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I'm so mad I could spit
This 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.
Hostile Work Environments
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