I work for a machine shop in Liberal, KS called Disco, INC. (which also has a shop in Borger, TX)

I've been working for this company for about a year now. When I was first hired I was trained to be a secondary metallizer. The main metallizer was a guy named Skylar. He is 20 years old and youngest in the shop.

On a daily basis I witnessed the shop manager, Doug Heathman, treat Skylar in a mannor that would enrage me. Doug would make Skylar do all the jobs no one else wanted to do. If Skylar had questions or wasn't totally sure how to complete a job he was yelled at, called stupid, and left feeling really worthless.

On several occasions Skylar would be 5 - 10 minutes late for work (I would be too if treated like he was). Some days when he was late Doug would tell him to go home (and no pay). One time Doug made him stay home for an entire week. The interesting thing is that on most, if not all, of the days Skylar was late, there was always someone (sometimes 2 or 3 people) that would come in much later than him and nothing would be said or done to them.

After the one week off Doug fired Skylar. Is this allowed? There must be something that protects employees from this sort of treatment.

I have many more issues I'd like to discuss concearning Disco, INC.

First of all, it is not a good idea to name the employer or individuals by name. This is a public forum and employer could troll it, find your post, and use it against you. We recommend you edit your post to delete such identifying information.

None of what the other employee experienced is illegal in your state or in any state at all, with the one exception mentioned below.

It is not illegal for an employer to be rude and unprofessional. It is not illegal for an employer to discipline employees differently for the same infraction unless such differences are based SOLELY on a legally protected characteristic such as race, age, gender, national origin, etc. It is not illegal for an employer to send an employee home without pay (there is no "reporting time pay" requirement in your state, although a very few states have such a requirement) or have them not report at all.

You're expecting the law to mandate things it does not.

I am not afraid of my company finding this information. Everything I've mentioned or will mention has been brought up to my shop manager and both co-owners of the company.

If there is no law that protects me against mental abuse, is there one that will protect me if I happen to hit my shop manager because of this abuse? I am someone that will not allow someone else to attempt to make me feel like I'm worthless. If I ask him to stop and he continues, what are my options?

I also have safety concerns. I'm not sure if you can help me on this subject, but it's worth a shot.

In my shop there are literally hundreds of known safety issues that are ignored day after day. My main concern is my position. I'm a metallizer. I replace metal on items such as pistons, steel rods, and various other metal parts. I use a machine that creates an ark spray with wire that is being fed into it. Before I started this job I had no idea such a process even existed. After working here for several months (and other metallizer fired) I took over the job of inventory for the metallizing room. Upon recieving my first order of wire, I noticed that the shipment came with a packet of papers that I now know is called MSDS. It explains everything about the wire. Chemical makeup, how to store it, and effects it can cause on humans. I use 7 different types of wire and found out every one of them have a warning in the MSDS saying that "Known to the state of California to cause cancer". I was not told about this or the MSDS. I had to find out on my own. NOT happy about this one at all...

Again, I have several more issues with this company.

If you wish for me to remove specific information (company name, employee names) please let me know and I will. Thank you so much for your time.

is there one that will protect me if I happen to hit my shop manager because of this abuse? No.

If I ask him to stop and he continues, what are my options? Find another position.

I don't mean to belittle your situation here, because your boss sounds like a real jerk. All I'm saying is that none of what you posted in your original post is illegal.

Now, safety issues are not my area of expertise, but perhaps someone will come along who is.

And if you don't want to edit your post, you don't have to. All I'm saying there is that it could be used against you if discovered by your employer.