[hrthrowaway]

Posted with a throwaway, since my primary user is public.

I worked at a company in which my reporting manager was significantly harassing me. He did so via recorded systems. The next day, after each time I had a direct complaint and brought it to HR, he then walked through the punishments indicated in the handbook. He indicated "we don't have good ways to ascertain performance", and then said I had "bad performance" during the HR meeting. This set up no bells and whistles with HR.

Eventually, he then made up data claiming that I didn't maintain a specific system in a certain way. Truth of the matter was it was handed to me in a failed state before I started working for him. HR was complicit in supporting manager in a firing, even after proof of harassment and retaliation.

HR is only good for one thing - and that is defending the company. You're a nothing; a cog that can be replaced. If you have problems in your company, leave. It's not your duty to fix their problems. That's for the C()O positions. Leave before they can make you do so.

[ianai]

On the upside, if you do sue them they’re likely to lose. It will be brought before a jury of your peers. Your peers will see a large corporation bullying a single person and side with you. It probably won’t matter what ever pretext the company put as cause for termination. Just do yourself a favor and always document well and know how to pick a fight you’ll win, when necessary. Also spend fine finding the right representation.

[dogma1138]

The downside is that lawsuits are public in most places which might come up as a negative for future job prospects.

Companies would be weary of hiring people that sued previous employers and not for no reason no one can ever know the facts first hand and even borderline frivolous law suits tend to be settled, so having the choice between someone who sued a previous employer and someone who hasn’t most companies would opt out for the latter.

[ianai]

That's valid, but probably has limits (i.e. if you leave town). I imagine certain factors mitigate the negatives. For one, some industries are known to be harsh to employees. I imagine the same factors that allow for such harshness may also allow for legalistic backgrounds.

[hrthrowaway]

Put it this way, I found a better job within 1.5 months, that pays almost 30k more. I really don't want to rock the boat.

But lets just say this: if you're a policy driver and you contract out networking operations, have an indepth review of all the servers they maintain. Things are not rosy underneath.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

> It will be brought before a jury of your peers.

In practice you'll settle out of court, likely with an non-disclosure agreement.

[cannonedhamster]

Good luck if you're in a state that allows non-competes or forced arbitration for contracts. The companies pay the arbitration and will black ball you in the entire industry. Protection for American workers is a joke.