Using the employee manual against your mean boss
Getting Even With Your Boss For Not Following The Rules
This is one of my favorite, sneakiest ways to get even with a pissy boss – the company’s own employee manual. It can be used as ammunition against your boss because even the boss man — or boss bitch — must follow the rules.
Chances are better than none if you were given a company employee manual when you were hired, you stuffed it in the bottom drawer of your desk and never looked at it again. Well, it’s time to get it out. If you don’t have one, go to HR and get it. Then take it home and read it. I know. It’s boring as hell and the rules are unfair and a bit Gestapo-like. Often times employee manuals overstate what’s required by law, sort of a “we really mean it so you better not try doing any of this crap”. In being “so complete” they may be hanging themselves. Cool! Embrace it because you may be able to spin them around to work in your favor.
The key to reading and enjoying it — yes, I did say enjoying it — is to pretend your going on an Easter egg hunt. Many bosses don’t know their own company policies and procedures and you’re going to make turn that disadvantage into your advantage. If the manager fails to follow what is outlined in those company rules, it can be held against him. Hunt down as many of those violations as you can. Your goal is to turn the rules around and to one day use them against your manager to prove he’s vindictive and out to get you and violated company policy to do it.
Here’s an example: Your manager says “you have to clock in my 7:00 am or you’ll be fired, but there is no such thing listed in the employee manual. Even though company policy is not employment law, in court it will make your manager look like he’s out to get you and can show purposeful, discriminatory intent.
If the manager takes some sort of action and it violates company policy, make sure you document what happened. Keep records of his violations with the who, what, where, when, and why. Keep a diary and keep it off site and at home. Do it on your computer if you have one. Just open up a Word document and make your entry. Then print out a hard copy and stick it in a binder. Wouldn’t hurt to back it up on an SD card or USB thumb drive, too.
Back in the day when I was working, my company manual said we were all part of the same team. We were required to work together as such and to treat each other with respect. One day I was starting a new project. It was a massive software conversion from client/server applications to web based. I received an email from my boss saying to give it my best shot. He had confidence in me because I’ve done conversions twice before, but never to web based. So he said if I ever need help with some of the web stuff to go ask “Skank”. Obviously, that’s not her real name, but she was one.
So nearing the very end of the project that had gone on for about a year, in my annual evaluation my boss said that I was pawning off work on her. I was livid. I had single handedly completed that project by myself and only went to her when I was truly having problems with the web stuff, but never to do the work, only to get guidance.
I had years and years of excellent reviews with large raises and bonuses, then suddenly I got a “needs improvement”. Funny thing is, it was also after having a new director who didn’t like me. There was also a pattern of laying off the women in the company. I was being squeezed out. They were looking for a way to get rid of me. It was just one of many, many incidences.
Had I known all I know today from reading Work Laws Exposed, I would NOT have signed on the dotted line for that enhanced severance package when I got laid off. Instead, I would have gone straight to the EEOC and filed numerous claims for the various crap they pulled on me; gender discrimination, disability discrimination, harassment, and retaliation complaints. But I didn’t know. I had no idea I could get even. When I read Work Laws Exposed it was like reading my own employment history. The things my company got away with for all those years were illegal and they knew it. That’s why they made me agree not to sue them if they gave me that severance package.
Even if you have the slightest gut feeling that something’s going down at work, but you don’t know what to do about it, I urge you to get Work Laws Exposed.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and I am not providing legal advice. This article is being provided for information and should not be relied on.
