Future with company in Minnesota

[Autumn Rae]

During a recent performance evaluation, one of my supervisors told me that I am a defensive person and that during this review I should have the defensive side of me sit in a chair across the room. Each time I tried to respond to remarks, they would say “there is that defensive person again”. No matter how I answered their questions, they interpreted my comments as defensive. When I said that I viewed myself as a “yes” person, my supervisor then said that I must be “passive aggressive”. To the best of my knowledge, neither of my supervisors holds a psychology degree. I was also asked that I should search deep in my heart and see if I was really doing the job I should be doing. I was asked by my second supervisor if I would be willing to take a vocational test so the company would know where they should assign me within the company and this would also provide them with what I do and don’t like most in a job. In a contradictory statement during this interview, they told me that they did not have any other jobs within the company for me.

I felt ambushed instead of having a productive and constructive evaluation which I thought I was attending. I was so upset by the review that I don’t even remember driving home, which was 60 miles from the meeting. I think it is important to mention that within the last year, our company went national and were required to meet certain utilization review standards. One of the standards require that all new employees have a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree; I was told that I would be “grand-fathered” in and that my educational background would not be an issue. Shortly after the company standardized they hired 2 new people even though I was told there was not enough work for me or the other 2 that work with me. This action of hiring on more employees caused many of us to seek additional work within this company in order to meet our draw. I was placed in administrative work even though I said repeatedly that I was not a fast typist but I was assured that my speed was not a factor. Apparently it has been a factor all along as this issue was brought to my attention at the review citing that my productivity in the administrative department was not acceptable and was told if my speed didn’t improve they could not justify paying me my current wage if I was only doing half the work. My employer is now saying that I took myself out of the previous department, but in reality, I have been working in two different departments. They took away my draw and placed me on an hourly wage ($12.00 an hour less than what I was making). I have had co-workers who are Qualified Rehabilitation Counselors (QRC) try to give me client files to manage, however my supervisor intercepted the referrals and reassigned to a different employee. I feel that my employment is in jeopardy and that my employer is actively and blatantly resorting to tactics to diminish my value within the company; with the outcome of my dismissal or resignation. A fellow employee went through this exact dilemma and eventually was forced to find other employment. We were told by some of the QRC’s that the company instructed them to not give that employee more files and to let her just fade out because they had cut her draw in half. The company also had meetings with the QRC's where this person was talked about in a meeting that was closed to the rest of us. The supervisor said she was going to fire all of us and start over, however that is when they hired on 2 additional personnel within my previous department; which ultimately forced me to seek other work to make my draw. It is apparent that only a select few have had to comply with the new standardization processes and we are all doing the same exact job. My supervisor was instrumental in “squeezing” out the person whom I referred to earlier and it is only a matter of time that she will make my supposed failures at meeting her expectations an issue for my future with this company. We have another employee that is also awaiting her demise by this company. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

[cbg]

My best suggestion is to look for other work as quickly as you can. Unless you have a bona fide, enforceable contract that prohibits any of the behaviors you mention, nothing your employer has done violates any laws.