I have a friend I’ll call Bruce. Bruce is under 30, but has a couple permanent restrictions as a result of a car accident. The biggest one is that he cannot climb ladders. This is a restriction that his employer (a nationwide retail store) can accommodate without undue hardship, and they’ve been doing so for a couple years. No big deal, right?
Well. Bruce recently got a new store manager I’ll call Dagwood. Dagwood doesn’t like having to accommodate Bruce’s restrictions. He complains about it frequently, and makes light of the injury. He has accused Bruce of faking or exaggerating the injury, despite the fact that he’s had surgery and a doctor took him off work for months afterward. Moreover, injuring this particular body part (ankle) is known to be painful, and often even permanently-disabling.
Today was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Dagwood called Bruce and one of his coworkers pussies–to Bruce’s face–because they are unable to go up on a ladder and stock the higher shelves. Bruce didn’t say anything back. He finished his shift, and refrained from punching Dagwood in the face. But he’s pretty upset. He doesn’t want to file a lawsuit and he’s not out for compensation. He just wants Dagwood to stop being a dickhead bully who makes work so unpleasant. However, Bruce cannot talk to anybody else in the store about this. As store manager, Dagwood is the boss of everybody. The district manager is useless and Bruce doesn’t think he’ll do anything. He’s also worried that he’ll look like a troublemaker and they’ll manufacture a reason to get rid of him, and he really needs this job.
What would you recommend in this situation? Aside from finding a new job, of course (he’s already been looking).
If it is a big national retailer, they should have a headquarters somewhere with HR staff trained to deal with these issues. The store manager is likely in violation of the ADA and they need to know about that. However, just because your friend is right doesn’t mean that the store manager won’t find a way to retaliate against him especially if the store manager’s position is threatened over it. The store manager is likely engaging in a couple of very serious offenses. The best way to address it would be a letter to the national Director or VP of HR but he better be prepared to follow through with their inquiries and keep notes himself.
If he’s your friend, you could do something about it. I don’t work in retail, but I imagine most larger companies have some sort of way to report this sort of behavior. Call corporate and complain. Seriously, even without talking on his behalf, it sounds like it’s still creating a hostile environment for all of you and, if for no other reason, the company ought to care because he’s inviting a lawsuit from your friend, even if he’s not really willing to pursue it yet. And the boss can’t really do anything to retaliate because it’ll just make the chances for a lawsuit worse.
Bruce needs to be documenting all of this - not just this incident but all the times that he’s been harassed over his disability. The manager’s in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and that’s Serious Business, but Bruce is going to have to prove that the harassment has risen to the level of creating a hostile work environment.
Thank you. I wasn’t sure if the bullying and name-calling necessarily rose to the level of “hostile work environment.” If I’m understanding things correctly, it seems they do because a disability is involved here? The other employees are starting to make fun of Bruce because of Dagwood, because he sits down when customers aren’t around.
I’ve already told Bruce to document everything that happens, and he has been. I had also suggested Bruce consider sending an email to Dagwood’s company email address asking him to stop being so negative and confrontational (and also to cover Bruce’s own ass if things continue to escalate). Is this a bad idea, though? Should he keep his head down for now and bring it up after he secures employment elsewhere? He cannot afford to lose the job, because he’s going to have another surgery soon and will have to go out of work again. And if he starts a new job, he wouldn’t be eligible for FMLA for another year.
The working relationship they have is weird because Dagwood is weird (IMHO possibly bipolar). He’s happy and positive one day, and cutting people down the next. He just gave Bruce employee of the month yesterday, and they discussed gardening tips quite amicably. Then today, this happened.
You’re leaving town soon right? Now I’m not suggesting you do anything at all, and I recommend that you don’t do anything, but wouldn’t it be cool if something happened to Dagwood’s car the day you left?
heheh! Sorely tempting, but I’m not into vandalism.
It’s an online friend so this isn’t happening local to me. I would prefer not to discuss which state (to preserve Bruce’s anonymity), but I don’t think it matters since the ADA is a federal law.
Fair enough, but FYI it does matter, because while the ADA is a federal statute, anti-discrimination laws are enforced first through state agencies the majority of the time, and many states have their own statutes which may provide additional protections. A person located in, say, Delaware may have significantly more protection afforded to him than a person in, say, Texas.
It is good that he is already documenting the situation.
Personally, I would talk to an employment attorney before doing anything. If Bruce takes some kind of action, he needs to be sure that it furthers and does not damage his situation. Talking to a lawyer does not mean you have to file a lawsuit - they can just advise you of your options, suggest steps to follow, and so on.
This is a low-level job. The boss is likely to retaliate. Higher-ups are unlikely to do anything. Since I’m sure there’s no union involved, Bruce doesn’t have much protection.
As long as he’s not willing to file a lawsuit, he’s probably stuck with the situation.
Has he tried just talking to the manager (on one of his good days)?
Yeah, no union. Lots of people know and say this manager is a jerk or a dick, sometimes to his face. Even the other managers (it’s not a particularly professional environment). But nobody ever does anything about it except complain, and he never changes.
I’ve recommended to Bruce that he lie low for now and continue documenting. If a suit is going to be filed, it’s not going to be anytime soon. Would he still be able to file suit after securing other employment? I also linked him the EEOC website. Reading about successful cases on there is heartening.
Before a lawsuit comes a discrimination charge. There is a statute of limitations of a certain number of days after the last date of harm within which he can file that charge. Depending on the state, that number may vary. The federal deadline is 180 days; some states extend this up to 300 by state anti-discrimination statute.
His rights are not affected by his current (at the time of filing of a charge) employment status, except to the extent that his employment status arises from the discrimination.
Sending a company email would probably be risky if your friend did it on his own. If he were to contact HR and attain an email address of his contact there, then an email with that contact blind copied, and any subsequent emails forwarded, he will have a good start on a case.
The reason I would think he should contact HR asap is because if he were to reach a point where he talks back before he can think, he may be out of a job that day. Court case pending in the future, perhaps, but no FMLA and he’s still out on his ear. If he’s already in contact with HR, it will be harder for Dagwood to fire him. Might that make his job more miserable if Dagwood knows he’s been reported? Maybe. It’s also possible that if the complaint gets made, it may be the final straw. Where did this manager come from? A different store? There may already be complaints, and he’s getting shuffled around because it’s easier to do that than fire him. Unless more complaints are made. He might either finally get canned or at least moved again and out of your friend’s hair.
Sometimes when complaints are made against store managers, they get moved to another store to see if it was a personal vendetta by the complainant. If complaints crop up again, they know it’s a problem with him and not his underlings.
HR HR HR - that’s one of their jobs - to investigate and handle these types of issues. If Bruce has already gotten ADA accommodations on record, then he is in a good position and Store Manager is not in a good position.
Be aware that HR has strict protocols to follow when conducting their investigation, Bruce must be patient and follow their lead. Do not recommend that Bruce confront the Store Manager directly about this - that would only cause conflict and muddy the waters.
There will be people who jump in here and say, “Yeah, but HR is on the side of the company! They’ll defend the Store Manager!” That may be the case and that may be the outcome. But their primary interest is in defending the company, and if they have a Store Manager that will expose them to risks, then they want to know about it and deal with it.
Come on. How hard is it to tell your boss “That’s uncalled for” or “That’s over the line.”?
It’s too late now but that’s clearly what needed to happen before getting HR or anybody else involved. I’d tell your friend to let this slide as the moment is gone. But if it happens again, SAY SOMETHING! What’s the boss going to do? Insist that he has the right to call him vulgar names? He’d have to be a dumbass of the highest order if he did.
Asshole boss did what most bullies do and tested his boundaries. Your friend unfortunately failed this test and has now subjected himself to further abuse. He needs to speak up next time this happens.
HR is on the side of the company. The other factor is that Store Manager’s behaviour is a financial risk to that company. That is what is going to concern HR. They may want to have a manager’s back, but not to the point of having to fight, or worse, pay out on a discrimination suit or an ADA violation or a harassment suit. Keep in mind, most corporations have a very broad view of what constitutes “harassment” and this behavior would definately cross the line.
Bruce should document everything. He should make sure that entries in his log book are dated according to when he wrote them down (as well as describing the date anything happened), describe what happened in as neutral language as possible (exact quotes are best), etc.
Be very careful about contacting corporate HR. They are NOT on Bruce’s side, they are on the company’s side. They are only on Bruce’s side as a by-product if they calculate that disciplining a manager with lots of training and corporate investment is more likely to save the company money than letting him be mean to an easily-replaced hourly worker (who’s replacement would be more capable, anyway) and who is realistically fairly unlikely to ever file a lawsuit and has a big hurdle to be successful if he does.
And he should expect that the first thing HR will do is call up the manager and ask him about the situation. Even if HR is pretending it’s an anonymous complaint, the manager will certainly figure out it’s Bruce.
I mean, I’m sure, somewhere, there is a HR person, maybe even a few of them forming part of a department, who is/are truly dedicated to serving employees and see it as their moral duty to take on one of the company’s own managers who is creating a bad work environment. That person/department may even be competent enough to perform an anonymous initial investigation and ensure there’s no retaliation when actions are taken. And, there’s even a chance that when push comes to shove, the HR person has more support from higher management than the store manager. Crazier things have happened.
But Bruce really shouldn’t bet on that remote possibility. He should expect HR to look out for MegaCorp, not Bruce.
3. If a lawyer is willing to talk to Bruce without money down, that probably couldn’t hurt (make sure it’s a decent lawyer first).
It’s Bruce’s call ,but a little bit of “Hey, Screw you calling me a pussy. Come over here and let me put some metal screws in your ankle and then let’s see how you climb ladders!” could possibly be the best approach. Don’t attack the boss’s authority, for God’s sake, but respond personally to semi-insults, in a slightly lighthearted way.
Especially not since everyone else calls the jerk on this all the time. If the dude was going to do something, he’d have done it to one of the others who would not have any risk of ADA problems.
If you did want to do something about it, I’d think it’d work better if it wasn’t just Bruce who did it. If everyone thinks he’s a jerk, surely there’s at least one person he can talk to, feel them out, and find out that they’d be willing to help.
