“The bullying began shortly after helping and witnessing a former coworker with her discrimination complaint after I sent her our employee handbook. Following that, there were private meetings with the manager and district manager discussing false accusations, promotion concerns, and other complaints about me.
Manager would lie to other coworkers in her private meetings with them (or lie about having meetings), spread false accusations or rumors about me, and was passive-aggressive, all while using micro-aggressions. For example, the manager would gossip about other employees and clients. The manager would also use an employee to spy on me and eavesdrop on my conversations with other employees, and pit employees against each other using false narratives and other manipulative tactics.
The abuse escalated when my manager called me into her office for an impromptu meeting during my shift and made passive-aggressive and false accusations about me and my co-workers.
The abuse escalated when my manager called me into her office for an impromptu meeting during my shift and made passive-aggressive and false accusations about me and my co-workers. They said I expressed myself too much and questioned why my co-workers felt so comfortable expressing their complaints to me. I was upset, so I spoke with the owner. He told me not to speak to him anymore, forced me to apologize for speaking about her even though other employees did the same, and forced me to pinky swear to her that I wouldn’t talk about her even if it’s about work again.
I felt bullied, harassed, trapped, and intimidated. There was no HR department information given to us, so we could not report anything. After that, my employer terminated me, making false accusations about me in retaliation for me making a complaint with the EEOC.
The question of discrimination came up. The manager always had negative interactions with Black women at our location and called almost every Black or Afro-Latina woman at our job aggressive. I ended up hospitalized for heart palpitations and a panic attack a few days before my termination and needed to speak with a therapist.
The organization continues to have extremely high turnover and problems retaining high-performing employees and has problematic management, which continues the cycle. I want workplace anti-bullying legislation to pass so employers and managers are held accountable for their behavior and action towards employees and so employees are safe in the workplace. “