The Dehumanizing Treatment of Employees

 Tales from a Toxic Work Environment #1

 Now that we have reached the so-called Age of Enlightenment, wherein socially conscious managers would never dream of forcing arcane rules or personal whims on their underlings, it is considered by most people to be at the very least morally wrong for a supervisor to intentionally create a hostile work environment for personal or emotional pleasure.

 This is exactly the type of behavior I have witnessed on multiple occasions at the P&G Tabler Station plant however, regardless of plant, company or corporate policies. 

 Because to be blunt; Policies don't mean squat in the day-to-day, minute-by-minute operations of a manufacturing plant when people with little to no proper management training are making the little decisions that will affect the lives of their team members.

 In one recent example, a low-level (bottom rung) manager of only three team members with a reputation for constant sexual harassment of female employees set his sights on a newly hired young lady on his team.

 He asked her out repeatedly, and she was placed in the awkward position of needing to explain that she was not only engaged but also not really interested in him, while at the same time preserving his fragile ego so that her new career would not be jeopardized by making an enemy of her new boss.

 Being a friend of a friend, I was allowed to follow this drama through first hand sharing and second-hand followups. She was a sweet kid, and I have a grandfather vibe, so we talked on occasion. 

 Because she was an adult, I didn't presume to stick my two cents into another adult's story.

I never notified HR or anyone who maybe could help her because I tend my own garden.

  Anyway, she seemed to be taking it fairly well in the early stages, and showed a solid sense of humor about the whole thing in general. That is until a few weeks ago when she decided that he had gone too far.

 Because he was the first approval for requested vacation days, she had submitted a request to take her birthday off so she could spend it with her fiance.

 Her request for the day off was denied, despite it being a valid request in every sense. She was disappointed but mature about it, until her boss took that same day off himself. She was convinced that he was exhibiting a childishly spiteful abuse of power, and rubbing her nose in it to boot.
 {if she was nicer to him, he might be nicer to her...}

 She then requested a transfer to another line, any line, in the hope of starting fresh with a fair manager. This request too was denied. Her boss was also an excellent underling, and held in fine regard by all of his supervisors (middle management) because he tells them what they want to hear and appears eager to learn. 

 In my experience, this usually means an ambitious and hungry jackal has his eye on his next promotion, but that's not my problem. The point is, he had their collective ear and if he wanted autonomous control over a team member it was a simple matter of placating his own bosses with some well crafted bullshit.  

 So, feeling trapped with a childish and vindictive drama queen of a boss, this young girl with aspirations of a career with Proctor and Gamble simply quit her new job to seek greener and less painful pastures.

  Her friends suggested an exit interview, so that at the very least someone from HR would listen to her reasons for leaving, even if she chose not to pursue proper recourse.  I don't know if that meeting ever happened; We rotate shifts regularly, so I came in one day and she was just gone.

 It's a shame that stories like hers rarely get told, and maybe that's why I bothered to write it out here for you to peruse. Maybe her life is much better now. Maybe she is reading this with you and smiling at the wasted tears she allowed some saddle-sniffer to extract from her.

 Maybe you or a friend are in a similar situation, and shedding a few tears of your own, and hoping for encouragement. The best advice I can offer is to speak up and speak out.

 Don't allow dark intentions to remain in the dark.

 Drop by the HR office, or just drop an email asking for some advice on how best to correct any misunderstandings you may have with your boss.

 Shedding some light on small miscommunications or outright mistreatment has a wonderful way of bringing the sun out again. 

 And you deserve a bit more sunshine in your life, don't you?