by C.L.
(Utah)
I have been working with this company for a few years. I love what I do, but someone there has made it increasingly hard for me to feel safe and comfortable at work. They made a comment in front of others about my personal life that was completely out of line. I tried to pretend it didn’t bother me, but I decided after a few days that I would report it. Within these few days, I caught this person whispering behind my back, bullying me, isolating me (by talking to everyone around me enthusiastically and cheerfully, but ignoring me completely) and spreading rumors that I was doing things that were not true. I was fed up with it so I went to HR to report it. It was hard for me to do, but it had become unbearable in the office.
HR told me they would take care of it. They tried to make me feel comfortable and said that her comment would not be tolerated. She said that she would like to see this person written up for this. I tried to tell her my main concern is to feel like I can come to work and not be harrased like this or offended by her behavior. She told me they would completely protect me. She said that no one would know I went to her office except my manager and his supervisor. She said that the particular person who offended me would not know that I had said anything, they would do some behavior modification and work on training our office on professionalism. She told me to keep her updated on how things were going.
I felt relieved. I trusted her.
Two weeks later, my manager tells me that he spoke with this person about making harsh comments. He asked how I was doing and I told him I was anxious to hear from HR. The day after that, he pulled the person who made the harrassing comment into his office and an hour later, mad as ever at me. Whatever happened in that office made things worse. She was blatantly rude to me. When I needed some information from her that was work related, she ignored me all day until I had to research it myself because she refused to acknowledge me.
I wrote a short email to HR explaining that things were still bad. I told her I anxiously awaited her training or ideas on how to make things better. Two days later she wrote back saying she was working on it and would get with me in a few days.
That day came. My manager’s supervisor called both of us into his office and told us we were both being written up. He said we both thought we were victims but we were both in fact perpetrators. I was floored. I asked what I did wrong. He said that he couldn’t answer that for me. He said he has done a large investigation and talked to several people and that was his conclusion. The write up said that we both had acted unprofessionally and needed to shape up or we’d be terminated. When we started to talk for the first time about the things we were upset about, and started to actually make head way, he cut us off and said he didn’t want us to resolve it. If we wanted to, we would need to do that on our own time. He was not there to mediate or counsel us. He said we just needed to get over it. He said he was pissed that he was even down here having to deal with this situation (which makes me feel like I’m being retaliated against for putting him out) and he said he hoped he never had to be here again, if he did have to one of us would just be fired. How’s that for an HR “open door, no retaliation policy”.
I feel like in this economy, with a recent accross the board 10% pay cut, they are trying to cover they’re behinds in case they let me go. They don’t want to have to grant me unemployment and they are afraid I may quit and because I said I didn’t feel safe at work, which would be a qualifying reason.
The problem is, I didn’t do ANYTHING to justify a write up! I feel like they completely handled a serious and personal harrassment claim in a wildly inappropriate way.
Things are worse than ever because the other person made up a whole bunch of heresay to report because somehow she found out I made a claim (she had to of) and for the last few days leading up to the meeting, she was feeding them “dirt” on me that wasn’t even valid or true! What kind of fair and private investigation into a harrassment claim is that?!
I feel retaliated against for going to HR.
Do you think that I have good cause to quit? Because of all this, I feel SO uncomfortable at work. I dont feel like anyone is helping me make it better and if I ask for help again, I feel like I will be punished or fired!
Please help!
Comments for Need to prove I had good cause to quit so I can collect unemployment.
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