- This may be a bit of a novel, sorry… First time poster here and it's quite a story.
A little backstory – In 2020, my wife handed me a somewhat unexpected divorce, throwing things into a bit of a whirlwind – we've got 2 very young boys who are my entire world and, obviously, my world revolves around them. With the severe cut in time with my children, I try and make the most out of every minute I get, and pounce on any additional chances I get to be with them.
I've been working for my current company for just over a year. I'm a graphic designer/videographer – have been for the past 15 years and I've got a resume and portfolio I'm extremely proud of. Previous to this job, I ran my own business for 6 years on my own, and continue to freelance under that moniker as I've done since 2010. I found this fulltime position in May of 2022 when steady checks were at a premium and the freelance world was a bit stagnant.
When I came in, things were pretty happy – I was hired under the pretenses that we worked 3 days in-office, and 2 days remote each week, touting “extremely flexible scheduling”, which is a necessity for me as a single father with no real “village” around me to assist (not to mention that my ex is a bit of a bully). A mere 2 weeks into my job, the company did away with one of the 2 work from home days each week, for no reason other than the higher-up C-suite executives “not liking the look of empty cubicles”. Office morale took a big hit there, understandably.
From then on, my boss has been increasingly strict on this corporate “asses in seats” policy, getting completely bent out of shape every week as I continue following the same in-office schedule I've been following for nearly a year – needing to come in early/leave early on 1-2 days per week in order to retrieve my kids from their schools across town before their closing times. My boss regularly berates me verbally in front of my coworkers, as well as on group Teams chats as a bit of a hissy fit over the fact that my schedule doesn't follow the strict 9am to 6pm (and the unwritten expectation that you work through lunch as most do), though my work is getting done – not to mention we're creatives and not exactly curing cancer here.
In the past month or so, she's gone as far as complaining to HR and placing me on a Performance Improvement Plan, taking away my 1 remaining remote work day, and tightening up my in-office schedule even more than before. 2 minutes late and my ass is grass. Following my schedule religiously, I put in a request earlier this week to see my oldest son sing in his kindergarten graduation performance this coming week (which is a mere 30-45 minute detour before the start of the workday), and informed her that my kids have a half-day of school this coming thursday, and will need to leave to grab them, and work from home the remainder of the day, as i have no childcare.
My boss explodes in an email to me, saying that this is unacceptable, and we'll “talk about it next week”.
But what is there to talk about? I'm leaving to get my fucking kids. I'm literally the only single parent in the building, much less a single father – many other women in the office have children and there's no question whenever they need to leave to take care of their children.
I'm drafting a letter for HR for this coming week to get all of this more out in the open, but… What do i do? this seems like flat-out discrimination and her frequent public berating and demeaning of my work creates a hostile work environment. I shouldn't need to pop anxiety medication like candy just to go to my job each morning, and it's absolutely killing me from the inside out. I've literally worked through a case of shingles and many other illnesses in the last year, just out of fear of losing my income. It's not right.
Thanks for reading, all.