Current Events > Anyone think this is retaliation at work?

(+) Yeah! (+)

At my job they had me working on a special project essentially to create a new department. From the start it felt halfcocked and no one really knew what they are doing. So it didnt hit the ground running like they thought it would.

My boss who was put in charge of it didnt know how to fix it and so we had a meeting with her boss and the boss above that lady. They asked for honest opinions and started attacking us on the team for it not working despite it being flawed at every step of the way.

They asked for opinions on what can improve to make everything run smoother. I said that we need better communication and that everyone is all over the place because we're getting different instructions on both sides. I also mentioned that we should be getting raises because we're doing the work of 4 other departments now.

I clock in today and i get a call because im being pulled from the team because my "work isnt what they are looking for on the project". I asked for examples on what i did wrong or i could do better next time to improve my work. Everyone kinda passed the buck and finally my boss said "Well there's no specific example of what you did wrong they just knew they didnt want you on the project but it doesnt mean they might not put you back on it"

I feel like it was retaliation for defending the team and asking for raises

yea, it does.

this new department thing sounds like a political land mine

They probably thought your assessment of the situation was way off base and asking for a raise after a period of underperformance just clinched it for them.

Personally I don't see a labor board or whatever being entirely convinced as your behavior would have to fall under 'protected actions', usually relating to discrimination, harassment, worker safety etc, and not just complaining that your workload is too much/unfair.

Pitlord_Special posted...

They probably thought your assessment of the situation was way off base and asking for a raise after a period of underperformance just clinched it for them.

Personally I don't see a labor board or whatever being entirely convinced as your behavior would have to fall under 'protected actions', usually relating to discrimination, harassment, worker safety etc, and not just complaining that your workload is too much/unfair.

This, tbh.

The moment you came out with we should get more money while working on a project that is underperforming just sealed your fate.

Pitlord_Special posted...

They probably thought your assessment of the situation was way off base and asking for a raise after a period of underperformance just clinched it for them.

We weren't even underperforming though. They thought this would streamline things but if you're trying to create a department that is taking work from other departments and rumors within that it's going to lead to a loss of your department roadblocks start to happen.

It was essentially other departments not giving us the resources we needed to be successful because it was not in their best interest to do so. The guy who's idea it was thought it would be all good and that it would all gel but that's not what it was.

When their solutions were essentially giving us 4 times the workload I brought up we should be compensated for it. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do but with more context, the boss is notorious for piling on work without any type of compensation or even acknowledgment. Another project they did was successful and supposed to get free lunch and they didn't even do that for them.

The boss of our whole region has wanted to create this department forever and it kept getting denied for being unreasonable and they finally approved it and all its doing is showing them that they were right the whole time. The guy is scrambling because all his ideas have been pretty shitty

Pitlord_Special posted...

They probably thought your assessment of the situation was way off base and asking for a raise after a period of underperformance just clinched it for them.

Personally I don't see a labor board or whatever being entirely convinced as your behavior would have to fall under 'protected actions', usually relating to discrimination, harassment, worker safety etc, and not just complaining that your workload is too much/unfair.

I think this is it. For whatever the reason, they saw it all as an underperformance, and so, in their eyes, when they said "How can we make this be better," you answered "Give us more money."

I4NRulez posted...

We weren't even underperforming though. They thought this would streamline things but if you're trying to create a department that is taking work from other departments and rumors within that it's going to lead to a loss of your department roadblocks start to happen.

It was essentially other departments not giving us the resources we needed to be successful because it was not in their best interest to do so. The guy who's idea it was thought it would be all good and that it would all gel but that's not what it was.

When their solutions were essentially giving us 4 times the workload I brought up we should be compensated for it. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do but with more context, the boss is notorious for piling on work without any type of compensation or even acknowledgment. Another project they did was successful and supposed to get free lunch and they didn't even do that for them.

The boss of our whole region has wanted to create this department forever and it kept getting denied for being unreasonable and they finally approved it and all its doing is showing them that they were right the whole time. The guy is scrambling because all his ideas have been pretty shitty

Sounds like you have bad managers then and I won't argue that point considering they can't seem to articulate any meaningful feedback for you. I still think you'd be hard pressed to provide conclusive evidence that they violated labor laws by reassigning you to another project because they disagreed with your assessment. You're free to file a complaint with your state's Department of Labor though and see what they make of it as they're more qualified than myself or anyone else here to make that determination.

StealThisSheen posted...

I think this is it. For whatever the reason, they saw it all as an underperformance, and so, in their eyes, when they said "How can we make this be better," you answered "Give us more money."

To be fair, i didnt give that answer to how we can improve it. It came later in the meeting lol

My reasoning was that we are being asked to do the work of 4 departments with less than a quarter of the staff. Its not feasible and i felt that if we have to improve our skillset by such a degree we should be compensated for it.

I've never worked for a company that did something like this that didnt compensate the employees in some way. I essentially did the same thing at my last job and even if the raise wasnt immediate we were compensated after it was up and running.

I know my value and im not going to be punished for some ego trip from an executive.

Also, to give more context on how half assed certain things are. They are ending our work from home and some offices were closed in the meantime.

So instead of buying office space they are going to cram people into warehouses that we ship things from.

So youre gonna have customer service and office people working out of warehouses in improvised desks. This isnt some small start up either. Its a billion dollar company

They at least throwing a pizza party?

A_Good_Boy posted...

They at least throwing a pizza party?

No, funny thing actually. They tried to tempt people back to the office last year with a taco truck. Pretty much to see if they could get a lot of people in the office for lunch they could justify people coming back in permanently.

Everyone told them to fuck off and we liked working from home. Now they just told everyone too bad and we're coming back despite them not having the space for a lot of people

Retaliation? Eh, maybe, but definitely not something to take to the labor board unless you were fired or lost hours.

shitty situation all around, sounds like office politics 101. also, retaliation for what? for tiptoeing around saying that your boss is incompetent and the project doesn't have the support or direction it needs? By that i mean, you gave a canned "we need to communicate better" diplomatic response. Not being able to be candid when there are issues speaks volumes to the dysfunction at your workplace. And look what happens.

so no, not retaliation, because there's nothing to retaliate against. The project wasn't moving along so they shuffled the deck. You feel victimized because it was you who got reshuffled.

shouldve got the pizza honestly

I4NRulez posted...

They asked for honest opinions

Big mistake.
They never asked for one, they asked for an opinion that supported their own opinion.

TheJustice posted...

Retaliation? Eh, maybe, but definitely not something to take to the labor board unless you were fired or lost hours.

i know that. I dont have enough evidence other than everyone is kind of a dick. I was just gauging opinions to see if im overreacting or if i should step up my job search

The time to ask for a raise is after you've got things working better. Otherwise it comes across as 'yeah well, we might do a better job if you paid us more'.

And while I don't disagree, and I do think there is some retaliation going on, you have to learn how to play the game.

Immediately revisit the scope management plan and get a business analyst involved to help determine requirements. From there, you could have interviewed key stakeholders to ensure what they wanted out of the project was well documented and feasible . Adjust the schedule. Adjust the budget, and get to work.

If you landed with a running start without a real plan to get the project back on track, you kinda let yourself walk into a trap.

It doesnt appear to be targeted at you. But asking for a raise prior to exhibiting measurable results was not the way to go.

I4NRulez posted...

i know that. I dont have enough evidence other than everyone is kind of a dick. I was just gauging opinions to see if im overreacting or if i should step up my job search

Id walk out on the spot, personally.

Its because of stuff like this that these people pull is the number one reason that I shit in the waste basket at work and then make a big fuss that someone is shitting in the wastebasket

pnut027 posted...

Immediately revisit the scope management plan and get a business analyst involved to help determine requirements. From there, you could have interviewed key stakeholders to ensure what they wanted out of the project was well documented and feasible . Adjust the schedule. Adjust the budget, and get to work.

If you landed with a running start without a real plan to get the project back on track, you kinda let yourself walk into a trap.

It doesnt appear to be targeted at you. But asking for a raise prior to exhibiting measurable results was not the way to go.

None of that was my job as i said i wasnt in charge of the project or team. I was merely a worker bee on it.