Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Hi, i just recently resigned from my job that i've held for 3 years over a dispute with another associate involving harassment, i was continually threatened physically and harassed, and I have gone to the management a total of 5 times now, wrote statements, called the human resources department to no avail. this has been on-going for 6 months and the associate has not been disciplined, as he continues to make threats and harass me, during business hours, inside the store in plain sight.
The only effort made to really reach out to me was after i resigned and threatened to call the corporate office of my company. my department and store manager basically "grilled" me for about an hour and explained how i was treating this the wrong way, how they legally cannot tell me how he is being disciplined and it isn't my right to know. my store manager claims to not know of this situation even though i have gone to 4 of his assistant managers, and have filed several statements of various incidents of harassment.
I told the managers that i fear for my safety, i fear for my job, this is why i decided to resign because nobody seems to care. one of the first policies i learned about my company was that they had a zero tolerance for violence and harassment in the workplace, however from my experience, this isn't the case. I have been under a lot of stress due to this situation, i have terrible stomach pains and i feel sick while i am at work, i get bad anxiety to the point where it was affecting my work ethic.
I am just curious as to what sort of legal action i can take at this point, or if i need to talk to the Corporate office of my company first-hand.
1 Answer from Attorneys
what sort of legal action i can take...
Probably none.
Not only are there no laws against poor management, 'unfair treatment', or rude and obnoxious behavior, but in general unless an employee is civil service, in a union, or has a written employment contract, they are an 'at will' employee that can quit anytime, or be disciplined or terminated any time for any reason, with or without �cause�, explanation or notice. That is, UNLESS you can prove the conduct is based upon discrimination, harassment or retaliation as defined as actually �illegal� under the ADA [disability], Civil Rights [age, race, sex, ethnic, religion, pregnancy, etc], FMLA [medical leave], Whistle-blower, or similar statutes. You said nothing about any of those things.
Any employee's goal should be to keep their supervisors happy and make them look good to the company, and make the company money. That�s how the company pays employee wages. If you don't, then don't be surprised to be replaced.
Now if the conduct was illegal under the above definitions, feel free to contact me for the legal help you�ll need.
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