Workplace issues

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hkcon

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My wife is having some issues at work and I am wondering what steps she should take to remedy the situation. It is not protected class stuff, but it is causing her to dread going to work and a serious amount of stress. She has been working at her job for over 9 mos. now and she is part of a five person admin team (with one of them being the manager). Her hours are 8:30 to 5:00 with a half hour for lunch. When she was hired they said she would be eligible for flex hours and to work from home at times. Everyone else on the team is allowed to work from home, when they are sick or just because, which is great so you do not have to use PTO time. She was recently told that she will not be allowed to work from home ever. Two of the ladies on her team change their hours seemingly at will, in fact my wife isn't even sure what their original hours are, and it is never on the schedule, let alone mentioned to my wife, who answers the phones and is supposed to know when people are going to be at work so she can let other people who ask for them know. My wife has been told that she cannot change her hours, the first time because " we need someone here until 5 to answer the phone, and then when one of the ladies changed her hours and was working till 5:30 was told well we want 2 people here. This seemed really unfair to my wife but she did not say anything until one of the other ladies mentioned that she was changing her hours to 9:00 to 5:30 so Kristen asked her if she would mind backing her up for a week so she could get home earlier during summer to be with the kids a little earlier. The lady agreed and my wife submitted a request that was denied because" they just can't have her do flex hours that many days in a row (5), and was given an offer to talk about it with her manager who said that the big boss was the one who denied it. After having the meeting put off 6 different times over the next week and a half she finally got the meeting. She went in and told her manager that she felt as though she was being treated differently than everyone else on the team and it seemed unreasonable. the manager called in the big boss, who was surprised to hear of the problem, and agreed that she should get the flex week and that in addition how about doing flex hours every wed as well. He leaves, and the manager threatens her with a demotion saying " I got you your title so that you could make more money, but you are really just a receptionist, if you do not like things then I will change your title and you will make less". The next day she goes in and all of a sudden there is an unscheduled team meeting in the managers office, for everyone except my wife. They are in there for an hour and then my wife gets called in and told that she will probably not get the week, and the wednesdays are going to be a problem cuz noone wants to back her up. My wife asks what the meeting was about and is told that it was about what was discussed in the confidential meeting the day before and that my wife was left out because the manager did not want any arguments and she did not want anybody else on the team to feel pressured by my wife's presence to say yes to backing her up on wednesdays. Nobody on the team talked to her the rest of the day and she came home very stressed out and would quit if we did not need the money desperately. The manger said that everybody is complaining now that my wife is getting special treatment and that everything is going to go away and people are going to quit. What should she do? The manager is the mother of one of our sons best friends and has been to our house and told us confidential stuff about other team members and other people in the office. and is constantly taking 20 to 40 min breaks to smoke and talk to the other ladies while they make my wife do work they are "too busy" to do. She has even commented on a lawsuit that she is involved in because of a woman that used to work there that is suing the company.
 
I don't see anything illegal that is being done. Your wife might want to look for other employment if she is not happy & stressed there.

Others may come along with other suggestions.
 
Unless this is being done BECAUSE of, as you put it, "protected class stuff" then your wife's options are to put up with it or find another job.

I am not even remotely unsympathetic, but the law does not prohibit managers from being jerks.
 
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