7. "In college, I worked in a takeout restaurant just off campus, and we were all employed by the school. I was 17–18 years old (back in 2007–2008). My boss, the manager, was a 40-something creeper, hitting on me and touching me inappropriately (trying to massage my shoulders, tickling me, putting his hands on/around my waist) despite my asking him to stop. Then he friended me on Facebook, I declined, and suddenly my work schedule was changed."
"I was on shift during hours when I had class, and when I explained that problem, I got taken off the schedule altogether. I told the assistant manager what was going on (my manager explicitly told me not to talk to the assistant), and he reported what was going on to upper management.
Boom, the manager was fired. I worried for a while about whether he would come after me for that."
13. "My boss tried to tell me I couldn't take breaks. The company policy handbook, which I had signed and thus became a binding contract by state law, laid out lunch and/or breaks based on the length of the shift scheduled. When I pointed this out, she switched to scheduling me by myself and then strolling by the store to check up on me occasionally, writing me up when she 'caught me' having closed the store in order to take breaks/eat lunch. I called her boss (the regional director) and complained, got the write-ups removed, and listened to her tell my boss to chill the f*ck out and let me take my breaks, but she still didn't do it."
"Further (formal) complaints resulted in no changes. I knew there was a quarterly conference call coming up, so I developed the habit of walking into her office and saying, 'It's time for my break,' and making her say, every time, that I wasn't allowed to go.
She got in the habit of doing it kind of absent-mindedly in an increasingly aggressive tone. So then I did it again in the middle of the conference call, and she blew a gasket, ranting at me about how many times she'd told me that I was not allowed to take breaks under any circ*mstances, etc.
The call, which she always put on speakerphone, went dead silent. It took her about five seconds to realize what she'd just done, and then before she could try to begin damage control, her boss politely cleared her throat and said, 'I've told you before that is incorrect.'
I grinned a big ol' sh*t-eating grin and went back to work, and there was a temporary manager from another store there the next day.
It turns out she had had my formal, written complaints intercepted before they got to her boss, which I wasn't aware was possible (apparently, she had friends in high places), so I imagine that didn't go well for her."
17. "I used to work for an industrial supply company, and my boss was extremely mean and would be very Jekyll and Hyde-like. He used to threaten us, would call our spouses and yell at them about our performance, berate us in front of customers, the list goes on. He once told me that if my five-year plan wasn't helping get him promoted, I had no place in the company. He openly questioned me as a person, my relationship, and my personal morals since I didn't want to sell faulty equipment. I would have mini panic attacks before work, and after three years, I decided that enough was enough."
"From the very first occurrence, I began documenting everything. When he smashed a candy machine, I took photos. When he brought and kept his gun at work, I took photos. When he berated a coworker's spouse, I called and got signed copies of the transcription.
I basically documented everything so that no one could tell me this wasn't happening, and I had substantial proof of this hostile work environment.
One day, I called our district manager out to lunch. I put the several-inch-thick Manila folder in front of him and informed him that either he fired and replaced our boss or everyone was walking out.
Given the evidence and after speaking with the other employees, our boss (who had been with the company for 10 years) was fired. I have never been more satisfied and proud of myself in my life."
