Question regarding abuse and employment rights?
Asked by techgeek
I have a question about my rights as an employee. As everyone already knows, we are in a job crisis right now. Unemployment is at an all time high., especially in my area. So I need advice on how to proceed here. I work for a company whom is contracted to install certain components on buses. I am the quality control inspector for our company. The company we install these components for did not wire up the controls properly which is their responsibility. Well I noted the issue on their order form and the bus came back around. Their electrician put the control panel back together without fixing their problem. I informed their line manager about the issue. Again, the issue was not corrected. My boss was out of the building. Their inspector tried telling our next in command that it was not their responsibility and it was ours. So I explained to our second in command that it was not our responsibility but theirs. I even double checked this with out electrician. So both me and the second in command went to their electrician to inform him that it wasn’t our responsibility, we do not wire those components. Their electrician got argumentive and abusive and said we install the components and they do not and got loud and told me I need to go back and learn how to do my job. This isn’t the frist time he has been this way towards me or others. He has a very bad history of exploding like he did. I have seen him almost get in a few fights with his own coworkers. Tomorrow we are going to explain to my bos the situation. The problem is my boss has a bad habit of not listening and blaming the wrong person and allowing it to continue to happen. I am at my limit with this issue and my bosses failure to correct the issue. I have a feeling my boss will try saying it is our issue and make me correct their issue just so he does not have to deal with it making me look in the wrong and allowing this person to continue is abusive attitude towards me. Again this will enforce the idea to their electrician he can continue his abuse towards me and allow the situation to progress even worse. I plan on refusing to not do their job anymore. They know they can just keep pawning their responsibility off on me because the way my boss is. I assume my boss will probably write me up for insubordination or something. If this happens, I plan on taking a stand and telling my boss how I eel and I am not going to be abused like this anymore and quitting then and their if it comes down to that. Can my boss allow their employees to be verbally abusive towards me? What protections and or legal options do I have? And how would this affect collecting unemployment? We recently went from a 5 day work week to a 4 day work week. I was promised to get my 40 hours a week which my boss is also reneging on. Also, I was promised a large raise for the last two raises and both times I didn’t get them and my boss blames it on someone else for it. Also the last inspector did not have to do nearly as many buses as I do, amount of things to check, or any repairs. She was a female. I'm in Indiana, ad our corp headquarters are out of state

Best Answer:
Isn't it fun to have different teams? How else would someone be able to shirk all of their responsibility onto someone else? You've got an extremely familiar situation and there's not a lot you can do, it's just part of the "team" atmosphere. The other problems you've got are just part of working for an employer that doesn't care about it's employees. I'd skip talking to the boss that clearly can't follow through with anything and go to HR and file a complaint about the other supervisor's behavior. There's never an appropriate time to raise your voice with another employee--well maybe if they fire up one of the power tools while you're talking but I digress. His behavior is inappropriate and shouldn't be tolerated. It's a bad enough work environment right now with everyone looking for fewer people to do more and more work. This is really about republicans trying to eliminate the middle class, as you can see, it's going pretty well.

Pity you don't mention what state you are in so this may not necessarily apply to you since I am in NY. First of all what type of buses? School buses? MTA buses like we have here? Is your boss liable for client being abusive. Yes. They can be held liable on the grounds of hostile work environment. Secondly, there are laws in many states when it comes to electrical wiring and depending exactly what you are doing the wiring for you CANNOT touch it unless you are licensed. Hard to give accurate advice without knowing these things.
Answered by Shane

Go to HR, maybe they can help but I doubt it - you really don't have any "rights" - you are not being discriminated against. If your boss tells you to fix it - that is a direct order, and you must do the work or you could be considered insubordinate. There is no law against bad bosses. If you quit you probably will not get unemployment. If you think no job is better than the situation you are in now then quit. Otherwise suck it up & do the work. We all have had bad bosses.
Answered by molly