SO, Scott Pelley said on CNN's Reliable Sources news magazine that he was fired from his job because he "wouldn't stop complaining to management" about a "hostile work environment" in the news division. I know how he feels.
I also recently lost my job due to a hostile work environment where I was bullied and harassed by a narcissistic, vindictive office administrator and guess what? After going through the proper channels, after confiding in a manager who encouraged me and told me that this manager's behavior was very disturbing, and after doing exactly what the employee handbook said to do, my office administrator wrote me up on a very punitive PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) which was four pages long and contained twenty-two bullet points. It was clearly in retaliation for the harassment claim and was written in such a way that would make me either quit or if that did not happen, I knew would be fired.
After going on a medical stress leave I was terminated, which is illegal, but apparently, not when you are a drone. I have never EVER done anything like this before in forty years of working, but I literally had no choice. It was either wait for the heart attack which was surely coming due to all the anxiety and stress I was under, or go on medical stress leave. I chose the latter.
There were other reasons for the stress leave. Not only was I truly under stress, but my husband was waiting for the call to donate a kidney to our daughter. It was all too much. I couldn' sleep, I was worried ALL THE TIME and most importantly, I could not lose my job. My husband was going to need me to take family leave in order to care for him. Just so many things were coming at me at once. Every day in the office was another day in Hell. Anxiety and fear were the only emotions I had and it was exhausting. This virus woman was on my ass every day. I can't go into detail because it would take days and days to recount every incident of harassment and I don't have the will to relive it all over again. Suffice it to say, it was HELL.
And I wasn't the only drone she was harassing. Since I have been gone over six secretaries have also quit. Her management skills became such an issue that she was actually removed from supervising the secretarial staff! So it's not like the powers that be were unaware of problems with her management style. Once they took her off the secretarial staff her new duties were to make sure there were enough napkins and forks in the kitchen (LOL), and her little minion, a gal whose previous experience was managing a Kinko's, is now the new office manager. THIS is beyond stupid. Managing a Kinko's is not the type of experience one needs to manage the secretarial staff in a BIG LAW FIRM. PERIOD.
So here's my real beef ... AT WILL EMPLOYMENT. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG! When you are hired you sign an arbitration agreement which means that you have just signed away your rights. You will have no way of knowing that in a few months or a few years, for whatever reason your office administrator will begin harassing you and making your life a living hell. Then you realize that all the speeches about "we do not tolerate harassment" is a bunch of bullshit. THEY DO ALLOW HARASSMENT, THEY DO ALLOW BULLYING, AND THEY DO FIRE AT WILL, FOR ANY REASON, AT ANY TIME. And when you seek legal recourse to right this wrong, you will soon learn that that arbitration agreement you signed ex number of years ago is the reason you will never EVER get your case in front of a judge or a jury. You have no recourse, no protections, no rights. You are a drone. Period. End of story. Work. Shut-up. NEVER complain even when you are witness to unlawful behavior because your job is AT WILL, which they will remind you of ad nauseum.
Here a few tell-tale signs of an abusive administrator. And my advice to you when you see these behaviors is to just start looking for another job immediately. You'll save yourself time and heartache.
When the office administrator gossips about employees to other employees, you might have a problem.
When the office administrator threatens, humiliates and undermines her staff, you might have a problem.
When the office administrator is hated by EVERYONE in the office, you definitely have a problem.
And last but not least, when you're bleeding staff, you can be sure you definitely DO have a problem.
But it's corporate America and they run the world.
The difference between myself and Scott Pelley is that:
(a) He has a lot more money than I do;
(b) He has a lot more contacts than I do; and
(c) He has access to air time to talk about his grievances.
I don't have any of that. I get to interview, test and look for another job at 62. My husband, who is 65, cannot retire now because if he does I will not have medical insurance. But I know you could care less about me or whether I have insurance or not.
The thing about terminating an innocent person because YOU want to show THEM who has the power is that you do not see the wreckage you leave behind. No idea. That makes it easy to fire someone. You never see them again and YOU WON. Yay. Good for you.
But please know Spider Lady from Hell that EVERYONE in your office hates you, they are onto you, and you will be losing even more staff. I know this because the drones that were left behind confide in me. There is a whole coalition of people who hate you and want only for you to die. Either that or they wish for a chronic and perpetual bout of explosive diarrhea.
So dear readers, though it is quite embarrassing for me to tell you that I have lost my job you must believe me ... IT WASN'T ME. IT WAS THE MANAGER.
 |
| I think I'll send this to her. And this one as well. |
Because the workplace has become such a battlefield with bad management and narcissistic bosses there is actually a large library of books like those above on this topic and is proof that management and horrible bosses need to re-evaluate their strategies. A good boss will always bring out the best in an employee. A bad boss will not.
So, onward and upward, and wish me luck.
