I started in a warehouse today, through a staffing agency. Everything was going well. The work was easy enough and I seemed to get along with my coworkers.
Towards the end of the shift, one coworker, the loudest at my work table, started talking politics. He asked me and the person beside me if we thought Trump won the election. Before anyone could answer, he cut us off, saying, “you know he won. There’s no way he didn’t.”
The coworker beside me said something like, “I don’t know, man,” so, the other guy turned to me.
I said, “fuck Donald Trump.”
That’s it. I said that without any aggression towards him. We had all been talking and joking while we worked through the day. Although I used a curse word, that’s just how everyone spoke there. Much “worse” words had been said by all of us, without issue.
Well, this guy starts berating me. He told me that I, “shit on Trump’s name because I can’t be him,” and that, “I just hate rich people because I’m not rich.”
I tried to defend myself, calmly and reasonably, but he kept yelling, so I just smiled and said, “yeah. That’s it. Fuck Donald Trump,” which made him act worse.
He threatened me multiple times, telling me that he’d be waiting in the parking lot, while also yelling racial slurs. What we may call a manager arrived to settle the situation, having him escorted out of the building.
I was told, by multiple coworkers as well as that manager, that this is normal behavior for him and that he’d probably “cry about it tomorrow.”
I was also walked out because of his threat. I started recording then. During his tirade, I was too busy, you know, doing my job. I have audio of the manager telling me about how he’s “hot-headed,” and, when I asked if this was normal behavior for him, she told me that he usually “gets into it with females.”
She said that she’d have a talk with him and “probably write his ass up.”
I sent the staffing agency a message, explaining what had happened and why I didn’t clock out at the end of my shift. As far as I know, I’m not in any trouble and I can show up tomorrow for work if I want. I’m not in a great position to ghost, but that is an option.
The warehouse floor had cameras all over and I’m sure the footage will show him raving at me while I continued to work until the manager came over. The only thing I’m guilty of is pulling my pocket knife as the manager walked me out. She told me to put it away on the floor and I said, “okay, but it’s for my protection.”
What do?