Supervisor Harrassment? I don't know.... North Carolina

Hello everyone! I'm not sure if I'm posting in the correct forum, but I'm going to try to start here. If this needs to be redirected, please don't hesitate to inform me on which forum I should be posting in Thanks!

So, the issue is kind of long, but I'm going to try my hardest to shorten and get to the important points only as much as I can:

A new director of transportation was hired within the company I work for 4 mths back. Within 2 weeks of this person being hired, the changes he wanted to make immediately came into effect. The first was evaluating the budget and making any changes he could to cut costs. I was fine with this seeing as the budget I've done within my department was ALWAYS under budget, and the employees under my supervision were all treated fair and paid the ongoing rate for their position. Seeing this was correct, the director could not find any changes to make at that time, so he decided to go other routes to cut costs within my department. He informed me that my husband, who was an outside contractor for the company I work for, had to be let go (his contract terminated) due to nepitism. I was informed I needed to obtain quotes from other companies to take over this contract. I did as I was asked, I obtained quotes from various companies, and I found a company who's price was comparable to what was previosly being charged. This company was a small one, a one man show, and he was not up-to-date on typing up contracts etc. He came to my office, we sat down, he told me verbatum what he was charging, the contract terms, etc. I proceeded to type up the contract while this gentleman was sitting with me in my office. He read over it and agreed that is what he said during our meeting. I turned the quote in to my director. I was then called into a meeting the next week and given a FINAL WARNING because they questioned my motives and commitment to the company being as I was the one to type up the contract and my husband was the contractor before this gentleman. I had NO motives other than helping the vendor out because he wasn't able to type the contract himself. Also, as far as my commitment, I am always on call, work more than 60 hours a week, have done outstanding work for the company since I began working with them (stated by the President of our regional office), and always completed every task they've asked me to accomplish. I have never received any type of warning (written, off record, etc) while working within this company, so I wasn't sure how I could receive a final warning. The role of finding outside contractors for specific things within the department is actually supposed tobe done by my director, but he didn't have time to do this, so he passed it off to me. Also, how would it be considered nepitism if my husband was an outside contractor who was not directly employeed by myself, the company, or in the same department as myself? He would actually be considered an outside contractor for the maintenance department, while I am in another completely different department. After this event, things really began to go downhill with this director.

Since this happened, the director has been, what I call, harrassing me every week.

1) It began with my tattoos - I needed to have them covered at all times since I was a supervisor and I was representing the company. I do come in contact with the public, but my tattoos are not anything that may be offensive - they may be a heart, a name, or a flower - I have never had anyone that was in the director's position previous to the person make one statement about my tattoos. I work in all weather conditions, as do the employees in my department, with no heat, no air, minimal coverage from other weather conditions, so I really don't see it fit wearing heavy pants in 100 degree weather seeing as I've already had 2 heatstrokes while working with this company because of the weather conditions. Other employees within my department with tattoos were also targeted by this person.
2) The director has purchased telephones that the employees use to clock in/out during company time. These phones also have GPS tracking on them that tells the director every point this person has been as well as real-time viewing of locations. These phones are required to be on at all time, even while at home, incase they need to be called in if someone is a "no show". If the person does not answer the phone while at home, he has stated they will be repremanded. He has stated they have no choice whether or not they WANT to come in if he calls, they will HAVE to come to work, or again, be repremanded.
3) My annual performance review was yesterday (09/26/08) and I was given the lowest score I have EVER obtained from ANY of my reviews. I don't feel it's justified to have this person give me my review seeing as he only joined the company 4 mths ago, and wasn't there for the previous parts of the year. I have always been given outstanding reviews from any of the supervisors that were in his position previously. I have even had two others tell me they wanted to give me a perfect review but couldn't because that would look suspicious to HR, so they had to deduct small points here and there. During my review the current director (supervisor) tells me my review was so low because of the vendor issue and the fact that I needed to work on my reading/spelling/comprehension skills. He also tells me I need to go back to school, and he's going to look into the budget to get me back into school to work on these skills. I am a college graduate, I've never had ANYONE tell me I need better grammar skills up until this person. I've even had communications with the President of our regional office, and he has never mentioned this to any of my previous superiors. He then told me if I do not attend school for these things I can lose my job. My job description clearly states what is needed for my position, and if I didn't have these skills, they would have passed me over for someone more qualified. I was also told that I should not be on salary and he's going to try to put me back down to hourly wage. I have been on salary since I began with the company, BEFORE I even accepted the supervisor position I am in now.
4) The same person that terminated the contract with my spouse for nepitism hired 2 individuals within my department that are related. The director knew this upon hiring both of them. One of these individuals were hired at an extremely higher rate of pay than the others that are hired within the same position. She has taken it upon herself to discuss her rate of pay with the others which has caused a huge mess with the other employees that have been within my department for many years. How can the director terminate an outside contractor for nepitism and then hire two others that are related within the same department to work FOR the company, not working as an outside contractor?

There are other things that this person has done, but I'm sticking to this for now seeing as the post is alot longer than I expected it to be I'm sure that I have left some facts out, so if you have any questions for clarification, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Thanks in advanced for ANY assistance or clarification you can provide!!!

LostInGW

This is a long post and raises several issues. Did you sign a contract? In North Carolina job assurances in an employee handbook may also alter the employment at-will relationship and create just cause employment contracts, so long as the handbook specifically provides that a just cause employment contract is created. The state courts in North Carolina view the exception very narrowly. There could be a sex discrimination issue if the other two employees are engaged in nepotism and you are bing singled out. The same goes possibly with the tattoo issue.

I will do a little sniffing and reply later, some other posters may add as well. Thank you for pointing out the difficulty in finding the proper forum. I have created a new forum for posters that can not find the proper forum, to ensure others do not run in to the same problem. However this the correct forum. Employment law usually covers any problems not related to unions.
JoeC

*PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE*

From the facts that you describe, your supervisor certainly sounds like he has some type of bias against you or issue with you. To put it bluntly, he sounds like a bit of an ass. However, simply being an ass isn't necessarily illegal.

1) tattoos. Is he targeting male employees with tatoos as well? PErhaps he discriminates against people with tattoos. That is not illegal discrimination.

2) nepotism. Companies can have anti-nepotism policies. Even if the company does not have an anti-nepotism policy, your supervisor could still say that he is not comfortable with your husband doing the work and say to yo to end the business relationship. Again, that position is not illegal. If he is simply targeting you, while allowing nepotism to go for male employees, or employees under 40 or only white employees, then there may be an issue. I am still confused as to the new contractor issue. It sounds like you didn't follow company procedure by typeing the contract. If this 1-man business couldn't handle typing a simply agreement, then perhaps your company was justified in his ability to handle the job.

3) phones. Are you exempt or non-exempt? If not exempt, then on call time can be considered hours worked for puposes of overtime. If you are exempt, then that unfortunately may be a part of the job under this new boss.

4) performance review. Do you have an opportunity to respond to the score that you were given? Is there someone in HR or higher up in the company that you can talk to about your supervisor? Can you challenge some of his scores? Did you ask for specific examples where you were given low scores?

Is there an HR dept? Set up a meeting. Go in with facts about what is going on. First, take a deep breath, think about what has happened and begin writing it down in a journal. Use the who, what, when, where, why and how method.

Good luck to you.

Mr. Pink

Good post Mr.Pink.
JoeC

I agree with the last two posters, very good reply. The only thing I can add is what I have experienced from our large corporation that I worked for for 10 years, whom work just like this guy you are talking about. They had an issue about tattoes and piercings. They did not want you to show your tattoes to anyone because you represented the company on and off work, and the piercings. They first tried to make you get rid of piercings. They first tried to get you to cover your tattoes. With 4,000 employees, thier were lawsuits. Within the end of the year, this was the end result. You had to cover your tattoes with a bandaid if they could not be covered by normal clothing. They could only ask you to do this during your time at work only. They could not make a person remove the facial piercings, because it would cause the holes to close up, and undue pain to reopen them. Are your tats small enough to cover with a bandaid instead of dressing in clothing that is to hot for your job?? They may be able to make you wear the clothing over them, but if you suffer from heat stroke from it, I guess you would have to mention it to the doctor as a factor in your heatstroke, maybe the doctor could at this time, write a note saying no hot clothing during extreme heat, or something to that effect?? This is just an idea, I am not a lawyer. I do not know how these two new hires are related, there may be a difference between hiring your spouse, compared to hiring a distant cousin if you know what I mean. Some corporations have the "spouse" reasoning because they do not want to lose two workers if they have to fire one, or take the chance of the remaining spouse retaliating against the company, which did happen to an establishment in our city. I do not know if this goes against the marital status discrimination? Do you know JoeC?