Workplace Rant....What to do?? Kinda Long...Sorry
I have been in these types of scenarios before and me being the rebel I am, it cost me a job. I can be very outspoken and very blunt, some people can't handle that. I don't feel bad about it either, I know what I did was right.
With that said, it sounds as if the owner is in your corner and you in his. That can be good and bad at the same time. Push too hard and you could be shown the door, especially if one person or a small group of persons set you up. Be very careful, proceed like you are and document things when you go home at night. I mean actually write things down and keep track of dates, times and what happened or what was said, with EVERYONE!, owner included.
It sounds to me if you maintain a good perspective, and follow the owners lead, things could get quite good for you in the future.
Be prepared to have sit downs more often and be able to go face to face with honesty with someone if you are questioned by management and/or owner, politely of course.
IF you get in a situation where you think someone is trying to set you up in a meeting, ask that the owner be present. Sometimes that "Chinese Telephone" can bite you. With the owner/CFO right there and hearing things for themselves can be very helpful. It eliminates the he said she said.
I know what you mean. I now record every conversation with our H.R. lady. She's screwed me many times and others as well. She had 3 strikes and I was done.
Strike 1: Burnt me out of a raise when she and my supervisor couldn't agree why I shouldn't get a raise in 2011. She pulled my review and there was nothing on it that suggested I shouldn't get a raise per what my boss was saying why I shouldn't get a raise. The review includes 16 grading criteria on a scale from 1-7, 1 being terrible and 7 being proficient. I had the highest score I'd ever had but she said because my "focus and initiative" dropped 1pt I couldn't get a raise! Even though other areas improved! She said we don't give raises to people who's "focus and initiative" drop in points. I'm like WTF is the point of the other criteria and the overall score then?!!! She just persisted and couldn't say anything else. Talk about being pissed!
Strike 2: I got a pay increase in Sept 2012. 2 weeks into the effective date, I still didn't see the raise in my checks so I let my boss know. We went up front and she wasn't there so we got the receptionist to let us into her office. The receptionist found it right in the middle of a stack of random papers on a table behind her desk!!! Another, talk about being pissed!! She should've submitted that the day she got it. Then, she doesn't apologize but tells me that they can't retropay because the program doesn't allow for it. WTF is that crap??!! Especially when I'm able to get a pay advancement....see below.
Strike 3: 5 months ago I got a pay advancement through the company. They'll give you an advancement equal to what a gross 40hr week would be. Then you just pay it back through payroll deductions interest rate free. I filled out the proper paperwork and gave it to her. Fastforward to 4weeks ago. I left early one day for a dr.appt and put down for 2hrs of vacation time to be used. Well I get my following week check and they used 8hrs of vac time!! This was the 4th time of this happening where I now have like 43 hours or so of straight time. So, I go up front to find out why this keeps happening. Of course, the H.R. lady wasn't there and the payroll gal just happened to be up front. So, I talked to her. Ended up she was putting the hours on there so if we missed a day we would still get "attendence" rewarded. Which didn't make sense at all and I tried explaining to her that exhausting my vac time doesn't gain me perfect attendence...I'm still missing a day or time. Apparently she took offense to this.
20min later H.R. pages me. I call and the first thing out of her mouth was. "Hey, why didn't you tell us you haven't paid back that pay advancement yet!" I'm like, "well, I don't know, I guess I just haven't paid attention to it on my stubs." She's like, "Well, you should've let us know it hasn't been coming out." I'm like, "Well, I filled out and turned in the proper paperwork to you!" You tell me why it hasn't come out yet!!" I then say," Let me guess, this is about me talking to *** about my vac time and she took offense?" She was like, "No, we found it in this months audit, why didn't you tell us?" So, I say, "What about the monthy audit before that, and before that??" She got silent and was like,"Well, this is just both our fault and I'm letting you know that we're going to take that out now." I told her that's fine, you should've done it 4months ago!
After that, I went to the CFO and explained to him the whole debacle. I told him I felt "retaliated" against because I made the payroll gal feel like she wasn't doing her job, so she blabbed off to H.R. about it and because they're friends, H.R. took the opportunity to try and "Show Me." I'm like so now, all of a sudden, after I say something about my vac time, this pay advancement happens to just "poof" and appear out of nowhere! And somehow it's my fault they didn't take it out of my check!!!! Yeah right, give me a break. He quickly agreed with me and reassured me that none of it was my fault. Told me that I turned in the proper paperwork and I done my part, they just didn't do theirs and were trying to pass the buck off. He looked into it and even came in on Saturday just to tell me the results of his findings. Even he was confused as to why payroll was doing that with EVERYONES vacation time. He told her not to be doing that anymore and even offered to restore the 6hrs that was used. Regardless, they shot themselves in the feet.
So, now because of this I don't trust her, which is sad because I'm friends with her son...who happens to be the materials manager.
