I’ve been at my job (social worker in mental health dept. at a county jail) for nearly 2 years. At the 1 year mark, I received a stellar performance review and a raise. Cool. Haven’t had any issues…until 3 weeks ago.
My boss’s boss, let’s call her Barbie, scolded me for socializing after work hours with one of my officer friends in the front lobby, as she has seen me multiple times doing this. Her explanation: I’m not to remain in the property for any reason once I’ve clocked out and I’m not to speak with said officer moving forward. My boss was notified, did his own investigation with Captain of jail, who said that there was no problem. Oooookay?
Second week: I’m called into Barbie’s office to say that it was reported by an officer that I scheduled a professional visit for an inmate without informing anyone and I am not allowed to do this. She approached me aggressively in an accusatory tone. Fun fact: I didn’t schedule anything and it was found to be a mistake made by someone else. I notified my direct supervisor that it seems that I’m being targeted by Barbie; his respond “I understand and I’m here if you need to vent.”
Third week: I suddenly get called into my boss’s office, Barbie is there too, to discuss how 2 nurses allegedly overheard me speaking disrespectfully about the head nurse. My response: it is true that I spoke of head nurse to a co-worker, I did not make any disrespectful comments and it appears that my conversation was misconstrued. This didn’t matter and I was told I am receiving a “documented verbal warning”. This was on 4/4. As of today, I have not received any paperwork.
Once that meeting was over, I sent a detailed email to my boss, CC’ing HR, of this workplace harassment and that I am experiencing a hostile work environment, in addition to providing blurbs from my performance review & clear employment record to negate this targeting behavior. Now I know that HR isn’t for the employee but in the event I pursue legal action through my state (at-will btw), I want to make sure I have a paper trail of my attempts to address.
As of today, 9 days later, there has been no follow up.
I’ve sent all documents to my private email just in case anything would mysteriously disappear. I think I’m just looking to vent and receive feedback.