TL;DR: professor boss of research team is probably firing me, has a reputation for making coworkers cry and rage quit, employees all work overtime to meet unrealistic goals but she says we cannot submit ot hours, how do I protect myself/get unemployment in Texas
7 months ago I joined my local University as an admin associate working for a research project led by a professor. Wanted a university gig for years. In those 7 months, I've lost 6 coworkers out of 9 total originally, either to firing, bullying until they rage quit, or generally leaving on bad terms because they found better pay elsewhere and the professor didn't like that and threw them under the bus with the team.
After each departure, everyone's workload has grown to a point where everyone is stressed and working long hours. But we are routinely told that we cannot enter overtime for “reasons” even though my offer letter states I'm non exempt and eligible. I've got a stellar coworker who holds the team together, coming to me in tears because the professor would rip her a new one in a public meeting over some deadline not being met, even though the deadline was previously stated to be later, and said coworker is literally working 20 unpaid weekends to meet these goals.
Just days later, I'm swept up into it, being asked to do tasks with my hands behind my back (“Ex employee knew how to do this, just figure it out but don't you dare talk to the hr rep who knows how to help you.) I also get swept into a massive audit prep task that none of us have done before without any guidance. We did a fucking stellar job racing towards some arbitrary deadline, but upon seeing the completed audit ready report, she gets upset that it is “too complicated,” praises my supervisor for working hard on it while chiding me for working too hard on it, then sends passive aggressive emails chiding me for not cancelling meetings quick enough (because I was too fucking busy working on this essential report with my supervisor).
Now she sent a late night vague meeting request for Monday morning, exactly what's happened with most of my former coworkers. How do I come out of getting fired for “poor performance” with unemployment eligibility in Texas? More importantly, how do I nail her on the wage theft and abusing people to tears, for the sake of my burnt out coworkers?
I've never faced a workplace this toxic and I worked a call center, I can't believe I left a steady job of 7 years for this viper pit and I'm stressed tf out. Might lose essential benefits and the ability to work for the university again because I work for an out of touch mean girl with more turnover than food service.