I'm livid right now. Especially seeing how my husband has been worrying all day after the conversation he had with his boss today during off work hours.
My husband (we'll call him Hank) has had this job a little over 6 months now. He works for a small local business that specializes in a blue collar trade that his boss owns and he was really happy working there up until this point. He gets along really well with his partner and other coworkers, some of the clients he worked with would praise him and his partner on how well they've done their work and give that feedback to his boss, and even his boss (I'll name him Jack) has said he's been doing great while only having to coach him a couple of times when he missed a minor detail on some work he's done.
Jack called Hank a couple of hours after he got off of work today. Hank readily answered the phone and assumed he wanted to talk business or if he needed help with something. Jack immediately starts with how he hasn't been appreciating the way Hank talks to him, specifically when he says “right” or “okay” during their conversations and outright called him a wise ass since he felt Hank wasn't really being attentive when spoken to. Hank was completely baffled and told him that he was honestly thrown off by his accusation (there was no prior warnings or discussions leading to this) and tried to explain that he was only acknowledging what was being said to him. Jack then said along the lines of “I thought you would say that – you're not taking any accountability for your own actions.” Hank apologized and said that he'll work on his conduct and try to do better. Jack then said “Good. Because I was starting to reconsider your employment with me.” and ended the conversation.
I asked Hank what was that all about and he was feeling all sorts of things: disbelief, panic, angry, etc. Apparently Jack has done this to his other employees before (threatening termination randomly or over a minor mistake) – he even snapped at one of them for addressing him as “sir” too much. Hank had really liked his job – the pay is the best he's gotten since his last job working at a federal agency and it took him awhile to secure this position after having to submit at least 20 applications at different places. Jack had said a few times before that he likes Hank and that he appreciated the efforts he put into his jobs.
We're both living paycheck to paycheck and it would hurt us financially if Hank all the sudden lost his job. Hank doesn't really know how to approach Jack when he comes in tomorrow and is already expecting the worst…
Should he stand up for himself and risk losing his job if Jack harasses him like this again?