This is a long but (hopefully) satisfying story so please bear with me…..
I used to work in business protection in a large department store (over 200 employees) for one of the biggest retailers in the UK. I was also the elected democratic forum representative for our store, a position I went for on the basis that the only other person who went for it was an upper store management lapdog, and that didn't sit right with me. Apparently the majority of other employees (we called them partners in our company, which is a joke now that I think about it) agreed, and I got the role, which didn't go down well with upper management! This unpaid role was about speaking on behalf of our own store employees at national meetings, so I felt it was important that someone had it who wasn't in the pocket of upper management, it was a principal thing. But I digress a little.
I enjoyed my job mostly until that point, and I felt like I was really good at what I did, I'd also won a national award for implementing sign language training and certification in the store, the idea being that there would always be an employee on site with officially recognised British Sign Language training available to help deaf customers, and I was in talks for this to be a national program, it would have been really cool for us as a company, it would have been amazing for the deaf community and boosted our image, and it was totally achievable. And then I fell foul of Doctor Evil (nickname).
Doctor Evil was the store deputy manager, but to all intents and purposes he was the manager. The actual store manager, just like most other people, was scared of him and let him call the shots. He had implemented a culture of fear and bullying which, until then, I had not really been subjected to, I was still filled with hope and optimism and felt valued. He was furious that I had gotten the democratic role instead of his lapdog, and where he really set his sights on me was when he tried to install another puppet to a lower democratic role in the store, a representative for a department essentially. He claimed that nobody else had wanted the role and that they should just get handed it.
But I knew this to be false, there was a really nice guy back of house, a shy kid who really wanted to make a difference and speak out for his fellow back of house employees, who had thrown his hat in the ring. And as the store forum representative I felt it was my duty to ensure that he had a fair chance at it. So I called out Doctor Evil on this and insisted that an election be held, as per company rules…
And that's where shit got real bad real fast. At that point I went through, what could only be described as a ruthless campaign of constructive dismissal. I was due my appraisal and my own boss (who directly reported to Doctor Evil and was known to be one of his lackeys) out of the blue put me on underperforming, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever. I was also given a final written warning for the most trivial thing ever as well as discovering that I had been assigned secret personal action plans on my record without being told about them, including to reduce store stock loss/shrinkage… all by myself apparently. I was also under scrutiny for every little thing I did, suddenly micromanaged and nothing was good enough, even if I was simply following direct instruction, at one point for example I remember him telling me where I needed to stand, and then getting angry that I was standing there, it was all really surreal, designed to break me I'm sure. Meanwhile the nice kid who wanted to make a difference got pushed out of the door and Doctor Evil got his puppet in the role after all, I still find it so sad that he was collateral damage in all of this.
I appealled everything, insisting that my appeal be heard by someone not working at the store, because at this point it was very clear to me just how deep within our store the culture of bullying and fear ran, I was more attuned to it at this point and hearing some real horror stories from other people, including constructive dismissal on other employees as well as sexual harassment on younger girls from Doctor Evil. This included unwarranted shoulder massages, him asking another girl what they would do if he kissed them, really creepy stuff.
Luckily for me the external manager who heard my campaign must have been waiting for it, he was now the manager it turned out of a lady who had faced harassment from Doctor Evil, but who hadn't done anything about it at the time and had moved stores. My meeting with him was unexpectedly positive, it took about 8 hours, he pretty much decided to uphold my appeal straight away due to the overwhelming evidence that I had done absolutely nothing wrong, the fact I had not only been elected forum rep but also the national awards etc which made the underperforming assessment absurd to him, and the rest of the time I spent giving him names and details of people he should talk to who I had known to fall target to bullying and harassment in the store. He was all ears.
I'd had it with the company at this point, so I gave my month's notice, and the external investigating manager offered that I serve that time in his own store one city away, kind of a 'witness protection' thing.
Meanwhile from my understanding, at my store it was kind of like the ending of Goodfellas. Doctor Evil was suspended whilst the external manager spent months interviewing I think by the end about 50 people with stories of bullying and sexual harassment by Doctor Evil, every name I had given him gave more names of more people who had faced this. Ultimately he was fired for gross misconduct, and the store manager who apparently had received complaints about him for years and swept it under the carpet was transferred to a much lower role in a different store, as were a number of other department managers complicit in the culture he had developed. With me opening the door for him to do so, he cleaned house.
Legend has it that Doctor Evil, the biggest sadist I have ever worked with, cried like a baby when they eventually terminated his employment. His wife had no idea that he was being investigated for, amongst other things, sexual harassment against multiple women. He had lied to her about the reason for his suspension, told her he was just taking leave as I understand it. I don't feel bad that he cried like this, I'd known so many other people he had reduced to tears, I myself had to take time away for stress whilst I was being targeted, it was not any fun. He was one year away from his golden handshake retirement too. Meanwhile, I vowed never to work for anyone else ever again, embraced my artistic hobby and took it to the next level and have now opened my very own shop with my missus, and we're loving every minute of it.
So yeah I got lucky, especially that the investigating manager was a human and was out for his blood, but damn, it felt good to go out like that and to change the store's culture for the better like that. I would say to anyone in a similar position, write down everything that happens. Every time every date every word that gets said that you know to be wrong. I had a dossier on the fucker and on his minions by the end of it all and without that I'm sure I wouldn't have had the same outcome. And if the buck doesn't stop in your own place of work, make sure you're aware of external channels for your grievances, and use them.
Thanks for listening if you made it this far anyway!
TL;DR: Sadistic bully and sexual predator employer tried to constructively dismiss me for trying to uphold democracy in the store I worked, I ended up getting him fired and the rest of the management team reassigned to lower roles elsewhere. Then I left to start my own business and haven't looked back.