The OP specifically stated that she was not at a casino type place where such surveillance was needed.
But I want to ask - what are this assistant manager’s main job duties? Does he have nothing better to do than watch the cameras?
Are the cameras placed to look down on you from above? If so, start wearing a hat with the words “fuck off” printed on top so that they can only be seen from the camera’s perspective.
Make sure the Union does not name you when they talk to him.
Here’s the point- he is doing nothing illegal. Likely nothing against the rules- since those cameras are there for him to use.
So, they can fire you. Not for making the complaint, but because it’s Monday. (Depends on the State).
He will simply tell the union that he is checking for security reasons, and that will be that.
I’m definitely not working somewhere where it’s the norm to be under surveillance. All of the other managers work their asses off and do not have time to be sitting in the office for any length of time.
I work in a very large grocery store and one of the things I do is work in the office doing payroll and balancing the tills/restaurant/pharmacy/safe and doing the bank deposit. Totally understandable that there would be a camera in the office.
I do have proof that he watches not only me, but everyone else as well. He once called down to the front desk to ask why 3 of us were talking (I was on lunch as was one other person). That’s when I first realize he was watching us on the cameras so I started keeping track.
Because I work in the downstairs office, I have reasons to go to the upstairs office (where he sits and watches) so every time I go upstairs I do what I went up there for but I also started paying attention to what he was doing. Every time I come around the corner, he quickly clicks off the monitor, and quickly gets up and acts like he’s doing something. After I leave, I hear him go back and sit down and the click of the monitor being turned back on.
I’m also not the only one to notice this because I’ve heard other people, even a supervisor, mention him watching us.
One detail I left out is that he is morbidly obese (probably 500 pounds) and so the hard/physical work that the other managers do is just too hard for him, so he sits. When he’s not sitting in the office upstairs, he’s sitting in the restaurant area, watching us from there.
He’s been moved around from store to store and I kind of wonder if everyone is just passing on the trouble so they don’t have to deal with him.
Agree with others. Report it to your union and let your rep deal with contacting his bosses to find out what’s going on.
All the other managers work their asses off…and he just sits.But he doesn’t get fired.
Others have noticed his behavior…but he doesn’t get fired.
He doesn’t work…but he doesn’t get fired.
Everyone has been avoiding the trouble by passing it on to somebody else. But he doesn’t get fired.
And now you’re trying to make more trouble, which cannot be ignored or avoided.
Somebody will get fired.
And it may well be you.
Be careful!!!
The squeaky wheel gets the fired.
Yeah it sounds like nepotism or some reason that this manager is a fixture to stay and cannot be let go. Do some sleuthing.
Yeah, it sounds like the store manager probably knows what’s going on. At a store, you probably have the chance to chat with the general manager once in a while; I’d just casually mention the situation sometime “Boy, Bob sure likes the cameras, huh?” but leave it at that and move on to something else. Say it like it’s a kind of weird thing, but not a complaint.
If the GM really has no clue, they can ask you what’s going on, and it’s not your fault if you’re just answering the GM’s questions. If the GM knows the deal but wants more details/proof, they’ll ask more, and you’re doing the GM a favor. If the GM knows the deal, but can’t fire the Owner’s nephew, they ignore what you say, and you don’t become a trouble-maker. If the GM doesn’t know and doesn’t care, again a single comment doesn’t turn you into a trouble maker.
This.
It’s likely he’s friends with upper management. Which means that, if you complain, you will be seen as a troublemaker. I’ve been down that road… 
These two paragraphs are contradictory.
He may also be extremely difficult to fire because of his weight, because then he could potentially sue for discrimination.
So what? This seems like a pointless gotcha-ya observation since she explained exactly the situation regarding the second paragraph. The existence of a camera in the office does not include the assumption that the occupant of the office would always be under active surveillance. It would normally mean that activity is taped, to be referred to later if any problem surfaces.
It appears to me the OP has to make a calculation: how stressful the sense of constant surveillance is, compared to how desirable or necessary the job is. Because any active reporting runs some risk of backlash and making things worse. I’m not a woman, but I can imagine how little I would like being in that situation just being me. I think right is on your side, but right doesn’t always win the day.
Would it make any difference if his motive is to alleviate boredom rather than to perv on the employees? Maybe he just needs to be given productive work to do that takes up most of his day, although I don’t know how to make that happen.
There is a difference between being under surveillance and having security cameras in a grocery store.
And here you manage to contradict yourself in a single sentence.
Unless you meant to add “non-working” to the description of those cameras.
If you don’t know the difference between a real time surveillance system like in a casino where there’s a dedicated room set up with multiple cameras and people actively monitoring them, and security cameras that get accessed if there is money missing from a till, then I don’t know what to say.
Those are two different things. At my store, the cameras are there for the latter reason. They are also accessed if there’s been a shoplifter so we can post their picture up in the staff room.
It’s really not that confusing or hard to understand.
Just a speculation. What if this guy gets moved on not because he watches the staff when he shouldn’t but because that’s the purpose of his being there as part of loss prevention. Either he gets sent to places where a problem has been flagged or he’s being rotated for extra surveillance in turn.
However if this is the case then this
doesn’t speak well of his competence.
I did kind of wonder that as well. That maybe head office moves him from place to place to spy for a bit, maybe catch someone stealing, and then he moves on. As of today, it’s pretty much common knowledge around the store that he’s spying on us all. But he is still just doing it when the manager is not at the store so I don’t know.
I haven’t called the union just yet. I want to but I also don’t know if I trust that they’ll keep my name out of it.
One can sue for anything, of course, but weight is not a protected class so the odds of success would be very low.
Imagining, slightly tongue-in-cheek, the courtroom arguments:
Plaintiff council: You honor, we have proof that Company X discriminates against overweight people. These documents in exhibit A show that fully 80% of the people fired by the company in the last year were overweight!
Defense council: You Honor, the documents we present in exhibit B show that 80% of all Americans are overweight, so our client is clearly innocent of discrimination.