My boss got in my (a minors) face, what can I do?
I recently had an incident with my boss where my manager came up to me and told me my acrylics were too long. To that I then replied I can't do anything about that right now. Not at all being disrespectful. I just could not. He walked away, but then my boss yells at me to come to the back where there are no cameras. He begins screaming and cursing in my face. Slamming his hand on the wall where we have a cork board. He is hitting it so hard things are falling. I am unsure if there were still customers in the shop, but we had almost a full staff in. He then stormed off and told my manager either you send her home or you're going home. My manager was sent back to talk to me since i was crying. I am 17 years old and I have to work for a living. I couldn't afford to lose my job over nails. I had to beg for my manager to ask for me to stay for the rest of the week until I could get them shortened. It was so upsetting to one of my coworkers that he actually felt like it was his duty to call my brother who is my guardian and make him aware of how aggressive my boss was getting with me. My boss has been known to have blow ups like this. I can quote my manager on him saying "I've worked with him for 4 years he is scared of no one and he has no problem telling anyone off" and something along the lines of you were the feather that broke the camels back or some other saying close to that. Others have felt the wrath of him and it is unfair that I was attacked over a 1/4 inch "too long" of nails. I don't even remember it being clarified as to how long your nails are able to be. I had been working for almost a week with them with no problems. I want to know what if there is anything I can do.
1 answer | asked Jun 30, 2016 05:22 AM [EST] | applies to Florida
Answers (1)
784.011 Assault.— (1) An “assault” is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence to the person of another, coupled with an apparent ability to do so, and doing some act which creates a well-founded fear in such other person that such violence is imminent.
The other exception is if he is yelling at you and singling you our for this kind of treatment BECAUSE of your membership in a "protected class" - i.e. because of your race, your sex, your religion, your disability, your national origin, your sexual orientation, etc. (age doesn't count if you are young - only if you are over 40). Then if this sort of conduct is repeated frequently you could have a claim of 'hostile workplace" discrimination. Again, however, that only applies if he is singling you out and treating you differently BECAUSE of your sex, race, etc. For example, if he is yelling at you and his insults include demeaning you because you are a woman - calling you a bitch or a stupid girl, etc.
Likely, he's just a jerk and in that case there's really nothing you can do about it, unless it is at the assault level - in which case you can call the police.
As far as his demands about your nails, in Florida dress code and appearance requirements don't have to be reasonable or make sense - it's the company's choice. Unless we get into an area where they are discriminating against certain groups (like not letting a Muslim woman wear a head scarf).
You are young and it probably won't be the last time you have to deal with a boss like this - I know that's not much comfort now.
If things get so bad that any reasonable person would be unable to tolerate the work environment, then you could quit and still be eligible for unemployment - but that's taking a chance (and you won't qualify usually anyway unless you've already worked there for at least 90 days).
My best advice to you would be try not to let him upset you. Keep working there but look around for another job with a company that treats its employees better.
Good luck! .
posted by Phyllis Towzey | Jun 30, 2016 08:25 AM [EST]
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