36
lankku
240d

Story time...of how HR actually did its job of taking care of employees.

So, I started at this new gig on December, the boss was all sunshine and promise (big red flag now to think back). Then as time passed, he started seeming...off. To a point I considered quitting my boss just after 2 months of working for him.

Then one morning we had a project meeting. He started verbally abusing me, calling me incompetent, bashing my work (of which he knew ~nothing, his experience 30 years back). Earlier in the week he demanded me to make a presentation which he in this meeting told is complete bullshit without actually reading any of it. He told me 'I am your boss, you do exactly as I say' when I told him something is technologically impossible in the situation we're in. He *actually* told me to break the law with data protection...

This was like wtf dude. That's not how you manage people. So, I made an HR ticket about his behaviour. They were *shocked* and escalated the matter.

Long story short: he was a bully, he's getting fired, my team has a new manager. My workplace actually appreciates my expertise.

Bad thing in this is, now I actually need to continue doing my job. ;_;

Comments
  • 4
    Nice, congrats.

    Except for breaking the law. Companies can tell you to break the law, as long as it is not criminal. They will be responsible for it. Your job is at best to point that out.

    But hey, good for you that the higher ups agreed with you.

    ....

    On the other hand... VW coders got prison sentences if I remember correctly... Shitty thing to make coders liable.
  • 1
    For once the exception to the rule that HR does not stand for "Human Redundancy".

    Get yourself a victory meal with the team. Towards a better working environment!
  • 5
    The job of HR is to protect the company, not the employees independent of it.
    Is this case, it sounds like HR was also protecting the company with a side effect being that it benefits you as well.
  • 2
    @TrayKnots daaamn.. I didn't know that. The VW prison part
  • 0
    His name wasn't John, was it? He sounds very familiar, or maybe it's the same behavior of type-A psychopaths that end up in upper/middle management.
  • 2
    and when I read up on how companies are structured, if someone sends an email to a higher up who is on the board, board members can be sued personally for company liabilities. furthermore they are legally obligated to respond to liabilities. so if you tell a board member in an email of illegal activity and they ignore it, they open themselves up to personal litigation, hence this technically should be a very fast way to get your illegal problems solved. illegal as in abusive employee treatment, which is actually a suable offense in Canada (where I'm at)

    and you can't make a corp without board members. you need at least 2.

    this also explains why many companies do not want anyone to be able to contact their board members. they're trying to hide from being liable. a good proxy for figuring out which companies are knowingly breaking the law, I'd think
  • 0
    @jestdotty we have a law to that effect where I live too.
  • 0
    I'm in a similar situation (location Finland) I couldn't get help from HR
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