This is gonna be a long and multifaceted post, so buckle up, friends.
I worked for a certain credit building company as a CSR. Initially this job was great and my boss was helpful with accommodating my 2 disabilities and provided a comfortable and happy work environment for all of us. Then new management took over (we'll call them A and C).
Well A and C made a lot of strange changes that caused morale to plummet. I'm talking micromanagement on an insane level. Our employee group chat was disbanded and somehow the use of memes and gifs were banned entirely, with any usage reported to HR?? We were told we could no longer vent to each other about difficult experiences with customers, but were provided coloring sheets instead to let our feelings out. They changed up everyone's assignments without any forethought which decreased efficiency like crazy and made our jobs more difficult (higher ups in the company blamed the CSRs for the slump). The attendance policy was changed so that any leave needed to be requested 2 weeks in advance or else it would be 1 out of only 6 points counted towards our termination (that means if you get injured or your child gets sick you may just get fired for taking the day because you're not a fortune teller that can foresee injury and illness 2 weeks before it happened. Hypothetically, what if you had an infection and needed medical care? You can't wait 2 weeks for antibiotics). And if you were even 30 seconds late (they actually pointed this out specifically) that was half a point towards termination. It was well known that I bike to work, and when my bike, my only means of transportation, was stolen overnight I had to walk to work the following day when I discovered it missing. I was 2 minutes late to work and C actually had to stop and think about if he would count me late after my vehicle was literally stolen.
Since I had reasonable accommodation paperwork on file with HR and my previous boss had been very understanding of my disabilities, I assumed it would be pretty much the same under A and C. I was wrong. It would take a very long time to explain all the details, but essentially they purposely changed my job so that I was exclusively assigned to the tasks they knew were most difficult for me as a disabled person.
Not only was there nepotism in our office, with A being the one to hire C as they were best friends, and they also hired 6 of their personal friends as well (by personal I mean 2 of them were engaged, another was officiating the wedding, and 2 of them are in the same D&D party), but the nepotism went all the way up to board members hiring their own children who got special treatment regarding their schedules and attendance. One of my coworkers was even harassed by the president's son, who also worked at our office, and when she complained on social media they fired her (technically this is hearsay but I managed to see the post before it was deleted and she was let go, so I have no doubt)
I should point out that my coworker was black, the president's son is white. I bring this up because there were plenty of micro aggressions towards people of color in the office. I, being Latina, asked a few other Latino coworkers if they felt othered and they all agreed. Our white coworkers were treated with more understanding by our white bosses when issues arose than we were.
Exceptions to the attendance policy were made for my white coworker to attend his wife's prenatal appointments on a single week's notice, but I was denied a doctor's appointment to manage my disability on a week's notice, and was forced to reschedule my appointment 2 weeks out. So he got approved to attend appointments that weren't even his but I can't receive medical care for a condition that HR had reasonable accommodation papers on file for?
Honestly, by time I left, the only upsides to the job were the occasional catered lunch at meetings and the free monthly massage. The utter incompetence, disrespect, dishonesty, and hypocrisy from A and C, HR, and the board members became unbearable and employees were leaving left and right.
So I devised a plan. I quietly began packing away and taking my personal items from my cubicle, and gathering evidence of the company's villainy. On the beautiful, sunny day of March 17th, I was casually chitchatting with A and C and treating customers with sweet, southern hospitality, with a level of peace I hadn't felt in months. I scheduled my free massage, paid for by the company, for the 15 minutes before my lunch. Then at noon on the dot I typed up a scathing email and gave my notice to A, C, and HR, effective immediately, clocked out for lunch, and left never to return. I had worked exactly 1 year and 1 day (partly for my resume but also to make a point).
But it didn't end there. The evidence I had gathered? It all got added to an EEOC charge of discrimination, a case that dragged on for months, costing me nothing, but costing the company several thousand dollars' worth of attorneys fees.
Now, having just left my job, I couldn't afford a lawyer so my right to sue eventually expired (sadly I had multiple consultations with a few lawyers stating I had a good case but couldn't follow through without the funds). Exactly one day after, the expiration, a spy (one of my coworkers) confirmed that A very suddenly and without notice “resigned”. I may not have received fair treatment or compensation, but I got sweet, sweet satisfaction inconveniencing the company, costing them thousands, and getting A fired.