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Questionable Demotion & Pay Reduction Georgia
In efforts to put all the facts out, my story is very lengthy so please bear with me. Thank you in advance for your time/responses!
I started with the company as a 90 day temporary employee. During that time there were verbal altercations between myself and the Shop Supervisor at the time. None of which added up to more than an exchange of a few words and then we would disburse. I never worked for/under him so it could never be deemed as insubordination with risk of any disciplinary action. With that said it was obvious to management that there were serious personality conflicts between he and I.
At the end of the 90 day period I was given the Operations Manager position. In turn, that made me his superior. Sure enough, as soon as I took over I had insubordination problems, and two separate HR complaints were filed against him from more than six employees. Pack that on top of the fact that I personally gave him three negative counseling statements in the year and a half that he worked under me plus the one he attained from the manager before me. In my opinion I would think that would be ample grounds for termination. But it never happened. My superiors somehow always circumvented me behind my back to keep him around. All the while saying that it was just personal between he and I since there was such a severe personality conflict.
It had gotten so bad that I was threatened by my superior, that if I was to say anything else about him we were both going to be fired. The really bad part is this though. He said that in front of myself and this particular employee. Consequently, from that point on it was impossible to manage him and things continued to get progressively worse. In lieu of these factors I always dealt with him as if I were "walking on eggshells" since I was deathly afraid of losing my job in this very bleak economy.
I finally had enough of my superiors threating me, telling me it was personal, and them not supporting my decision to remove him from the workplace. So I started keeping a log of every act of insubordination or deviation of company procedures so I could take it straight to the Director of HR instead of my superiors.
It just so happened though that I didn't need to do that. As the day finally came where one of my employees that reported directly to him came to me with a written complaint about a derogatory remark that my Shop Supervisor said about his significant other. At which time I bypassed my chain of command for obvious reasons and went straight to the Director of HR. Not to mention it was standard operating procedures to do that with HR complaints anyways. After that I immediately called my superiors and told them what happened and what I did to resolve the situation so they weren't blindsided by the Director. They were so displeased that they both verbally reprimanded me over the phone and hung up stating that they would deal with me when they came into town.
There was a HR investigation that lasted two weeks, of which I had no involvement in, which to me seemed inappropriate since I was his manager. Nonetheless, the day came that he was called into an office one morning with the Area Vice-President, Regional Operations Manager, and District Manager (my boss) for a meeting. The results of which were his termination.
Here is the real humdinger and root of my problem. Approximately 30 minutes went by and they called me in the office with them. And I was given two options...leave my seat as the Ops Manager and take a position in the shop as a Technician, not even the Shop Supervisor, or hit the road! I tactfully confronted them in regards to this stellar proposal and asked why? I pointed out the fact that I had been written up only once in two years and I couldn't comprehend their decision since there was not a shred of documentation to substantiate such a decision. Well while I was questioning their decision the Regional Operations Manager started yelling at me for no apparent reason. Telling me I just needed to watch it! In the end, due to obvious economic reasons, I took the demotion and approximately 25% decrease in pay while sitting there. What astonished me the most is this. The demotion and reduction in pay never came with any explanation/written counseling at all. And to top it off ALL three of them gave me and emphatic apology and said they would never put me in that sort of predicament again!
That demotion has caused me such terrible duress that I have had to take FMLA & STD to seek psychiatric care. Is there anything legally that I can do about this?
Kind Regards,
DarKnighT™
I started with the company as a 90 day temporary employee. During that time there were verbal altercations between myself and the Shop Supervisor at the time. None of which added up to more than an exchange of a few words and then we would disburse. I never worked for/under him so it could never be deemed as insubordination with risk of any disciplinary action. With that said it was obvious to management that there were serious personality conflicts between he and I.
At the end of the 90 day period I was given the Operations Manager position. In turn, that made me his superior. Sure enough, as soon as I took over I had insubordination problems, and two separate HR complaints were filed against him from more than six employees. Pack that on top of the fact that I personally gave him three negative counseling statements in the year and a half that he worked under me plus the one he attained from the manager before me. In my opinion I would think that would be ample grounds for termination. But it never happened. My superiors somehow always circumvented me behind my back to keep him around. All the while saying that it was just personal between he and I since there was such a severe personality conflict.
It had gotten so bad that I was threatened by my superior, that if I was to say anything else about him we were both going to be fired. The really bad part is this though. He said that in front of myself and this particular employee. Consequently, from that point on it was impossible to manage him and things continued to get progressively worse. In lieu of these factors I always dealt with him as if I were "walking on eggshells" since I was deathly afraid of losing my job in this very bleak economy.
I finally had enough of my superiors threating me, telling me it was personal, and them not supporting my decision to remove him from the workplace. So I started keeping a log of every act of insubordination or deviation of company procedures so I could take it straight to the Director of HR instead of my superiors.
It just so happened though that I didn't need to do that. As the day finally came where one of my employees that reported directly to him came to me with a written complaint about a derogatory remark that my Shop Supervisor said about his significant other. At which time I bypassed my chain of command for obvious reasons and went straight to the Director of HR. Not to mention it was standard operating procedures to do that with HR complaints anyways. After that I immediately called my superiors and told them what happened and what I did to resolve the situation so they weren't blindsided by the Director. They were so displeased that they both verbally reprimanded me over the phone and hung up stating that they would deal with me when they came into town.
There was a HR investigation that lasted two weeks, of which I had no involvement in, which to me seemed inappropriate since I was his manager. Nonetheless, the day came that he was called into an office one morning with the Area Vice-President, Regional Operations Manager, and District Manager (my boss) for a meeting. The results of which were his termination.
Here is the real humdinger and root of my problem. Approximately 30 minutes went by and they called me in the office with them. And I was given two options...leave my seat as the Ops Manager and take a position in the shop as a Technician, not even the Shop Supervisor, or hit the road! I tactfully confronted them in regards to this stellar proposal and asked why? I pointed out the fact that I had been written up only once in two years and I couldn't comprehend their decision since there was not a shred of documentation to substantiate such a decision. Well while I was questioning their decision the Regional Operations Manager started yelling at me for no apparent reason. Telling me I just needed to watch it! In the end, due to obvious economic reasons, I took the demotion and approximately 25% decrease in pay while sitting there. What astonished me the most is this. The demotion and reduction in pay never came with any explanation/written counseling at all. And to top it off ALL three of them gave me and emphatic apology and said they would never put me in that sort of predicament again!
That demotion has caused me such terrible duress that I have had to take FMLA & STD to seek psychiatric care. Is there anything legally that I can do about this?
Kind Regards,
DarKnighT™
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