I work in a doctor’s office, as a medical assistant. There are 7 of us, plus a lead MA that supervises us. She does the schedule, doles out the responsibilities, and reports to the office manager.
One of us- we’ll call her The Princess, because that’s what we call her at work, is extremely favored by the supervising MA. She is given preferential treatment with regards to assignments and work hours, and also spends the majority of her day chatting with the supervisor or just standing there doing nothing. It’s well-known in the office that this is how it is, always has been, and always will be. The rest of us are quite disillusioned about it and our morale is low, but those of us that have been there for a long time have come to accept that this is how it is and there’s not much we can do about it.
We have a new girl, though, that has been telling me that she’s going to quit soon, and that she’s going to raise a stink about The Princess’s behavior and preferential treatment, and the fact that our supervisor actually refers to The Princess as her daughter- yes, they openly gloat right in front of the rest of us that they enjoy a mother-daughter relationship, as unprofessional and creepy as that sounds. The new (soon to be ex-coworker) girl is saying that she’s going to use that as the basis for a complaint to the labor board or whoever.
I would like to advise her on the viability of her complaint, so I thought I’d get a general consensus from you Dopers. What do you think about this situation?
I think she won’t get very far. She’s worked there for a short time, and is quitting. I believe she’ll most likely be viewed as Ms Sour Grapes and move on.
I guess I’m confused at what she feels would be her case with the labor board? Special treatment is a pretty vague term and, I would believe, be hard to prove. I would just stay away from the situation and ask that your name not be brought up if and when she does it.
It has to suck to be in a work situation with this behavior going on, but it isn’t likely to change.
I’d say let her go make her complaint. The major reason this situation has gotten to this point is because nobody has wanted to rock the boat. Since she has nothing to lose (since she’s quitting) why not accept a bit of help from her? Maybe a notice to the owners of the practice from the Labor Board will wake them up to a situation they have clearly been ignoring, and some positive (for you) change will come about at no personal risk to you or your other co-workers. Whether that girl quitting will get any benefit from her complaint, aside from no longer feeling like a doormat, is beside the point.
A labor board couldn’t care less about the situation as you describe it. Personal favoritism isn’t illegal. If the total size of the office is over 15 people and the situation has a racial (or other protected class) dimension to it, she’d at least fit in one of the labor board’s categories of complaints (actually, that would be the EEOC, not the labor board) IF she is able to document some type of negative impact on her, like not getting a raise or less desirable shifts. Her being new to the office won’t help her case, since favoring employees with seniority is pretty standard. Then they might get around to her complaint right after they finish their tremendous backlog of people who have more serious problems.
The only person who might eventually care about this is whoever will bear the cost of increased turnover/ lower productivity, whoever owns the practice. And if the supervisor and Princess are both long-term employees with acceptable performance, the owners probably aren’t going to want to roll the dice on replacing them with someone better.
Not sure there is a good answer, but I think the best approach is to ask for the shifts, hours, assignments, whatever you need to make your job livable. If the MA consistently isn’t giving them to you, and you have the opportunity to take it above her head, do so in a polite but firm way that doesn’t drag other people into it. If that doesn’t work, it’s the “Ann Landers marriage advice”, are you better off with this job than without it?
ETA: The above assumes you don’t have a labor union. If you do have a union and a contract, the situation might be a little different, from a legal if not a pragmatic point of view.
Yeah- I’ve been there for a long time, and while it does irritate me, I wouldn’t think any end result would be worth making a stink about. We all have our various “special treatments” and mine are working quite well for me right now. I’ve tried to explain to her that this is a small big city, and that she could very well end up running into or working again with someone that she could offend with this, but she seems pretty set on filing a complaint.
I have commiserated with her about it, but have asked for her not to imply that I am with her on this. It would be completely believable, because The Princess is my nemesis, but I’m not in this and I don’t want to be.
If you have transferable skills and the employment market is good, leave. If it isn’t going to get better there, why keep subjecting yourself to that environment? Leave on your own terms to go to a better job.
When you tell whoever the boss is why you are leaving, be honest, factual, but above all polite and professional. Avoid the temptation to vent.
Maybe I wasn’t clear in my OP, but I’m not really the complainant here. I don’t like it very much, but I don’t dislike it enough to rock the boat. As another longtimer, I get my own perks… they call me The Golden Child. It’s not as good as being The Princess, but it’s all right.
I think your co-worker should make her complaint like Valgard said - to the person who signs your paycheques, and keep it factual and on point (“One of the reasons I’m leaving is that you have a problem with favouritism in your office that nobody seems interested in addressing.”) If she’s quitting anyway, she has nothing to lose.
You sound like you want it both ways–you like your perks but have your nose out of joint with respect to the Princess. And you want the new girl to fight your battle without getting your hands dirty. On top of all of that, unless you’re also an employment lawyer, you have no qualifications to advise her “on the viability of her complaint.” And on top of all of that, I think it’s shitty to goad someone into taking action you’re not willing to take yourself.
My view is that you should tell her you sympathize and that she should do what she thinks is right but that you’re not in a position to help her, because you don’t want to jeopardize your own position. I also think featherlou’s advice is good.
I actually don’t care what she does- I’m certainly not goading her into action. Our little nicknames aren’t malicious- just one of those things that happens in offices sometimes when you’ve been there a long time. And I work very hard for my perks- no one could say that I stand around all day doing nothing, that’s for sure. What irritates me about The Princess is that she does nothing while making plenty of money, but I’ve accepted. If I hadn’t accepted it, there’s no way I could still be there after all this time. Basically I just wanted to be able to tell the new girl whether she had a valid complaint or not, but I’m not familiar with employment law, so I asked you guys. Get your noses back in joint, and lighten up.
Another vote for this. From what I understand, most government or quasi-governmental organizations (like labour boards and similar bodies) are reluctant to get involved unless the complainant has made some effort to sort out the problem themselves. Taking this approach first would at least fulfil that requirement. Besides, I’m not entirely sure if I see a cause of action here–favoritism? A “mother-daughter” relationship? And it’s a short-time employee who’s complaining? I can see a government authority deciding this complaint is without merit, or at most, telling the complainant to put in a few years more and take it up with the Big Boss if it continues to be a problem.
Just as an aside, I’m also intrigued by the OP’s use of “labour board or whoever.” In my jurisdiction, the Labour Board deals with unions. Non-union employees can take their problems to the Employment Standards Board. I have no idea how things work in the OP’s jurisdiction, but it doesn’t sound to me like the OP’s office is unionized. So if the complainant chooses to lodge a complaint with a government authority, it might be a good idea for her to do a little research and find out who looks after complaints of this sort for non-union employees.
The serious answer is no, your soon-to-be-ex coworker really doesn’t have any grounds for complaint. MAYBE if she was there for awhile and was a minority she MIGHT be able to make a case that your bosses favoritism was prejudicial in nature. Or maybe if the bosses behavior towards anyone who doesn’t have a nickname was abusive and unprofessional.
But for the most part, you don’t really have grounds for complaint just because the boss has a favorite and you aren’t it (especially if you are the new girl). I don’t even know what agency you would complain to.
Alice may have described her job in office speak, but she is obviously an assassin of some sort.
I don’t think complaining to the board will bring about any change. What is she hoping to get from it if she’s leaving? A settlement of some sort? If she’d like to bring it to your boss’s attention that the favoritism is off-putting to new employees, and she can do that without saying something like ‘Everyone else thinks so. Alice talks about it all the time!’, then sure, let her.
If I had a nickle for every coworker who swore they were going to tell the boss what they really felt on their last day of work, I’d be able to buy a car for every one of them who actually went through with it.
Of course that includes me, too. I’ve made that promise before, only to get down to that last day and been too busy doing cartwheels and giggling about being FREEEEE! to want to kill my buzz with a pointless bitch session at a job I no longer gave 2 bits about.
I suppose your co-worker could file a complaint if she was really keen. I predict it would go nowhere, but she could file it.
Also, for the record, I agree with msmith527 - new co-worker’s complaint is stupid and petty and many women managers do get too invested in their workplaces (as do many man managers). The fact that your MA acts like ‘Princess’ <gag> is her daughter is creepy to the nth degree and does really look like she’s too emotionally invested in your workplace. New co-worker sounds petty, jealous and stupid.
If I were you, I would stay the hell out of it (as you said you’re going to) and tell co-worker if she’s not happy to find a new job but to save her breath with the employment standards folks. I can’t imagine a scenario where they would care about a complaint like this (unless she’s disabled or a minority).