My Boss is harassing me

Reverend_Chaos

OK, so my Boss is going out of his way to be a prick to me. He is clearly harassing me. I took the matter above him to the owner of the company who basically told me too bad.

First off, I already have another job that I can go to if anything happens, like I get fired or decide to quit. The only real problem is that I am in a custody battle with my Ex-wife and I have court dates popping up like weeds as things get nasty, and at this new job that I can go to, I cannot miss even one minute of work during my 2 week training or I get fired. So, basically I just need to hold out through December and into part of January.

So, until then, I am wondering what my next step might be if i want to pursue my harrasment claim? I am not talking lawsuit or anything, but if you are being harassed and you work won't do anything about it, who do you take the complaint to next? I am in Washington state.

Hooraydiation

It might help if you describe the harassment?

Lord Yod

As far as I know there aren't really any laws prohibiting being a dick to your employees. So unless it's something that's otherwise serious (such as sexual, etc) you're probably SOL on that front.

It's possible that you could go to the court and request some sort of rescheduled setup for your court dates. It's bound to look good if you tell them you're starting a new, better job, and it's only two weeks.

So without knowing the details of the harrassment, I'd say your best bet will probably be to wait it out.

Falx

Yeah unless he's actually touching you in some way, either sexual or to intimidate you, there's no law preventing him from being a dick. The best you could do is take him to civil court, but that would take ages and I think you've had you fill of that for now.

brandotheninjamaster

Does your company have an HR department?

You can file a hostile work environment claim against your boss. Whether or not anything gets solved, theres things you can do legally if you can prove if this is indeed a hostile work environment. Check it out:
http://employeeissues.com/hostile_work_environment.htm

Read about your rights from there you can make an informed decision.

iTunesIsEvil

brandotheninjamaster wrote: »

Does your company have an HR department?

You can file a hostile work environment claim against your boss. Whether or not anything gets solved, theres things you can do legally if you can prove if this is indeed a hostile work environment. Check it out:
http://employeeissues.com/hostile_work_environment.htm

Read about your rights from there you can make an informed decision.

This is a good plan. Harassment isn't only "he asked me to suck a dick" or "he touched my special place." Purposefully making your working environment into a hostile place is harassment as well. It's certainly harder to qualify what "hostile" is as opposed to "sexual", but still there are plans in place for this kind of thing.

Nitsuj82

Yeah, hostile work environment claims (what you're hinting at) are VERY hard to prove and RARELY work out in the subordinate's favor. Especially in a small business. In fact, I had an employee that came to me and my immediate supervisor about our division manager and even though we agreed, we advised him to relax and just keep his distance. Well, my supervisor went to the HR manager in secret and then two weeks later they fired the guy who lodged the complaint.

My advice is to deal with it and keep your distance until the holidays are up. It's not worth tarnishing your reputation.