I worked for a small local wholesaler, a family run business, boss was 60 the director, his wife a director, son ran the internet side of the business.
Not long after starting there i noticed when things were busy and the Dad got cranky his son would say “don't worry about him, he gets like that”. I'd told him i wasn't worried and just got on with my work.
This would escalate into whenever i asked the boss a question he'd respond with a look of puzzlement on his face and give a hostile answer, he'd also barge in when i was busy processing orders and demand to know why a guys post code was on an order despite him being in Ireland where they don't use codes (the website wouldn't allow the field to be empty) blaming me for him paying less than he should for shipping (he didn't).
Basically the boss has major stress problems and takes it out on anyone he sees as weaker, a guy who worked in the warehouse abruptly quit and told people he was going to found some kind of sport academy, turns out he was the target of boss's wrath and belittling and couldn't take it anymore so quit. (Info relayed to me via his co-worker who witnessed me being harangued by my boss, just for telling him that the delivery van had no tail-lift and they'd have to take the stuff out manually)
Anyway, close to closing time my boss one day is bugging me to do a list for him, i've had a busy day and i comply, he wants to have it printed out and i have to then reformat it so he can read it (it was for an email), i told him i couldn't print it out and he'd have to read it from the monitor, to which he responded “If there's any mistakes there's going to be fucking trouble”.
I snapped and quickly told him he had no right in talking to me like that and as he was cornering me in the office told him to back off with my finger pointed out at him, startled he indeed backed off, i spent the next hour telling him the ways in which he was taking his stress out on me and that it was unacceptable, i thought i held myself together but i was a wreck at the same time.
At the end of it all he said “none of this would have happened if you'd done what i asked”.
Talk about denial, not to mention he'd glossed over his behaviour over the past 4 months.
This is a man who told me about incriminating material he kept in his safe on people, including a letter a guy had written to one of his staff basically coming on to him in a homosexual way, he described him as disgusting as the guy was married, and i even jokingly referred to this as “blackmail material” to which he said he kept it just in case. (sick guy i know…)To also put into perspective his character his mother in law was dying and he'd be on his phone conducting business calls whilst in the care home, back in work he referenced when “things are back to normal we'll do this…”, that was in reference to when his mother in law dies and he doesn't have to go to the nursing home, i mean i'd word it differently, so i'm not callous and evil sounding but that's just me..
Anyway, the day after this big blow out i made an appointment with my doctor, i get signed off work and put on anti-depressants initially for 6 months.
Since now i'm not at work my internet boss (boss's son) decides to freeze me out of the small business we had together selling some of the stock from the business, i was also self employed to do this, very nice….he also refused to show me the bank statements to see how much money we'd turned over to give me a fair cut of the profits, since i would come into work early to pack up the orders, print the invoices, pick the stock, i'd even go to the post office and post stuff in my own time, i was even out in minus 15 degree weather stuffing stuff into postboxes.
So that was taken away from me by his son with the excuse “you don't need to be worrying about this while you're getting better”, but what about showing me the bank statements??, and i'd been signed off from work for 6 months.
As this period starts to expire i get letters from my boss asking when i'll be coming in for a meeting to discuss the situation of me being not at work, through my CBT which i attended to help me with the anxiety and depression i was diagnosed with i got in touch with an employment advisor, who i explained everything to, she got the picture of what kind of person the boss was…
They eventually had to let me go, so i hadn't quit, but hadn't exactly got fired through any fault of my own, just due to being absent due to my mental health, they tried to screw me by only paying me for 4 days of work at the end so again my employment adviser got me my full entitlement that included my 2 weeks notice and money i was owed as technically i was employed for 2 years and that gave me an entitlement to more money was owed…this was in their own contact by the way…
This is a company that distracted a fire inspector from checking if they'd complied with an order to keep a fire exit door opened that they kept locked while the boss's son took the lock off to avoid a massive fine, it's also the same company that never in more than 25 years had a fire drill or a fire safety officer…
So after all this what did i learn?
Firstly never let anyone intimidate you to the point of making you physically and mentally ill.
Never let them do you over when it comes to money owed to you.
Get professionals on your side and keep a record of things that happen.
Any questions please fire away, there's also more stories of ineptness from this family company.