don't have to put up with that kind of shit, even while I was at that last job I could feel it eating away at me, even though I knew I was getting out.
It's hard to be able to pinpoint exactly what's going on in cases of workplace harassment. "He said she said" is always an iffy proposition, and the abuser generally doesn't act out in the open, and generally covers his/her tracks in the process. So you can't just say "He looked at me in a way that made me uncomfortable," or even if you can, you're reluctant to do so.
That's why I'm anxious to help my former co-workers. I can't file a complaint now, but they can, and since I know how hard it is, I want to back them up.
Re: Powerlessness
Date: 2008-03-04 05:30 am (UTC)Why can't you file a complaint now?
If not a court complaint, a letter to the CEO?
Why not invite the HR guy to lunch with the three of you who have escaped? If he resists... you can tell him these things are hard to hear about under any circumstances, but much less hard in an informal luncheon setting than in court documents... or the business section of your local paper.
Canadian Law
Date: 2008-03-04 05:25 am (UTC)I don't know how Canadian law works, but yes, I encourage you to write the HR person and explain what's going on: why your shift quit, what morale was like, what the offensive conduct was -- and that "the grapevine" naming no names -- tells you conditions have gotten worse and not better.
Mention that you're worried about retaliation should you ever need to use Booomerang as a reference. Mention that fear of retaliation is probably why he hasn't heard directly from the current crop of victims.
What's the point? Well, he might intervene. He might not. But if any of the remaining victims choose to sue, your letter can be entered into evidence that he knew there was a major problem with sexual / gender harassment.
This would matter in U.S. law. Don't know if it matters up there. Here, you have to be able to show that the upper management was made aware of the problems with the lower managers in order to hold the corporation itself responsible for the hostile work environment. Fears would probably know the Canadian catchphrases.