Harrassment at Work
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Harrassment at Work
I am working in an extremely hostile environment; I am hardly ever given any work to do — I have only had only a few hours of work to do in the last two months. I live in Minnesota (at-will). My boss is hardly ever here to allocate work. He says that my work is substandard, but he doesn’t provide any help to me. I am doing everything by hand, much like in the 1950’s. He doesn’t understand that something like a clinical trial management system would be so beneficial. He has told my co-workers (project managers) to tell him any time I make a mistake. They run to him and “tattle” like lit
Asked on June 22, 2009 under Employment Labor Law, Minnesota
Answers:
B. B., Member, New Jersey Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 15 years ago | Contributor
Because you're an at-will employee, there may not be much that can be done about this. Your boss could fire you, and not need a reason for it, so the courts ordinarily don't require more for something less than a firing. And there is no law at all that requires an employer to provide 21st-century tools; I've heard of one situation where data was entered into a spreadsheet program, but the employee's supervisor refused to allow the columns and rows to be totalled by the software but made the employee do it all by hand.
The only exception is, if this is being done to you for an illegal reason, such as discrimination based on race, religion or another unlawful basis, or as retaliation against you for something like filing a workers compensation claim or, in some states, reporting or complaining about something unlawful that the company was doing. If you think you have any facts along those lines, you should talk to a lawyer in your area. One place to find qualified counsel is our website, http://attorneypages.com
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