November 18, 2025 ā¢ 48 mins
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00:18 r/BestofRedditorUpdates - [5] Can boss force me to travel while pregnant?
14:20 r/okstorytime - AITA for going off on my coworkers,
31:17 r/okstorytime - I effectively destroyed someone’s future and I’m not sorry
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Cowboy Sam and this is Eh John. And
we've last.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Showed in some amazing stories for y'all the Okay Storytime podcasts.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
But before that we got.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
To wrangle a quick little two minute out break from
those bucking sponsors.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We bucking love so much they paid us the bucks
to help this show stay alive.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm pregnant and my boss is forcing me to travel.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
You should make your boss pregnant.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I I have been with my current employer for five years.
I'm in England and I'm currently twenty one weeks pregnant.
I inform my manager at six weeks due to medical
history and health issues. By the way, this comes from
long jumpin Lab thirty ninety two. And if you want
to submit your own stories, go to the r slash
Okay Storytime Separate it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I'm Sofia, I'm Dakota, I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Carly, and we're here to give good advice. Goofy, But
we don't have all the answers. We only know what
we do, so let us know what you would do
in the comments. Yay and opisas I travel for work,
mostly to Europe and the US and work in events.
Most of my job is research and sales and marketing,
with only a tiny portion involving the event itself. I
(01:04):
have nothing to do with venues, logistics, food, or any
of the stereotypical things you might think of when you
think of a job and events. I'm paid commission based
on sales revenue for events. I have done all the
research for agenda writing, et cetera. Separate from this, I
sometimes have to support as an extra pair of hands,
which I have never been paid extra for. My manager
(01:25):
has been fairly difficult about my inability to travel due
to pregnancy related medical issues. I have a note from
my doctor saying I am not allowed to fly, and
this voids my company travel insurance, which makes me feel
very unsafe even trying to fly. Not only this, but
I have been on bed rest for most of my pregnancy.
(01:45):
She forced me to go to one event at seven
weeks pregnant, a week after I told her, telling me
I would lose my three thousand pound commission if I
didn't go. She can't do that. I think that she
legally can't do that because it's a pregnancy related issue.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I would assume that they can't just be like, you
don't get any money, you pregnant, lose it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, I believe that she cannot do that. At the event,
I ended up bedridden, unable to do anything, and we
were short staff. A number of people asked her why
I still went, including her manager, and she pretended she
didn't know I was pregnant or ill. And that's when
you go and say, hey, she did know because I
told her that I wasn't allowed to go, and she
(02:29):
forced me to.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You go, Yeah, you make a get ready with me.
You just blast this information to all.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Places because I physically went, though I still got my commission.
After that, I explicitly told HR and my manager's manager
about my pregnancy and medical issues. They have been very supportive,
offering me fully flexible, working completely work from home, no
pressure to travel abroad, time off for appointments, et cetera. However,
(02:56):
my manager has continued to be awful. She has given
me grief for midwife appointments, been very inflexible over deadlines,
expected me to work when hospitalized on an IV drip,
and continuously asked me when I was coming back to
the office. This is directly against what she has been
told by HR and her manager. So we go to
(03:18):
them again and say she's still doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Lawsuit, law suit, lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I have mostly rolled my eyes and left her to it.
But this week there was another event for which I'd
done all the work. It was pre agreed that my
colleague would cover for me on the day and I
would get the commission. I did everything I could, staying
online until midnight every day at out my colleague, sending
detailed notes in advance, and completing all the preparation work, research,
(03:48):
et cetera. This was agreed months ago. This event was
in the US. I feel extremely unsafe going to the
US as a pregnant woman, especially with the high risk pregnancy.
Manager then called me on Friday saying she thinks it's
unfair my colleague didn't get paid and asked me to
give her sixteen hundred pounds of my commission because it
(04:09):
was unfair. No, she had to cover for me. When
I refused to travel, I said no. She asked again
whether I would consider it. I said no.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
She said, oh, wait, let me check. Oh yeah, the
same thing I said before, yep.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I then sent her a detailed email with all the
work I had done, CCN, the HR and her manager
what we had agreed in advance and said I felt
it was pregnancy discrimination to penalize me. She responded via
a team's message, asking why I sent such a long email,
and I said some things need to be formal. And
in writing, she's now saying she wants to blanket change
(04:47):
the policy so that if people can't travel for any reason,
their commission is docked. Would she can't do because you're
HR and her manager already said that you're good. Our
contracts say we have to travel. So in the five
years I've been here, people have only ever not traveled
for extremely serious reasons, usually severe health conditions. There is
(05:08):
zero precedent for anyone losing commission, and this seems to
be a policy she is purely pushing to introduce on
the back of my pregnancy. Nobody gave any grief to
my colleague who had cancer last year. I guess I
need to decide whether to let this go. Should I complain? Yes,
I have said nothing to HRS so far, although they
have reprimanded her on their own accord for things they
(05:32):
noticed without me reporting them. Report report report. Should I
wait and see if she actually introduces this new policy
and argue about it retrospectively.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No, No, You're like, should I wait for all of
the bad stuff to become the rule and then fight
against it?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
No? No, should I get formal legal advice? I don't
even think you need to literally go to your boss,
your boss's boss, go to HR.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I think you should. I think you should because I
think a lawyer might tell you, like exactly how.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
To play this. That's true, I mean it would help.
But I feel like she's just not even talking to her,
the boss's boss, or the HR anymore. Am I actually
in the wrong here? No? Or do I need to
drop it? Also? No? And there are some relevant comments,
But do you have any thoughts of your own?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Make this place underwater? What I mean like, make it
go underwater? What because of how much you sue them for?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Oh? Yes, okay, understood Atlantis this place because they are
treating you unfairly and discriminating against you. That's illegal.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Most people will probably be sympathetic to pregnant women. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Relevant comments. Battie Matt. Maddie Matt says, Hello, I am
not a lawyer, but I am an events producer in
London and recently had a baby. I traveled at thirteen
weeks EU twenty six weeks US and thirty one weeks EU.
It was tough, and I declined to travel to one
of my events inc at thirty two weeks and receive
(07:04):
my full commission. Not traveling due to pregnancy should be
a reasonable accommodation. And you need to go to HR
asap and tell them what your manager has done. Your
commission is based on the sale of your product, not
just your attendance at the event. If that were the case,
then our new BDM would be getting full commission on
(07:24):
a two million plus show despite joining two weeks ago.
Silly Opie says, yeah, I do. Production was trying and
failing to be vague. Haha, glad your company was nice
about it. Maybe you should move there once matt leave
is her maternity leave is over right, This is my issue.
My colleague covered for me, But I don't think she
(07:45):
should get commission on a one point one million pound
event that she wasn't involved in until literally the day of.
And I don't think it should come out of mine
when I've been working on it since last September and
have hit every single KPI and done everything as to
me except physically getting on a plane. Giving her something
(08:05):
as a gesture would be nice, but frankly has nothing
to do with me.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
She's saying that she shouldn't get paid at all.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Because I think the submission of her commission.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I agree she shouldn't come out of he commission, but
I do think she should get paid for it.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
She should get some commission.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I think she would be getting paid for it, but
it wouldn't be Ope's commission.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I don't know if you should get commissioned for handling
the event the day.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That it happened, running an entire event day of I
don't think she should get comissioned.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think she should get paid. I think that's a
separate thing.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, because commission is usually I mean, that's that's the
sale of setting it up, yeah, and locking it in.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I'm assuming she's get paid bonus. Yeah. I don't think
that you should get paid for the commission of setting
it up.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
If she wasn't involved with the account.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, that's a conversation between her and finance, HR literally
anyone else.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
If she says, hey, I need to be paid more
for the work I'm doing, then she goes and talks
to their bosses, I'll be BATTYE Matt Mattie. Matt said,
I feel like Events is notorious for crappy maternity policies
since we have these in person products. A parallel you
could make to HR would be do staff who comes
to run theaters or a liaise with speakers, etc. On
(09:13):
the day also get production commission since they're doing production
work on site. Silly, silly, and I really hope this
gets sorted in your favor. It's pretty clear your boss
has likely promised your colleague some commission and is trying
to cover her butt, but her proposed policy is discriminatory
since any reason is super vague and clearly aimed at you.
(09:36):
The pregnant employee. Opie says, Yeah, I feel like the
fact it's a policy clearly aimed at me and that
had never even been talked about prior to my pregnancy
makes a fairly strong case for discrimination. And top comment
winner Ads says, please make a log of every interaction
you've had with your manager and file a formal complaint
(09:58):
against her, and also include the amount of extra hours
you have been working, which is usually also something that
has to be signed off. Please do not put yourself
at risk due to one manager causing an issue, especially
when HR have been so accommodating, they cannot fire you
or let you go when you have all the evidence
surrounding your manager, as that would be a very easy
(10:18):
discrimination and unfair dismissal case, to be honest, very high
grounds for discrimination case anyway, So go straight to HR
and raise a formal complaint and log any other bad
interactions moving forward. And there is an update nearly three
months later, and do you have any thoughts before we
jump in?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, I don't know, eggs all the same stuff. Yeah,
you're gonna win. You're pregnant.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're pregnant, and literally your boss's boss agrees with you.
HR agrees with you. You're fine. Update nearly three months later.
I am now eight months pregnant and maternity league will
be starting next month, so almost done with all the
work drama. I took everyone's advice and spoke to HR
and upper management, which I was super worried about doing.
(11:04):
They were actually extremely supportive. I told them I wanted
to create as little friction as possible, so I framed
it as wanting a resolution before the issues escalated further,
rather than it being a formal complaint. I think HR
and Upper management were worried about me turning it into
a formal complaint, as they pretty much agreed to everything
I asked, including giving me confirmation and writing that none
(11:26):
of my commission would be withheld as a result of
me being unable to travel while pregnant. They said it
would be haveved while I'm actually on maternity leave, which
is fair enough as I won't be working. They also
put together a helpful document for my manager on how
to speak to and support pregnant employees, because she clearly
doesn't know how to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
This is true, It's pretty bad at it, but framed.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It as something coming from them to support her, rather
than as me making a formal complaint and her being
told off. Things included guidance like if your employees hospitalized
and on a drip, maybe just maybe give them the
day off work. I had to go to upper management
about her again last week. Sadly, i'd planned to come
(12:10):
in to say goodbye to everyone before my maternity leave started,
as I'm fully worked from home for these last few weeks.
As agreed with HR, I've been there almost six years,
so it would have been sad to leave without saying goodbye.
We had a social plan for that afternoon, so I
wanted to swing by for a bit. However, I wasn't
well enough to make it in for nine am, and
she basically told me that if I could only come
(12:32):
in for lunchtime, not to bother at all because upper
management will not be happy with that. Why are you lying?
You're the only one upset.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
What do you have? Guess pregnant people having babies.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
But there is a little, wee little bit left to
this story. Ooh, give me final thoughts about this crazy manager.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I would just keep documenting everything she's doing and boil boy.
Is it gonna be on to get the settlement for
this discrimination lawsuit? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I think you just tell you the managers and HR
if she keeps doing this, I will have to take
other actions if this is not address. But there is
a little bit left to the story. I contacted upper
management directly and asked whether it would be an issue
for me to just come in at lunch. They said
it wasn't an issue at all, and that of course
I should have the opportunity to say goodbye. My manager
(13:27):
is now fuming that I went over her head and
got her told off, But oh well, anyway, I thought
people would appreciate the update that HR and senior management
aren't always monsters. They were actually very supportive, and I've
been throughout my pregnancy. I am sure they had ulterior
motives and not wanting a pregnant woman to cause them
a lawsuit or bad press.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Bit.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Fine, and that's the end of that story, folks. But uh,
good luckal Pye and I hope that your pregnancy goes
well and that your baby is cool.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Sounds like you fumbled the back, not even kidding.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, it could be done so.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Sounds like if you would have gone to a lawyer,
your lawyer would have told you exactly how to move
and you would have ended up getting a settlement. But
maybe you're just not that kind of person. Yeah, I
think I would have put the company at risk.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I think six years likes the people that she
works with besides this manager. But that's the end of
that story, folks. And we've got another one coming right up.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
My coworkers tried to ruin my life after I survived
a surgery.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I just survived something. Leave me alone.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
By the way, this comes directly from the r Slash
Showky story. I'm separated is one of us I'm female,
twenty five and I work in healthcare. I had worked
in home health before I got wrongfully fired from the company.
Long story short, they had two companies and one is
now being investigated for text for fraud. I don't know
(14:48):
how that's possible. It doesn't exist. Oop, there's no such
thing as the fraud in you at taxes, Well, nope,
taxes are all fraud. Wow, taxes are fraudulent.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
No taxation without representation.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I don't know about y'all. I don't feel very represented.
I had turned in a two week notice because I
was being punished by the supervisor for speaking up for
the patients. I had vocalized to part of the care
team that a patient needed to be in a nursing
home and not home health services. He was that bad off.
By the way, this comes from user massive instance eighty
(15:22):
two ninety two, And if you want to submit your
own stories, go to the r slash Okay storytime subur
it where this story was submitted.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I'm Dakota, I'm Sophia, I'm Carly, and we're here.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
To give you good advice. Goofuy. But we don't have
all the answers. We only know what we would do so.
If you would do something different, let us know in
the comments. As op says, three weeks after this, I
turned in my two week notice. It was done in
a very professional manner, and I'll post it here. Quote. Dear,
whoever it concerns, please accept this letter as formal notice
(15:54):
of my resignation from my position at STNA at Company Name,
effective two weeks from the date of this letter. My
last day will be January twenty fifth, twenty twenty five.
I appreciate the opportunities I've had while working at Company Name,
and I'm grateful for the experience and knowledge gained. I'll
ensure a smooth transition of my responsibilities during my remaining
(16:15):
time here. Thank you again for the opportunity to be
part of the Company Name team. Come to find out
I was one of five aids that they had cover
for the patients for the company that's being investigated for
tax fraud. Patients started reporting non coverage but were getting
charged for hours that weren't being provided. Not even two
(16:39):
days after my last day, I got fired from the
other company I was still working for. They pulled me
in and said they would be terminating my contract due
to a false report. Side note. It was a one
sided argument with a woman who was yelling at me
because I was parked in a drop off area waiting
for my wheelchair patient. She was running her mouth at me,
(17:01):
but I wasn't saying anything back. I had my patient's
wife on the phone the entire interaction. I informed them
of this information, and my boss looked at me, laughed
and said, I don't have to look into it, and
I'm not going to. I bet you work in Florida.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
You're like, Hey, this tax fraud, and they're like, is
my job I'm supposed to look.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
At the tax fraud. We've got fraudulent medical services company
at will employment. You're living in Florida.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I'm not doing a single thing about that. I've got
golf at seven. I've gotta go tax fraud more like
tax frogs in my backyard.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
In my backyard because I'm in Florida, where there's frogs
in a shaped like alligators. What is an alligator but
a large angry frog? So true?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Think about that.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I knew this could be a response due to living
in an at will state. I'm glad I no longer
worked there because it came out that the supervisor had
been arrested on substance charges. Got dragged on social media
so badly it made the local news.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
You must live in Florida.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Welcome to Florida. Fast forward to now. I was unemployed
until June when I got a job at a nursing home.
The interview went great. At first, I was working the
assignment of an aide who went on medical leave. It
was easy, peasy, lemon squeeze, or so, I thought. Information
that will make sense as to why I add this.
(18:29):
I was diagnosed with stomach issues at fourteen, almost fifteen.
At eighteen, I was diagnosed with IBS, GERD, crones, and
chronic peptic ulcers. Rough to say that I'm used to
being in pain as an understatement. The first issue I
ran into with my new coworkers was my accidental flatulence.
(18:50):
I would walk away when I felt one coming on,
but due to my health issues, I don't always feel
them at all, so they would sneak out. At times.
They would message in a group chain about me and
giggle about it right in front of me. Mind you,
these are women in their forties and fifties.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Hey, I gotta say, farts are always a little funny. Yeah,
come on now, I mean, you know, explain to them
it's medical. But like, I feel like, when you're farting
all the time, you just gotta take it and stride
and be like, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Hello, don't I know?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
That was a good one. You just gotta like own it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
They call me the fart factory, Yeah, the flatulence facilitator.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When my friends and I were traveling, we were doing
our backpacking trip. My friend got COVID on the second
day of the trip, so she had to go quarantine,
and then we ended up in London in different hostels.
The hostel that she was in, she was in a
room with this older lady and just the she was
having a conversation with old lady and she's the old
(19:46):
lady was farting the whole time, but she would like
keep going. She wouldn't be like, oh sorry, she would
just be like and uh and keep going. And she
was doing this the whole night. And then they went
and got like. She took her at my friend out
for some fish and chips, and apparently it was a
lovely lady, but a little harder.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Here's the next issue. I fell in hurt my back.
I was in the worst pain. Ever, I felt like
my organs were in a blender and whoever was in
control wouldn't stop blending. I tried to push through it
and go to work. Mind you, a few days prior
I had been in the hospital all night and still
came in thirty minutes late with no sleep. I don't
just call off or leave work for no reason. I
(20:28):
have to be passing away to do so. Hey, I
think we might have wanted to call off work.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Dad. Yeah, if you're in that much pain, you just
got a call off work.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Well no, I mean if you were in the hospital
all night and then came in thirty minutes late with
no sleep, that's not good. Maybe that could have contributed
to your injury if you were I don't know were
you at work, but yeah, if you're pushing yourself to
the point of absolute exhaustion, could make for a dangerous environment. Yeah. Absolutely,
So I messaged my manager to leave because of my back,
(20:58):
and I did. I went to the host spit. They
did X rays. I had a gallstone in my liver
bile duct that I had knocked loose and it was
tearing through gosh. They told me it would pass and
I'd be fine. I knew this was wrong and schedule
to follow up with a hepatologist and gastro enterologist. I
(21:18):
didn't make the appointments immediately. A few days later, on
the fourth of July, ended up in the emergency room,
balling my eyes out. I was feeling like I would
rather be passed away than continue the pain I was
going through. I even told the doctor, who said, I
don't even know where my gallbladder or liver is and
I'm just being dramatic.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Your doctor said that. Your doctor said you don't even
know where your gallbladder is. You're just being dramatic.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I said, get out of my face and get me
a different doctor. I don't want someone so incompetent treating me.
He sent a nurse practitioner who actually listened and was
very sweet.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean, good on you for standing up for yourself.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, it's an important thing to do.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
You need to advocate for yourself because no one else will.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
It's true times you got to be annoying and aggressive.
Sometimes you gotta be like, no, that's not what I want.
And actually I've already done that, And I want a
recommendation to this specialist because we have a dumb system
where you have to, like they do not want to
recommend you, you have to like get permission to see
a doctor from your doctor, which is dud. I hate
(22:21):
it here for that. He had ordered opioids for me,
and I had already told him I didn't want them. Thankfully,
she informed me and gave me Tyland all. She said
it was always an option, but would only give me
medicine I was comfortable with. I'm pretty sure they got
sick of my crying and begging them to please just
make the pain stop, because just an hour after arriving
(22:42):
at the er, they knocked me out with adavan and haaldaal.
To make a long story short, they ended up removing
my gallbladder and also had to do surgery on my
liver to get the stone. I was kept off work
for three weeks. By the time I went back, everyone
was beyond upset that I was allowed to keep my
job after being off for so long. Oh dude, but
your meta Oh oops, sorry, I had to recover from
(23:03):
major surgery.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Wow, oops, your job and you work in healthcare.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
This is Florida, gotta be. I was being switched from
rotation to rotation after coming back because I was the
filla in which I didn't agree to at all in
my contract and had specifically asked for a permanent spot.
It wasn't good for me physically going from rotation to
rotation because it wasn't allowing my body to heal. I
got held over, even though in my contract it says
(23:30):
I don't have to work past seven pm. It was
agreed upon and signed off. I even made sure all
the nurses were aware of this agreement. Guess who had
to stay over because the other two left the floor.
If you guessed me and the other aid, you'd be right.
I think you need to take this to whoever is
above your manager. Yes, whoever is like the utmost authority.
Here you got my contract is being violated. I'd like
(23:54):
to talk to uh.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Here are my doctor's notes. Here was the medical emergencies
as Katie Paladin that I had to take off for
mm mmmmmmmm.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I kept telling the nurses this was against my contract
and that I wasn't going to stay and they needed
to call someone in. They said this isn't our job
and they weren't going to. They threatened to report me
for abandonment if I left, and that they had every
right to do so. I was being texted by my
ex babysitter at exactly seven asking where I was, and
then I needed to be there by seven thirty. I
(24:27):
had never been late picking up my kids, and the
way she acted that night is why she's the ex babysitter.
She threatened to call CPS and cops if I wasn't
there again, as.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Long as you were calling Florida, as long as you
were communicating to the babysitter and being like, hey, something
up and I can't get home, then that's a ridiculous response.
Thirty minutes later, come on, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
I blew up at my boss like, hey, I have
to go, and I'm not sure what to tell you guys.
I was ignored. The nurse said, not our fault. You're
a single mind because men don't like you. You should
have thought about this before you had kids.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
These people are terrible. Flow it up, these people.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Are well come to central floor. Buh. I just sat
down and cried. My boss finally got back to me,
and I left. I got to my kids at eight
pm and had to explain to cops and show them
text messages. The officer apologized and told me to find
a new babysitter.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You being like, oh my god, there's an emergency at work.
They won't let me leave. Probably just need another thirty
minutes is not grounds for calling the cops. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Bad babysitter, Bad babysitter. I was already at the end
of my rope with this job at this point. And
then here comes to Teresa, as a fellow Kentuckian down rough.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You were wrong. They're all Kentuckians.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Oh, Kentucky is the Florida of the Midwest.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Unlass Sop was originally from Kentucky. And she's saying, there's
another person from Kentucky and I'm just.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Going, ah, that would actually that is pertinentuse Why would
you say you're a Kentucky And if you're all in Kentucky,
there's still Florida.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Still got Florida, got it, it's still Florida. As a
fellow Kentucky and I'm so disappointed in her. She's in
her sixties and acts like a teenager. She had always
held a grudge against me because she can boss everyone
around but me. I told her one time, act your wage,
not your dream. She's an aid like me and makes
the same amount the only difference is she's an office runner.
(26:30):
She tells on everything and everyone. I have reported her
multiple times. She forces patients to give up their trays
before they're done, confines certain patients to their room for
no reason, and speaks horribly to patients and staff. Nobody
likes her. Saturday, she kept telling me to do this
and that when I know what to do. I've been
(26:52):
doing my job for almost seven years. I have my
own routine that helps me stay on track. Mind your
business and I'll mind mine. So Sunny treoslaud loose. She's
on top of her attitude and bossing game. She tried
telling me what to do again and got mad because
I told the nurse I didn't want to work with her,
and the nurse agreed. Teresa then went and lied to
(27:13):
the nurse about multiple things I was able to prove
were lies. That made her even madder, and she went
to the front hall to tell the aids I was
talking about them. I told them all the truth with
the receipts. Lunchtime rolled around and I had to work
with Teresa. We got all the trays out and there
were a few patients who didn't get their tray. I
was telling dietary who we were missing. When I saw
(27:36):
her with a tray, I asked her for the name,
and she ignored me. I went to see the name,
and she yelled at me at the top of her
lungs to leave it alone in front of the charge nurse.
The charge nurse didn't say or do anything, so I said,
I'm actually trying to find the patients, and I needed
the name, so I knew who needed a tray.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
My advice is literally, find a new job. Yeah, because
this is terrible.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Find a new job, and like, figure out.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I have the state report. Yeah, like behavior report, the
breaches in contract.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Move back to Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Move back to Kentucky, leave this place.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Move to the part of Florida that is in Florida
but instead is Cuba. And that's Miami. Anyway, we got
all of them out and I sat to feed a patient.
She kept talking all kinds of crap about me across
the table from me to the charge nurse, saying the following,
I doubt OHP has all the health issues. She's told
boss's name. OP acts like she's better than me. Oh
(28:38):
P has lost a lot of weight. I bet the
surgery she had was weight loss surgery, yes, or maybe
when you have major surgery and have to recover for
three weeks, you lose a little weight.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Maybe.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Maybe this is why, even though you're sixty plus years old,
you've never advanced in your field.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, I'm sorry you're in healthcare. How are you in healthcare?
These people are awful and stupid and I'm sorry, op.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, I wish I could get time off to pay
attention to my appearance, Like op Op got left by
her fiance and I understand why. Out so like all
of this is like, I'm sure very.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Hoestyle workplace hr HR Florida is probably like, actually, we
need to bring back bullying in the workplace.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
That's it's survival of the fittest. To say I was
livid doesn't even touch how I felt. It took all
I had not to lash out. A few tears slipped
out while I finished feeding a patient and avoided her
for the rest of the day. I'm seriously considering cutting
my losses and going with the local hospital. Am I
the a hole for going off on my coworkers?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Please go off on them?
Speaker 1 (29:44):
When did you even do that?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You didn't go off on that?
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I would have gone so far off on her, like
and not like screaming, yelling, crying, but just like surgical tactical. Yeah.
I mean, like, hey, Teresa, I know you're very dissatisfied
with your life, but that doesn't mean you have to
take it out on me my surgery. The fact that
you're gossiping about my medical problems seems like a pretty
(30:09):
severe offence in the workplace.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Seems like I could yet scared. Yeah say that. Oh yeah,
you know you can get fired for that, Teresa. I'd
make her scared, scare her, frighten her, go off on her.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yep, but that is the end of that story. Yeah,
I would definitely stop working there, leave sue them.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I don't know anything yet there.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
If you could talk to a loss so if there's
any pro bono lawyers or you know, whatever, if you
can explain your situation and ask for a settlement, because
I mean, you've got a coworker who's sort of I
don't know. It doesn't sound like she's in a position
of authority though, so that might change things. But maybe
there's an argument that if your you know, workplace facilitated
(30:51):
a toxic environment, that's the issues, and it concerned your
private medical information and that they let that information out.
I would say, maybe there's something there, but I don't know,
but definitely stop working there regardless, yep, crazy and let
them all know, let them all know what you think
on the way out.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Speak your mind, op, And we're gonna get into that
next story. Folks.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Hey, it's Sam. We're gonna get back to these stories.
But here's three bits of ads from our sponsors that
keep the show alive.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I effectively ruin someone's future, and I'm not sorry.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
When you're talented, you're talented.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And this comes directly from the r slash Okay Storytime subredate.
I forty female, AM an immigrant, AM married and have
an underaged child. We have lived in our small town
for going on two decades, and while we're a family
of introverts, we have made a few friends and built
a lot of solid business relationships. By the way, this
comes from Overall Elderberry's sixteen And if you want to
(31:43):
submit your own stories, go to the r slash Okay
Storytime subred it. I'm Sophia, I'm Dakota, I'm Carly, and
we're here to give good advice. Goof Lee, but we
don't have all the answers. We only know what we'd do,
so let us know what you would do in the
comments and op says. For almost a decade, I was
an independent contractor running a small business that ended up
employing up to ten people full time. Being a woman
(32:06):
in a male dominated field was exhausting at best, but
I was blessed with thick skin and an overabundance of sarcasm.
Over time, I managed to get it through the thick
small town skulls of the Bois club that I do,
in fact know how to use power tools and don't
need advice on how to park my truck. Hiring was
(32:27):
always a spectacle, but out of a mixed bag of nuts,
I managed to gather a good group of people I
treated like family, some of which had zero experience but
the right attitude and motivations, so they caught on in
no time. We had regular get togethers outside of work
at my house and I helped them whenever I could
with references for rentals, extra cash for deposits, etc. Enter Barbie.
(32:49):
She was freshly twenty and had zero experience. We hired
her as a helper to start, still paid way above
minimum wage and as per they are usual made clear
that at the one year of valuation we could discuss
position and pay based on her performance. From the get go,
she was very, very chatty. She inserted herself into every
(33:12):
conversation and over shared personal details like she was lying
down on couch and not up on scaffolding. She would
discuss her private life in detail, but she did pick
up new skills quickly, so I gave her an informal
talk and thought that would be it. In my experience,
a lot of younger people struggle with work life balance,
which is a nice way of saying they tend to
(33:32):
want to party during the week and colin sick the
next day. Not to mention make stupid financial decisions we
have all gone through, but normally they don't tell their
boss how their friends are planning to try mushrooms that night,
or send wasted text to coworkers on a Wednesday night. Again,
we had a conversation. This time it was documented and official,
(33:54):
because random substance uts are a thing. Every other week
there was friend group, drama, boy drama, girl drama, the works.
She was jumping from one short lived relationship to the next,
and I tried everything but plugging my ears and going
to avoid hearing inappropriate things she kept telling me. When
other employees expressed their discomfort, I gave her another warning
(34:16):
that strike.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Too, man. You really got to just be like stop, stop,
stop telling me. I don't care, I don't want to
hear about it, and you're jeopardizing your job.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Then some tools disappeared, small, easily concealed things that added
up to nearly ten k in value. Of course, things
disappeared out of a company vehicle on a job site
that had no cameras. The only people working the site
were my right hand man, one of the first people
I hired eight years prior, a woman who had been
(34:51):
working for me over five years, and Barbie. Cops were involved,
but ultimately they shrugged it off because I did don't
have any real evidence.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I bet it was Torque ranches, torqu crunches.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
I bet you nay stout Torque cranches, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Not even a day after they closed the investigation, Barbie
showed up with a new phone, new smart watch, new clothes,
bragging about the shopping spree her latest boyfriend had taken
her out.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
We're freaking sorry, I'm just googling if tork cranches are expensive.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
You're so stupid. When my assistant manager sarcastically said something like,
oh you got a new one, she excitedly slaimed that
he had seen him when he visited her on the
job site for lunch. We did desecrate the tool trailer.
Sorry about that?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
What?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Sorry? Did you just tell people that you had spicy
sleep and the tooltailor.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
To tamin in?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Huh? You the giggle. I'm also sure she didn't use
the word desecrate, but that's not the point. Letting unauthorized
people on with job site was the perfect last straw
to fire her. He's sitting there like, you did what
in the trailer?
Speaker 1 (36:06):
You know? I know, I was really slamming on Florida
for that. Out Will Employment a little bit in the
in the previous story we read, But it's stuff like
this that makes me go, you know what? At Will Employment?
It really is it nice? It would be nice to
just be able to immediately go, you know what, you
don't have to shut up because you just don't work
here anymore? Fired, goodbye.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
It qualified as a third strike and covered my butt
in a legal sense, she cried. Then she screamed, I
couldn't fire her because she quit classic followed by a
lot of discriminatory remarks and colorful insults of every flavor.
Then she threw a hammer at me, which went wide
and stuck in the wall instead, and is there to
(36:48):
this day. Someone even framed it. She was told to
get the f out, and so she did. Given her
age related stupidity, I decided not to press charges. I
want to focus on the headache of finding a replacement instead.
After finally being rid of her.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
That was the wrong move. These kind of people need consequences, Yeah,
or they will never change.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, she's not gonna learn, except I wasn't. A few
hours after she left, she demanded her last pay immediately,
and now, legally, after terminating any employee, you have a
few days. If the employee quits on their own, it's
a bit longer either way. I normally ensure this happens asap,
so I did. After filing and doing the bank stuff,
(37:33):
she had pay the next day. Her paperwork was filed
with the government the same day and accessible for her online.
Two days after her stunt, I had two cops show
up at my office asking if we had impartial witnesses
to what happened. It was strange, I thought, because she
tried to thorw me into oblivion. But the nice officers
refused to answer any questions, so I offered them some
(37:56):
coffee and a snack while I pulled up the security
camera footage, which she obviously forgot about. Her tantrum was
captured in three angles plus footage over peeling out of
the parking lot. Moments later, silence followed. The older cop
clears throat and decided to tell us what had happened.
According to Barbie, I had with El jar Pei for weeks,
(38:16):
and when she confronted me, I assaulted her, choked her,
and told her I would ut alive her.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Girl, I feel like you really do need to go
to jail for saying stuff like that that's not true.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yeah, I think you should press charges.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
You should have to go to jail for half the
amount of time that the person would go to jail
if they were convicted of the stuff you accused them of. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
She also decided to throw in accusations against my assistant manager.
He has a happily married, attracted the same gender man,
which she apparently never picked up on, in spite of
him repeatedly talking about his husband. Needless to say, they
didn't investigate further. A few weeks later, I got a
call from the government agency dealing with employment issues. I
found out an employee is able to file claim online
(39:01):
and it's up to the employer to prove they did
nothing wrong. Luckily, I documented everything, bonus payments, paying full
days for half work days, et cetera. I had to
provide scope of projects hour log showing how many people
worked on the project, and that we didn't leave her
alone to do two weeks worth of work in two days.
That too, was dismissed quickly. By that point, I was
(39:23):
contemplating a career change to something less stressful, like a
preschool teacher.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Ah, that's funny, eh.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
It turned into a running joke, what will Barbie do next? Well?
Call immigration, of course, please file a police report against her.
That went nowhere, since I do indeed have legal paperwork.
Neither did reporting me for committing tax fraud. The auditor
said my books were some of the most immaculate he
has ever seen, and to this day it's my proudest achievement.
(39:52):
Through all of this, she was using me as a
reference for prospective employers, because this, too is a legal minefield.
I only could she worked for me and refused to
answer any questions. A lot of the people calling me
were people I knew, because this is a small town.
And while I made sure not to tell anyone anything,
I can't guarantee my employees didn't.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
How is it illegal to be like, oh, yeah, no,
she threw a hammer at my head. What's the point
I fired her for having spicy sleep on the job site.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
What's the point of calling for references if you can't say.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, I don't know. This feels like a different state.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Not to mention the fact that the cops showed up
two days after she left. I was suddenly audited and
immigration checked in on me. Undoubtedly all witnessed by someone.
And if you have ever lived in a small town,
you know everyone's up in everyone else's business. So nobody
hired her. Bad review started popping up on Google, but
because they all mentioned employment, they were automatically removed. After
(40:52):
a few days, Barbie spiraled further. She began driving past
my house at all hours of the day and night.
And if this police.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Reports, if this idiot used half of the effort that
she was using to bother you, maybe she'd be employed.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Yeah, hey, it's John here.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
We're gonna get back to the stories. Put a quick
three minute ad break from her sponsors that keep the
show going.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
The only thing she accomplished was piss me off, So
I gathered the mountain of evidence, called a friend that
happened to be a lawyer, and we were in the
middle of deciding an action plan when my kid called.
He's a teenager, so when he actually calls instead of
texting me about food, I know something is up. Barbie
had decided to escalate things to a new level and
(41:34):
send him a few long, unhinged messages from her own
Facebook profile, ranging from calling him names to threatening him.
It took me a minute to pick my jaw off
the floor while my friend contacted the police. A restraining
order was granted and I actually filed charges, when initially
all I wanted was to see if I could get
a restraining order against her and hopes that would scare
(41:56):
her off. This happened almost two years ago, and the
court date has been pushed back a few times because
the system is overloaded. Luckily, she has kept quiet. In
the meantime, I sold my business to my right hand
man and retired from that insanity. I didn't work for
nearly two years because the whole ordeal made me physically
and mentally sick. A lot of therapy has happened for
(42:17):
both me and the kiddo. As an added bonus, we
were both diagnosed with ADHD. He switched online school because
Barbie has a lot of equally unstable family members and
her mom works at our local high school. Yikes, so
we decided it would be best to avoid any further
contact as much as possible. On all, this ordeal probably
(42:37):
aged me a decade, but I'm glad we're somewhat through
with it. I've been meaning to write this out for
almost a year, but it felt too daunting. I recently
started working in a different field, in a position where
I will be hiring and training new employees, so naturally
this came to mind again. There is a little bit
left to this story.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Any final thoughts prosecute early now you've learned your lesson.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Yeah, yeah, police report. When someone throws a hammer at you,
file a police report before they start doing more crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, you don't have to be a cool, chill guy
with people who are not cool and chill.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
The funny thing is I would do it again. I
got to help a lot of people get a foot
in the door and build some very marketable skills. Most
of my former employees keep in touch, and I love
getting little life updates. And while I try to keep
things civil because I know how messy her life is.
If you threaten my child, you better expect to live
(43:35):
with consequences. She did it to herself, really, and while
part of me wants to feel bad for dragging her
to court, I can't bring myself to care. She did
apply at my new workplace, so I guess she's still unemployed.
I had a great time explaining to our regional manager
why I can't hire someone because they are court ordered
to not be near me, and why it might not
(43:57):
be a good idea anyways, and that it's the end
of that story. Folks. Wow boy, oh boy, what a dale,
What a Dale? What a Dale? Oh man?
Speaker 1 (44:11):
If that teacher did anything to make your kid's high
school experience worse, I would definitely get her reported and
fired as well. Yeah, she shouldn't be an educator, She
shouldn't be a teacher, agreed Trashola. Yeah. No.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
The whole thing about like having to take your kid
out of school because his teacher might do something. Yeah,
see what you can do about that. But we do
have some comments from the video. I think my girlfriend
is a stalker and this was posted August. First, we
have a TLDR. Op twenty eight male thought his girlfriend
twenty five female was keeping a dream journal, but it
(44:44):
turned out she was secretly writing down everything about his life.
I remember this one. I remember this, his coffee order,
calls with his mom, even his Facebook activity. At first,
she said it was a relationship sink journal to build
a deeper bond, but op we later found five more
journals she'd been keeping about him for years, even before
(45:06):
they were dating. To make things worse, her ex reveal
she wants, faked a pregnancy and may have even planted
a kidden camera. Now Opie is terrified and planning to
move out without telling her. If you're curious to know
the full story, you can watch the full video.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
I do not know this one.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
That one was crazy. Yeah, she had like journals and
journals and journals. Yes, it was intense.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Okay, well we got comment one by Jess Smith ninety six.
I have a book that I write things down that
people say. Now they know I do that, since this
notebook is actually meant for me to remember things, since
my meds make me forgetful. If I call someone and
they don't answer, I'll.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
Write down why I called them.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
If I'm talking about planning something face to face with someone,
I'll jot it down. I think what this guy's girlfriend
is doing is creepy. Yeah, I'm only nine minutes in,
so I don't know what's happening after that.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
I'd feel creepy if my boyfriend did this.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
It gets so much worse, Jess Smith, It gets so
much worse. It's not Yeah, what you're doing is normal
people journal all the time. I also write down things
people say if they're funny, because that's I'm my writer.
That's what you need. But you know, when you start
writing down things people said and do and where they
are before you even really met them, that's just stalking,
(46:25):
plain and simple. Okay.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Comment to by m Thomas ten Or with the first story.
Instead of stalking your partner, you can just ask them
to tell you about their day.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Literally, how could I possibly do that? What are you
talking about?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
What if they don't want to what if they say, ah,
you want to know about my day, screw you and
then they spit. Yeah, isn't it so much easier to
just stalk their every move and write it all down
in some creepy journals?
Speaker 4 (46:58):
Did she have a job in this one?
Speaker 2 (47:00):
I don't even remember. I don't just being how does
she manage two jobs stalking her boyfriend and whatever her
other job.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
Is a Commenter three by maleik two hundred and fifty five.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Story one.
Speaker 4 (47:13):
Why am I weirdly attracted to that?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Lol? I don't know. I think that's something to think
about in therapy.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Maybe you just need a real type a girl.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, you should hate the girl from the story because
Opie's out.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, Opie's out, and maybe you'd be a perfect couple.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I want a girl who's clinically obsessed with.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
A girl who's a little bit crazy, a lot of
bit crazy. Actually, in the story, it's like that song
sad he likes crazy girls.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Okay, nobody knows that song. Anyone who ever existed.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
That whatever, who made that song, just leave.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Made that song? You are you don't know and it
doesn't exist.
Speaker 4 (47:55):
Commenter four by shy like k eleven.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
I kind I kind of get the girl in the
first story because I'll research the interest of people that
I care about so that I can ask them questions
about it. I'll also make notes of little things they
like or say when they want for gifts and stuff,
but not with time, for sure, and certainly not when
I'm not around.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Yeah. Again, there are normal ways to journal about someone
or to even take an interest in their life. This
was not one of them. This was freaky. This was strange,
a little freaky, a little deaky, a little spooky if
you will, because it's spooky season. Well maybe not when
you're watching them in my no lotary spooky speason. But folks,
(48:40):
that's the end of those comments and the end of
this episode. But if you love us, make sure to
subscribe
Speaker 1 (48:46):
We love you, and see it am all.
This is Cowboy Sam and this is Eh John. And
we've last.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Showed in some amazing stories for y'all the Okay Storytime podcasts.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
But before that we got.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
To wrangle a quick little two minute out break from
those bucking sponsors.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We bucking love so much they paid us the bucks
to help this show stay alive.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm pregnant and my boss is forcing me to travel.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
You should make your boss pregnant.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I I have been with my current employer for five years.
I'm in England and I'm currently twenty one weeks pregnant.
I inform my manager at six weeks due to medical
history and health issues. By the way, this comes from
long jumpin Lab thirty ninety two. And if you want
to submit your own stories, go to the r slash
Okay Storytime Separate it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I'm Sofia, I'm Dakota, I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Carly, and we're here to give good advice. Goofy, But
we don't have all the answers. We only know what
we do, so let us know what you would do
in the comments. Yay and opisas I travel for work,
mostly to Europe and the US and work in events.
Most of my job is research and sales and marketing,
with only a tiny portion involving the event itself. I
(01:04):
have nothing to do with venues, logistics, food, or any
of the stereotypical things you might think of when you
think of a job and events. I'm paid commission based
on sales revenue for events. I have done all the
research for agenda writing, et cetera. Separate from this, I
sometimes have to support as an extra pair of hands,
which I have never been paid extra for. My manager
(01:25):
has been fairly difficult about my inability to travel due
to pregnancy related medical issues. I have a note from
my doctor saying I am not allowed to fly, and
this voids my company travel insurance, which makes me feel
very unsafe even trying to fly. Not only this, but
I have been on bed rest for most of my pregnancy.
(01:45):
She forced me to go to one event at seven
weeks pregnant, a week after I told her, telling me
I would lose my three thousand pound commission if I
didn't go. She can't do that. I think that she
legally can't do that because it's a pregnancy related issue.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I would assume that they can't just be like, you
don't get any money, you pregnant, lose it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, I believe that she cannot do that. At the event,
I ended up bedridden, unable to do anything, and we
were short staff. A number of people asked her why
I still went, including her manager, and she pretended she
didn't know I was pregnant or ill. And that's when
you go and say, hey, she did know because I
told her that I wasn't allowed to go, and she
(02:29):
forced me to.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You go, Yeah, you make a get ready with me.
You just blast this information to all.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Places because I physically went, though I still got my commission.
After that, I explicitly told HR and my manager's manager
about my pregnancy and medical issues. They have been very supportive,
offering me fully flexible, working completely work from home, no
pressure to travel abroad, time off for appointments, et cetera. However,
(02:56):
my manager has continued to be awful. She has given
me grief for midwife appointments, been very inflexible over deadlines,
expected me to work when hospitalized on an IV drip,
and continuously asked me when I was coming back to
the office. This is directly against what she has been
told by HR and her manager. So we go to
(03:18):
them again and say she's still doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Lawsuit, law suit, lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I have mostly rolled my eyes and left her to it.
But this week there was another event for which I'd
done all the work. It was pre agreed that my
colleague would cover for me on the day and I
would get the commission. I did everything I could, staying
online until midnight every day at out my colleague, sending
detailed notes in advance, and completing all the preparation work, research,
(03:48):
et cetera. This was agreed months ago. This event was
in the US. I feel extremely unsafe going to the
US as a pregnant woman, especially with the high risk pregnancy.
Manager then called me on Friday saying she thinks it's
unfair my colleague didn't get paid and asked me to
give her sixteen hundred pounds of my commission because it
(04:09):
was unfair. No, she had to cover for me. When
I refused to travel, I said no. She asked again
whether I would consider it. I said no.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
She said, oh, wait, let me check. Oh yeah, the
same thing I said before, yep.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I then sent her a detailed email with all the
work I had done, CCN, the HR and her manager
what we had agreed in advance and said I felt
it was pregnancy discrimination to penalize me. She responded via
a team's message, asking why I sent such a long email,
and I said some things need to be formal. And
in writing, she's now saying she wants to blanket change
(04:47):
the policy so that if people can't travel for any reason,
their commission is docked. Would she can't do because you're
HR and her manager already said that you're good. Our
contracts say we have to travel. So in the five
years I've been here, people have only ever not traveled
for extremely serious reasons, usually severe health conditions. There is
(05:08):
zero precedent for anyone losing commission, and this seems to
be a policy she is purely pushing to introduce on
the back of my pregnancy. Nobody gave any grief to
my colleague who had cancer last year. I guess I
need to decide whether to let this go. Should I complain? Yes,
I have said nothing to HRS so far, although they
have reprimanded her on their own accord for things they
(05:32):
noticed without me reporting them. Report report report. Should I
wait and see if she actually introduces this new policy
and argue about it retrospectively.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No, No, You're like, should I wait for all of
the bad stuff to become the rule and then fight
against it?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
No? No, should I get formal legal advice? I don't
even think you need to literally go to your boss,
your boss's boss, go to HR.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I think you should. I think you should because I
think a lawyer might tell you, like exactly how.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
To play this. That's true, I mean it would help.
But I feel like she's just not even talking to her,
the boss's boss, or the HR anymore. Am I actually
in the wrong here? No? Or do I need to
drop it? Also? No? And there are some relevant comments,
But do you have any thoughts of your own?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Make this place underwater? What I mean like, make it
go underwater? What because of how much you sue them for?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Oh? Yes, okay, understood Atlantis this place because they are
treating you unfairly and discriminating against you. That's illegal.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Most people will probably be sympathetic to pregnant women. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Relevant comments. Battie Matt. Maddie Matt says, Hello, I am
not a lawyer, but I am an events producer in
London and recently had a baby. I traveled at thirteen
weeks EU twenty six weeks US and thirty one weeks EU.
It was tough, and I declined to travel to one
of my events inc at thirty two weeks and receive
(07:04):
my full commission. Not traveling due to pregnancy should be
a reasonable accommodation. And you need to go to HR
asap and tell them what your manager has done. Your
commission is based on the sale of your product, not
just your attendance at the event. If that were the case,
then our new BDM would be getting full commission on
(07:24):
a two million plus show despite joining two weeks ago.
Silly Opie says, yeah, I do. Production was trying and
failing to be vague. Haha, glad your company was nice
about it. Maybe you should move there once matt leave
is her maternity leave is over right, This is my issue.
My colleague covered for me, But I don't think she
(07:45):
should get commission on a one point one million pound
event that she wasn't involved in until literally the day of.
And I don't think it should come out of mine
when I've been working on it since last September and
have hit every single KPI and done everything as to
me except physically getting on a plane. Giving her something
(08:05):
as a gesture would be nice, but frankly has nothing
to do with me.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
She's saying that she shouldn't get paid at all.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Because I think the submission of her commission.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I agree she shouldn't come out of he commission, but
I do think she should get paid for it.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
She should get some commission.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I think she would be getting paid for it, but
it wouldn't be Ope's commission.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I don't know if you should get commissioned for handling
the event the day.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That it happened, running an entire event day of I
don't think she should get comissioned.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think she should get paid. I think that's a
separate thing.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, because commission is usually I mean, that's that's the
sale of setting it up, yeah, and locking it in.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I'm assuming she's get paid bonus. Yeah. I don't think
that you should get paid for the commission of setting
it up.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
If she wasn't involved with the account.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, that's a conversation between her and finance, HR literally
anyone else.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
If she says, hey, I need to be paid more
for the work I'm doing, then she goes and talks
to their bosses, I'll be BATTYE Matt Mattie. Matt said,
I feel like Events is notorious for crappy maternity policies
since we have these in person products. A parallel you
could make to HR would be do staff who comes
to run theaters or a liaise with speakers, etc. On
(09:13):
the day also get production commission since they're doing production
work on site. Silly, silly, and I really hope this
gets sorted in your favor. It's pretty clear your boss
has likely promised your colleague some commission and is trying
to cover her butt, but her proposed policy is discriminatory
since any reason is super vague and clearly aimed at you.
(09:36):
The pregnant employee. Opie says, Yeah, I feel like the
fact it's a policy clearly aimed at me and that
had never even been talked about prior to my pregnancy
makes a fairly strong case for discrimination. And top comment
winner Ads says, please make a log of every interaction
you've had with your manager and file a formal complaint
(09:58):
against her, and also include the amount of extra hours
you have been working, which is usually also something that
has to be signed off. Please do not put yourself
at risk due to one manager causing an issue, especially
when HR have been so accommodating, they cannot fire you
or let you go when you have all the evidence
surrounding your manager, as that would be a very easy
(10:18):
discrimination and unfair dismissal case, to be honest, very high
grounds for discrimination case anyway, So go straight to HR
and raise a formal complaint and log any other bad
interactions moving forward. And there is an update nearly three
months later, and do you have any thoughts before we
jump in?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, I don't know, eggs all the same stuff. Yeah,
you're gonna win. You're pregnant.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're pregnant, and literally your boss's boss agrees with you.
HR agrees with you. You're fine. Update nearly three months later.
I am now eight months pregnant and maternity league will
be starting next month, so almost done with all the
work drama. I took everyone's advice and spoke to HR
and upper management, which I was super worried about doing.
(11:04):
They were actually extremely supportive. I told them I wanted
to create as little friction as possible, so I framed
it as wanting a resolution before the issues escalated further,
rather than it being a formal complaint. I think HR
and Upper management were worried about me turning it into
a formal complaint, as they pretty much agreed to everything
I asked, including giving me confirmation and writing that none
(11:26):
of my commission would be withheld as a result of
me being unable to travel while pregnant. They said it
would be haveved while I'm actually on maternity leave, which
is fair enough as I won't be working. They also
put together a helpful document for my manager on how
to speak to and support pregnant employees, because she clearly
doesn't know how to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
This is true, It's pretty bad at it, but framed.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It as something coming from them to support her, rather
than as me making a formal complaint and her being
told off. Things included guidance like if your employees hospitalized
and on a drip, maybe just maybe give them the
day off work. I had to go to upper management
about her again last week. Sadly, i'd planned to come
(12:10):
in to say goodbye to everyone before my maternity leave started,
as I'm fully worked from home for these last few weeks.
As agreed with HR, I've been there almost six years,
so it would have been sad to leave without saying goodbye.
We had a social plan for that afternoon, so I
wanted to swing by for a bit. However, I wasn't
well enough to make it in for nine am, and
she basically told me that if I could only come
(12:32):
in for lunchtime, not to bother at all because upper
management will not be happy with that. Why are you lying?
You're the only one upset.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
What do you have? Guess pregnant people having babies.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
But there is a little, wee little bit left to
this story. Ooh, give me final thoughts about this crazy manager.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I would just keep documenting everything she's doing and boil boy.
Is it gonna be on to get the settlement for
this discrimination lawsuit? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I think you just tell you the managers and HR
if she keeps doing this, I will have to take
other actions if this is not address. But there is
a little bit left to the story. I contacted upper
management directly and asked whether it would be an issue
for me to just come in at lunch. They said
it wasn't an issue at all, and that of course
I should have the opportunity to say goodbye. My manager
(13:27):
is now fuming that I went over her head and
got her told off, But oh well, anyway, I thought
people would appreciate the update that HR and senior management
aren't always monsters. They were actually very supportive, and I've
been throughout my pregnancy. I am sure they had ulterior
motives and not wanting a pregnant woman to cause them
a lawsuit or bad press.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Bit.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Fine, and that's the end of that story, folks. But uh,
good luckal Pye and I hope that your pregnancy goes
well and that your baby is cool.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Sounds like you fumbled the back, not even kidding.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, it could be done so.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Sounds like if you would have gone to a lawyer,
your lawyer would have told you exactly how to move
and you would have ended up getting a settlement. But
maybe you're just not that kind of person. Yeah, I
think I would have put the company at risk.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I think six years likes the people that she
works with besides this manager. But that's the end of
that story, folks. And we've got another one coming right up.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
My coworkers tried to ruin my life after I survived
a surgery.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I just survived something. Leave me alone.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
By the way, this comes directly from the r Slash
Showky story. I'm separated is one of us I'm female,
twenty five and I work in healthcare. I had worked
in home health before I got wrongfully fired from the company.
Long story short, they had two companies and one is
now being investigated for text for fraud. I don't know
(14:48):
how that's possible. It doesn't exist. Oop, there's no such
thing as the fraud in you at taxes, Well, nope,
taxes are all fraud. Wow, taxes are fraudulent.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
No taxation without representation.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I don't know about y'all. I don't feel very represented.
I had turned in a two week notice because I
was being punished by the supervisor for speaking up for
the patients. I had vocalized to part of the care
team that a patient needed to be in a nursing
home and not home health services. He was that bad off.
By the way, this comes from user massive instance eighty
(15:22):
two ninety two, And if you want to submit your
own stories, go to the r slash Okay storytime subur
it where this story was submitted.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I'm Dakota, I'm Sophia, I'm Carly, and we're here.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
To give you good advice. Goofuy. But we don't have
all the answers. We only know what we would do so.
If you would do something different, let us know in
the comments. As op says, three weeks after this, I
turned in my two week notice. It was done in
a very professional manner, and I'll post it here. Quote. Dear,
whoever it concerns, please accept this letter as formal notice
(15:54):
of my resignation from my position at STNA at Company Name,
effective two weeks from the date of this letter. My
last day will be January twenty fifth, twenty twenty five.
I appreciate the opportunities I've had while working at Company Name,
and I'm grateful for the experience and knowledge gained. I'll
ensure a smooth transition of my responsibilities during my remaining
(16:15):
time here. Thank you again for the opportunity to be
part of the Company Name team. Come to find out
I was one of five aids that they had cover
for the patients for the company that's being investigated for
tax fraud. Patients started reporting non coverage but were getting
charged for hours that weren't being provided. Not even two
(16:39):
days after my last day, I got fired from the
other company I was still working for. They pulled me
in and said they would be terminating my contract due
to a false report. Side note. It was a one
sided argument with a woman who was yelling at me
because I was parked in a drop off area waiting
for my wheelchair patient. She was running her mouth at me,
(17:01):
but I wasn't saying anything back. I had my patient's
wife on the phone the entire interaction. I informed them
of this information, and my boss looked at me, laughed
and said, I don't have to look into it, and
I'm not going to. I bet you work in Florida.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
You're like, Hey, this tax fraud, and they're like, is
my job I'm supposed to look.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
At the tax fraud. We've got fraudulent medical services company
at will employment. You're living in Florida.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I'm not doing a single thing about that. I've got
golf at seven. I've gotta go tax fraud more like
tax frogs in my backyard.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
In my backyard because I'm in Florida, where there's frogs
in a shaped like alligators. What is an alligator but
a large angry frog? So true?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Think about that.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I knew this could be a response due to living
in an at will state. I'm glad I no longer
worked there because it came out that the supervisor had
been arrested on substance charges. Got dragged on social media
so badly it made the local news.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
You must live in Florida.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Welcome to Florida. Fast forward to now. I was unemployed
until June when I got a job at a nursing home.
The interview went great. At first, I was working the
assignment of an aide who went on medical leave. It
was easy, peasy, lemon squeeze, or so, I thought. Information
that will make sense as to why I add this.
(18:29):
I was diagnosed with stomach issues at fourteen, almost fifteen.
At eighteen, I was diagnosed with IBS, GERD, crones, and
chronic peptic ulcers. Rough to say that I'm used to
being in pain as an understatement. The first issue I
ran into with my new coworkers was my accidental flatulence.
(18:50):
I would walk away when I felt one coming on,
but due to my health issues, I don't always feel
them at all, so they would sneak out. At times.
They would message in a group chain about me and
giggle about it right in front of me. Mind you,
these are women in their forties and fifties.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Hey, I gotta say, farts are always a little funny. Yeah,
come on now, I mean, you know, explain to them
it's medical. But like, I feel like, when you're farting
all the time, you just gotta take it and stride
and be like, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Hello, don't I know?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
That was a good one. You just gotta like own it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
They call me the fart factory, Yeah, the flatulence facilitator.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When my friends and I were traveling, we were doing
our backpacking trip. My friend got COVID on the second
day of the trip, so she had to go quarantine,
and then we ended up in London in different hostels.
The hostel that she was in, she was in a
room with this older lady and just the she was
having a conversation with old lady and she's the old
(19:46):
lady was farting the whole time, but she would like
keep going. She wouldn't be like, oh sorry, she would
just be like and uh and keep going. And she
was doing this the whole night. And then they went
and got like. She took her at my friend out
for some fish and chips, and apparently it was a
lovely lady, but a little harder.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Here's the next issue. I fell in hurt my back.
I was in the worst pain. Ever, I felt like
my organs were in a blender and whoever was in
control wouldn't stop blending. I tried to push through it
and go to work. Mind you, a few days prior
I had been in the hospital all night and still
came in thirty minutes late with no sleep. I don't
just call off or leave work for no reason. I
(20:28):
have to be passing away to do so. Hey, I
think we might have wanted to call off work.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Dad. Yeah, if you're in that much pain, you just
got a call off work.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Well no, I mean if you were in the hospital
all night and then came in thirty minutes late with
no sleep, that's not good. Maybe that could have contributed
to your injury if you were I don't know were
you at work, but yeah, if you're pushing yourself to
the point of absolute exhaustion, could make for a dangerous environment. Yeah. Absolutely,
So I messaged my manager to leave because of my back,
(20:58):
and I did. I went to the host spit. They
did X rays. I had a gallstone in my liver
bile duct that I had knocked loose and it was
tearing through gosh. They told me it would pass and
I'd be fine. I knew this was wrong and schedule
to follow up with a hepatologist and gastro enterologist. I
(21:18):
didn't make the appointments immediately. A few days later, on
the fourth of July, ended up in the emergency room,
balling my eyes out. I was feeling like I would
rather be passed away than continue the pain I was
going through. I even told the doctor, who said, I
don't even know where my gallbladder or liver is and
I'm just being dramatic.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Your doctor said that. Your doctor said you don't even
know where your gallbladder is. You're just being dramatic.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I said, get out of my face and get me
a different doctor. I don't want someone so incompetent treating me.
He sent a nurse practitioner who actually listened and was
very sweet.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean, good on you for standing up for yourself.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, it's an important thing to do.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
You need to advocate for yourself because no one else will.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
It's true times you got to be annoying and aggressive.
Sometimes you gotta be like, no, that's not what I want.
And actually I've already done that, And I want a
recommendation to this specialist because we have a dumb system
where you have to, like they do not want to
recommend you, you have to like get permission to see
a doctor from your doctor, which is dud. I hate
(22:21):
it here for that. He had ordered opioids for me,
and I had already told him I didn't want them. Thankfully,
she informed me and gave me Tyland all. She said
it was always an option, but would only give me
medicine I was comfortable with. I'm pretty sure they got
sick of my crying and begging them to please just
make the pain stop, because just an hour after arriving
(22:42):
at the er, they knocked me out with adavan and haaldaal.
To make a long story short, they ended up removing
my gallbladder and also had to do surgery on my
liver to get the stone. I was kept off work
for three weeks. By the time I went back, everyone
was beyond upset that I was allowed to keep my
job after being off for so long. Oh dude, but
your meta Oh oops, sorry, I had to recover from
(23:03):
major surgery.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Wow, oops, your job and you work in healthcare.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
This is Florida, gotta be. I was being switched from
rotation to rotation after coming back because I was the
filla in which I didn't agree to at all in
my contract and had specifically asked for a permanent spot.
It wasn't good for me physically going from rotation to
rotation because it wasn't allowing my body to heal. I
got held over, even though in my contract it says
(23:30):
I don't have to work past seven pm. It was
agreed upon and signed off. I even made sure all
the nurses were aware of this agreement. Guess who had
to stay over because the other two left the floor.
If you guessed me and the other aid, you'd be right.
I think you need to take this to whoever is
above your manager. Yes, whoever is like the utmost authority.
Here you got my contract is being violated. I'd like
(23:54):
to talk to uh.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Here are my doctor's notes. Here was the medical emergencies
as Katie Paladin that I had to take off for
mm mmmmmmmm.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I kept telling the nurses this was against my contract
and that I wasn't going to stay and they needed
to call someone in. They said this isn't our job
and they weren't going to. They threatened to report me
for abandonment if I left, and that they had every
right to do so. I was being texted by my
ex babysitter at exactly seven asking where I was, and
then I needed to be there by seven thirty. I
(24:27):
had never been late picking up my kids, and the
way she acted that night is why she's the ex babysitter.
She threatened to call CPS and cops if I wasn't
there again, as.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Long as you were calling Florida, as long as you
were communicating to the babysitter and being like, hey, something
up and I can't get home, then that's a ridiculous response.
Thirty minutes later, come on, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
I blew up at my boss like, hey, I have
to go, and I'm not sure what to tell you guys.
I was ignored. The nurse said, not our fault. You're
a single mind because men don't like you. You should
have thought about this before you had kids.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
These people are terrible. Flow it up, these people.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Are well come to central floor. Buh. I just sat
down and cried. My boss finally got back to me,
and I left. I got to my kids at eight
pm and had to explain to cops and show them
text messages. The officer apologized and told me to find
a new babysitter.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You being like, oh my god, there's an emergency at work.
They won't let me leave. Probably just need another thirty
minutes is not grounds for calling the cops. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Bad babysitter, Bad babysitter. I was already at the end
of my rope with this job at this point. And
then here comes to Teresa, as a fellow Kentuckian down rough.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You were wrong. They're all Kentuckians.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Oh, Kentucky is the Florida of the Midwest.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Unlass Sop was originally from Kentucky. And she's saying, there's
another person from Kentucky and I'm just.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Going, ah, that would actually that is pertinentuse Why would
you say you're a Kentucky And if you're all in Kentucky,
there's still Florida.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Still got Florida, got it, it's still Florida. As a
fellow Kentucky and I'm so disappointed in her. She's in
her sixties and acts like a teenager. She had always
held a grudge against me because she can boss everyone
around but me. I told her one time, act your wage,
not your dream. She's an aid like me and makes
the same amount the only difference is she's an office runner.
(26:30):
She tells on everything and everyone. I have reported her
multiple times. She forces patients to give up their trays
before they're done, confines certain patients to their room for
no reason, and speaks horribly to patients and staff. Nobody
likes her. Saturday, she kept telling me to do this
and that when I know what to do. I've been
(26:52):
doing my job for almost seven years. I have my
own routine that helps me stay on track. Mind your
business and I'll mind mine. So Sunny treoslaud loose. She's
on top of her attitude and bossing game. She tried
telling me what to do again and got mad because
I told the nurse I didn't want to work with her,
and the nurse agreed. Teresa then went and lied to
(27:13):
the nurse about multiple things I was able to prove
were lies. That made her even madder, and she went
to the front hall to tell the aids I was
talking about them. I told them all the truth with
the receipts. Lunchtime rolled around and I had to work
with Teresa. We got all the trays out and there
were a few patients who didn't get their tray. I
was telling dietary who we were missing. When I saw
(27:36):
her with a tray, I asked her for the name,
and she ignored me. I went to see the name,
and she yelled at me at the top of her
lungs to leave it alone in front of the charge nurse.
The charge nurse didn't say or do anything, so I said,
I'm actually trying to find the patients, and I needed
the name, so I knew who needed a tray.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
My advice is literally, find a new job. Yeah, because
this is terrible.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Find a new job, and like, figure out.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I have the state report. Yeah, like behavior report, the
breaches in contract.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Move back to Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Move back to Kentucky, leave this place.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Move to the part of Florida that is in Florida
but instead is Cuba. And that's Miami. Anyway, we got
all of them out and I sat to feed a patient.
She kept talking all kinds of crap about me across
the table from me to the charge nurse, saying the following,
I doubt OHP has all the health issues. She's told
boss's name. OP acts like she's better than me. Oh
(28:38):
P has lost a lot of weight. I bet the
surgery she had was weight loss surgery, yes, or maybe
when you have major surgery and have to recover for
three weeks, you lose a little weight.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Maybe.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Maybe this is why, even though you're sixty plus years old,
you've never advanced in your field.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, I'm sorry you're in healthcare. How are you in healthcare?
These people are awful and stupid and I'm sorry, op.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, I wish I could get time off to pay
attention to my appearance, Like op Op got left by
her fiance and I understand why. Out so like all
of this is like, I'm sure very.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Hoestyle workplace hr HR Florida is probably like, actually, we
need to bring back bullying in the workplace.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
That's it's survival of the fittest. To say I was
livid doesn't even touch how I felt. It took all
I had not to lash out. A few tears slipped
out while I finished feeding a patient and avoided her
for the rest of the day. I'm seriously considering cutting
my losses and going with the local hospital. Am I
the a hole for going off on my coworkers?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Please go off on them?
Speaker 1 (29:44):
When did you even do that?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You didn't go off on that?
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I would have gone so far off on her, like
and not like screaming, yelling, crying, but just like surgical tactical. Yeah.
I mean, like, hey, Teresa, I know you're very dissatisfied
with your life, but that doesn't mean you have to
take it out on me my surgery. The fact that
you're gossiping about my medical problems seems like a pretty
(30:09):
severe offence in the workplace.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Seems like I could yet scared. Yeah say that. Oh yeah,
you know you can get fired for that, Teresa. I'd
make her scared, scare her, frighten her, go off on her.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yep, but that is the end of that story. Yeah,
I would definitely stop working there, leave sue them.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I don't know anything yet there.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
If you could talk to a loss so if there's
any pro bono lawyers or you know, whatever, if you
can explain your situation and ask for a settlement, because
I mean, you've got a coworker who's sort of I
don't know. It doesn't sound like she's in a position
of authority though, so that might change things. But maybe
there's an argument that if your you know, workplace facilitated
(30:51):
a toxic environment, that's the issues, and it concerned your
private medical information and that they let that information out.
I would say, maybe there's something there, but I don't know,
but definitely stop working there regardless, yep, crazy and let
them all know, let them all know what you think
on the way out.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Speak your mind, op, And we're gonna get into that
next story. Folks.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Hey, it's Sam. We're gonna get back to these stories.
But here's three bits of ads from our sponsors that
keep the show alive.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I effectively ruin someone's future, and I'm not sorry.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
When you're talented, you're talented.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And this comes directly from the r slash Okay Storytime subredate.
I forty female, AM an immigrant, AM married and have
an underaged child. We have lived in our small town
for going on two decades, and while we're a family
of introverts, we have made a few friends and built
a lot of solid business relationships. By the way, this
comes from Overall Elderberry's sixteen And if you want to
(31:43):
submit your own stories, go to the r slash Okay
Storytime subred it. I'm Sophia, I'm Dakota, I'm Carly, and
we're here to give good advice. Goof Lee, but we
don't have all the answers. We only know what we'd do,
so let us know what you would do in the
comments and op says. For almost a decade, I was
an independent contractor running a small business that ended up
employing up to ten people full time. Being a woman
(32:06):
in a male dominated field was exhausting at best, but
I was blessed with thick skin and an overabundance of sarcasm.
Over time, I managed to get it through the thick
small town skulls of the Bois club that I do,
in fact know how to use power tools and don't
need advice on how to park my truck. Hiring was
(32:27):
always a spectacle, but out of a mixed bag of nuts,
I managed to gather a good group of people I
treated like family, some of which had zero experience but
the right attitude and motivations, so they caught on in
no time. We had regular get togethers outside of work
at my house and I helped them whenever I could
with references for rentals, extra cash for deposits, etc. Enter Barbie.
(32:49):
She was freshly twenty and had zero experience. We hired
her as a helper to start, still paid way above
minimum wage and as per they are usual made clear
that at the one year of valuation we could discuss
position and pay based on her performance. From the get go,
she was very, very chatty. She inserted herself into every
(33:12):
conversation and over shared personal details like she was lying
down on couch and not up on scaffolding. She would
discuss her private life in detail, but she did pick
up new skills quickly, so I gave her an informal
talk and thought that would be it. In my experience,
a lot of younger people struggle with work life balance,
which is a nice way of saying they tend to
(33:32):
want to party during the week and colin sick the
next day. Not to mention make stupid financial decisions we
have all gone through, but normally they don't tell their
boss how their friends are planning to try mushrooms that night,
or send wasted text to coworkers on a Wednesday night. Again,
we had a conversation. This time it was documented and official,
(33:54):
because random substance uts are a thing. Every other week
there was friend group, drama, boy drama, girl drama, the works.
She was jumping from one short lived relationship to the next,
and I tried everything but plugging my ears and going
to avoid hearing inappropriate things she kept telling me. When
other employees expressed their discomfort, I gave her another warning
(34:16):
that strike.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Too, man. You really got to just be like stop, stop,
stop telling me. I don't care, I don't want to
hear about it, and you're jeopardizing your job.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Then some tools disappeared, small, easily concealed things that added
up to nearly ten k in value. Of course, things
disappeared out of a company vehicle on a job site
that had no cameras. The only people working the site
were my right hand man, one of the first people
I hired eight years prior, a woman who had been
(34:51):
working for me over five years, and Barbie. Cops were involved,
but ultimately they shrugged it off because I did don't
have any real evidence.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I bet it was Torque ranches, torqu crunches.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
I bet you nay stout Torque cranches, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Not even a day after they closed the investigation, Barbie
showed up with a new phone, new smart watch, new clothes,
bragging about the shopping spree her latest boyfriend had taken
her out.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
We're freaking sorry, I'm just googling if tork cranches are expensive.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
You're so stupid. When my assistant manager sarcastically said something like,
oh you got a new one, she excitedly slaimed that
he had seen him when he visited her on the
job site for lunch. We did desecrate the tool trailer.
Sorry about that?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
What?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Sorry? Did you just tell people that you had spicy
sleep and the tooltailor.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
To tamin in?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Huh? You the giggle. I'm also sure she didn't use
the word desecrate, but that's not the point. Letting unauthorized
people on with job site was the perfect last straw
to fire her. He's sitting there like, you did what
in the trailer?
Speaker 1 (36:06):
You know? I know, I was really slamming on Florida
for that. Out Will Employment a little bit in the
in the previous story we read, But it's stuff like
this that makes me go, you know what? At Will Employment?
It really is it nice? It would be nice to
just be able to immediately go, you know what, you
don't have to shut up because you just don't work
here anymore? Fired, goodbye.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
It qualified as a third strike and covered my butt
in a legal sense, she cried. Then she screamed, I
couldn't fire her because she quit classic followed by a
lot of discriminatory remarks and colorful insults of every flavor.
Then she threw a hammer at me, which went wide
and stuck in the wall instead, and is there to
(36:48):
this day. Someone even framed it. She was told to
get the f out, and so she did. Given her
age related stupidity, I decided not to press charges. I
want to focus on the headache of finding a replacement instead.
After finally being rid of her.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
That was the wrong move. These kind of people need consequences, Yeah,
or they will never change.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, she's not gonna learn, except I wasn't. A few
hours after she left, she demanded her last pay immediately,
and now, legally, after terminating any employee, you have a
few days. If the employee quits on their own, it's
a bit longer either way. I normally ensure this happens asap,
so I did. After filing and doing the bank stuff,
(37:33):
she had pay the next day. Her paperwork was filed
with the government the same day and accessible for her online.
Two days after her stunt, I had two cops show
up at my office asking if we had impartial witnesses
to what happened. It was strange, I thought, because she
tried to thorw me into oblivion. But the nice officers
refused to answer any questions, so I offered them some
(37:56):
coffee and a snack while I pulled up the security
camera footage, which she obviously forgot about. Her tantrum was
captured in three angles plus footage over peeling out of
the parking lot. Moments later, silence followed. The older cop
clears throat and decided to tell us what had happened.
According to Barbie, I had with El jar Pei for weeks,
(38:16):
and when she confronted me, I assaulted her, choked her,
and told her I would ut alive her.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Girl, I feel like you really do need to go
to jail for saying stuff like that that's not true.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yeah, I think you should press charges.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
You should have to go to jail for half the
amount of time that the person would go to jail
if they were convicted of the stuff you accused them of. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
She also decided to throw in accusations against my assistant manager.
He has a happily married, attracted the same gender man,
which she apparently never picked up on, in spite of
him repeatedly talking about his husband. Needless to say, they
didn't investigate further. A few weeks later, I got a
call from the government agency dealing with employment issues. I
found out an employee is able to file claim online
(39:01):
and it's up to the employer to prove they did
nothing wrong. Luckily, I documented everything, bonus payments, paying full
days for half work days, et cetera. I had to
provide scope of projects hour log showing how many people
worked on the project, and that we didn't leave her
alone to do two weeks worth of work in two days.
That too, was dismissed quickly. By that point, I was
(39:23):
contemplating a career change to something less stressful, like a
preschool teacher.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Ah, that's funny, eh.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
It turned into a running joke, what will Barbie do next? Well?
Call immigration, of course, please file a police report against her.
That went nowhere, since I do indeed have legal paperwork.
Neither did reporting me for committing tax fraud. The auditor
said my books were some of the most immaculate he
has ever seen, and to this day it's my proudest achievement.
(39:52):
Through all of this, she was using me as a
reference for prospective employers, because this, too is a legal minefield.
I only could she worked for me and refused to
answer any questions. A lot of the people calling me
were people I knew, because this is a small town.
And while I made sure not to tell anyone anything,
I can't guarantee my employees didn't.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
How is it illegal to be like, oh, yeah, no,
she threw a hammer at my head. What's the point
I fired her for having spicy sleep on the job site.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
What's the point of calling for references if you can't say.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, I don't know. This feels like a different state.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Not to mention the fact that the cops showed up
two days after she left. I was suddenly audited and
immigration checked in on me. Undoubtedly all witnessed by someone.
And if you have ever lived in a small town,
you know everyone's up in everyone else's business. So nobody
hired her. Bad review started popping up on Google, but
because they all mentioned employment, they were automatically removed. After
(40:52):
a few days, Barbie spiraled further. She began driving past
my house at all hours of the day and night.
And if this police.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Reports, if this idiot used half of the effort that
she was using to bother you, maybe she'd be employed.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Yeah, hey, it's John here.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
We're gonna get back to the stories. Put a quick
three minute ad break from her sponsors that keep the
show going.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
The only thing she accomplished was piss me off, So
I gathered the mountain of evidence, called a friend that
happened to be a lawyer, and we were in the
middle of deciding an action plan when my kid called.
He's a teenager, so when he actually calls instead of
texting me about food, I know something is up. Barbie
had decided to escalate things to a new level and
(41:34):
send him a few long, unhinged messages from her own
Facebook profile, ranging from calling him names to threatening him.
It took me a minute to pick my jaw off
the floor while my friend contacted the police. A restraining
order was granted and I actually filed charges, when initially
all I wanted was to see if I could get
a restraining order against her and hopes that would scare
(41:56):
her off. This happened almost two years ago, and the
court date has been pushed back a few times because
the system is overloaded. Luckily, she has kept quiet. In
the meantime, I sold my business to my right hand
man and retired from that insanity. I didn't work for
nearly two years because the whole ordeal made me physically
and mentally sick. A lot of therapy has happened for
(42:17):
both me and the kiddo. As an added bonus, we
were both diagnosed with ADHD. He switched online school because
Barbie has a lot of equally unstable family members and
her mom works at our local high school. Yikes, so
we decided it would be best to avoid any further
contact as much as possible. On all, this ordeal probably
(42:37):
aged me a decade, but I'm glad we're somewhat through
with it. I've been meaning to write this out for
almost a year, but it felt too daunting. I recently
started working in a different field, in a position where
I will be hiring and training new employees, so naturally
this came to mind again. There is a little bit
left to this story.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Any final thoughts prosecute early now you've learned your lesson.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Yeah, yeah, police report. When someone throws a hammer at you,
file a police report before they start doing more crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, you don't have to be a cool, chill guy
with people who are not cool and chill.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
The funny thing is I would do it again. I
got to help a lot of people get a foot
in the door and build some very marketable skills. Most
of my former employees keep in touch, and I love
getting little life updates. And while I try to keep
things civil because I know how messy her life is.
If you threaten my child, you better expect to live
(43:35):
with consequences. She did it to herself, really, and while
part of me wants to feel bad for dragging her
to court, I can't bring myself to care. She did
apply at my new workplace, so I guess she's still unemployed.
I had a great time explaining to our regional manager
why I can't hire someone because they are court ordered
to not be near me, and why it might not
(43:57):
be a good idea anyways, and that it's the end
of that story. Folks. Wow boy, oh boy, what a dale,
What a Dale? What a Dale? Oh man?
Speaker 1 (44:11):
If that teacher did anything to make your kid's high
school experience worse, I would definitely get her reported and
fired as well. Yeah, she shouldn't be an educator, She
shouldn't be a teacher, agreed Trashola. Yeah. No.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
The whole thing about like having to take your kid
out of school because his teacher might do something. Yeah,
see what you can do about that. But we do
have some comments from the video. I think my girlfriend
is a stalker and this was posted August. First, we
have a TLDR. Op twenty eight male thought his girlfriend
twenty five female was keeping a dream journal, but it
(44:44):
turned out she was secretly writing down everything about his life.
I remember this one. I remember this, his coffee order,
calls with his mom, even his Facebook activity. At first,
she said it was a relationship sink journal to build
a deeper bond, but op we later found five more
journals she'd been keeping about him for years, even before
(45:06):
they were dating. To make things worse, her ex reveal
she wants, faked a pregnancy and may have even planted
a kidden camera. Now Opie is terrified and planning to
move out without telling her. If you're curious to know
the full story, you can watch the full video.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
I do not know this one.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
That one was crazy. Yeah, she had like journals and
journals and journals. Yes, it was intense.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Okay, well we got comment one by Jess Smith ninety six.
I have a book that I write things down that
people say. Now they know I do that, since this
notebook is actually meant for me to remember things, since
my meds make me forgetful. If I call someone and
they don't answer, I'll.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
Write down why I called them.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
If I'm talking about planning something face to face with someone,
I'll jot it down. I think what this guy's girlfriend
is doing is creepy. Yeah, I'm only nine minutes in,
so I don't know what's happening after that.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
I'd feel creepy if my boyfriend did this.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
It gets so much worse, Jess Smith, It gets so
much worse. It's not Yeah, what you're doing is normal
people journal all the time. I also write down things
people say if they're funny, because that's I'm my writer.
That's what you need. But you know, when you start
writing down things people said and do and where they
are before you even really met them, that's just stalking,
(46:25):
plain and simple. Okay.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Comment to by m Thomas ten Or with the first story.
Instead of stalking your partner, you can just ask them
to tell you about their day.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Literally, how could I possibly do that? What are you
talking about?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
What if they don't want to what if they say, ah,
you want to know about my day, screw you and
then they spit. Yeah, isn't it so much easier to
just stalk their every move and write it all down
in some creepy journals?
Speaker 4 (46:58):
Did she have a job in this one?
Speaker 2 (47:00):
I don't even remember. I don't just being how does
she manage two jobs stalking her boyfriend and whatever her
other job.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
Is a Commenter three by maleik two hundred and fifty five.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Story one.
Speaker 4 (47:13):
Why am I weirdly attracted to that?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Lol? I don't know. I think that's something to think
about in therapy.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Maybe you just need a real type a girl.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, you should hate the girl from the story because
Opie's out.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, Opie's out, and maybe you'd be a perfect couple.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I want a girl who's clinically obsessed with.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
A girl who's a little bit crazy, a lot of
bit crazy. Actually, in the story, it's like that song
sad he likes crazy girls.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Okay, nobody knows that song. Anyone who ever existed.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
That whatever, who made that song, just leave.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Made that song? You are you don't know and it
doesn't exist.
Speaker 4 (47:55):
Commenter four by shy like k eleven.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
I kind I kind of get the girl in the
first story because I'll research the interest of people that
I care about so that I can ask them questions
about it. I'll also make notes of little things they
like or say when they want for gifts and stuff,
but not with time, for sure, and certainly not when
I'm not around.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Yeah. Again, there are normal ways to journal about someone
or to even take an interest in their life. This
was not one of them. This was freaky. This was strange,
a little freaky, a little deaky, a little spooky if
you will, because it's spooky season. Well maybe not when
you're watching them in my no lotary spooky speason. But folks,
(48:40):
that's the end of those comments and the end of
this episode. But if you love us, make sure to
subscribe
Speaker 1 (48:46):
We love you, and see it am all.
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