My place of work held a jingle contest and I have in writing through a work email that everyone from every department can enter the contest, even friends and family.
Im on the marketing team so I entered the contest. They let me submit my entree. Then waited over 4 months to pick a winner. They decided to send out all submissions and let the company vote on it so it was fair.
Well the company voted mine as 3rd place. However when I received the email announcement it said that my entree was disqualified for being a marketing entree and 4th place was given my prize money.
I talked to my firect manager and HR. HR talked to the CEO and they basically told me “We decided that if we let a marketing team member win that it would piss off the company so we would rather take the hit and just annoy you instead of the whole company”
Fast forward 2 months later. i finally got another job and just put in my two weeks. My manager said hes proud of me and how much I've grown. He said if I ever need any help or a reference that he will always be there for me.
Heres the thing. I want to take the company to small claims court and get the money thats rightfully mine. However I know by doing that I would burn my bridge with this company and my manager as he would take it as a personal attack. I have never had an adult job utlizing my degrees before this one so Im afraid of bruning my bridges but I also dont want to get taken advantage of.
Any advice?