I'm currently working in the cannabis industry in MO and have been working for a staffing agency for the past few months. I was terminated from my first contract and my agency ghosted me for two weeks. Finally, my boss finally gave me a call on why I was terminated: I was inappropriate and I shouldn't talk about being LGBT+ in the work place. Just for reference, these are the problems that I had while working the nightshift there:
GENERAL MANAGER:
- Compliance: Frequently ate gummies off the line and told us we would be fired if we did that. (ILLEGAL AF)
- Unprofessionalism: Frequently gave out goodie bags. (ILLEGAL) odd Gummies, expired products like dabs and vape pens. Also gifted to guards for them to ignore the goody bags so they wouldn't get reported to the state. Frequently joked about his sexual relationship with HR MANAGER, to the point where I know their fucking safeword.
- Disrespect towards my staffing agency: Called my boss greedy.
HR MANAGER:
- Shared HR-related incidents with those uninvolved. She told us about how an employee lost his job due to being racist/sexist/disrespectful to another out in the open with others around and to me. This has been a repeat offense.
- Informed me that I could be open about the LGBT aspects of my life b/c she has a trans child. She works day shifts.
SUPERVISOR:
- “Us” vs Them: threatened to fire people due to small things like missing sugar on gummies or too much sugar on trays.
- Complaining about the quality of workers my staffing agency has been sending.
- Bragging about going through 150 temps and not being afraid to go through 150 more.
- Bullying: he picked out specific people and really gave them a hard time until they quit. Many people walked out due to his behavior.
- Training: Our group just started cooking the week he started and hadn't done any part of the kitchen and flavor change before. (Basically processing one gummy flavor to the next batch) There was a mistake where someone put down cinnamon on a watermelon pan. He told us they were to be terminated the next day. None of our temps received training for this process.
- Had control of a full kitchen (twenty temps!) for one week before wittling it down to three temps the following Monday.
- Compliance: He sold weed to an employee from his personal grow/stash on company grounds. (ILLEGAL) He allowed said employee to have a long break to grab cash for the transaction. He also ate gummies off the line.
- Mistakenly gave a goodie bag filled with flower to the wrong person. (He was supposed to give the goodie bags to S, N, J, and I, but instead gave them to F who had only been working for a few days.) I pointed it out to him, but he responded aggressively.
What pisses me off the most is: They 100% lied about my behavior. I got along great with everyone, was friends with most of the temps and the environment itself was very open. I was definitely not the most inappropriate and I didn't even talk about the sexual aspect of being trans/gay (like mentioning my boyfriend or taking hormones). Like I said, my boss talked about his sex life and a coworker talked about porn. Why would they slander my name to my agency? Why say I was unprofessional with a bad attitude when that wasn't the case up until the new supervisor took over for nightshift?
I luckily have another job lined up (a full-time position) but it doesn't start for two weeks, so I'm staying with my temp agency until I transition. I'm just bummed right now since I'm going through an eviction and my boyfriend lost his job (He was working at the same company) as well. so no paychecks for the next two weeks. The feeling of betrayal is real.