Workplace Culture

» clewless - Bad Employer

First of all, I am in the travel industry, primarily sales. The effects of 2001 have caused uncertainty in our industry with minimum job opportunities. It has been a VERY tough road to finding a secure job with a secure company. I love the travel industry and in October of this year, I accepted a position with a small at-home office niche market travel business. I had 4 previous meetings with the owners of the company within the last 2 years involving discussions about working with them. I declined twice, for the following reasons: they first wanted an accountant, which my experience was not enough; the second time they indicated they might sell the business so I did not accept the position. Knowing they were still interested in selling their business - I contacted them in October about a possible interested buyer, at which time they asked me if I would come and work for them and they assured me they would not be selling the business. Soooooo, after consideration, I decided to go-for-it. I felt this must be fate that I called at a time when they really needed a sales person. I gave a 2-week notice and immediately went to work as an independent contractor for this travel company. After the second day I noticed a conflict between the husband-wife owners. The wife was "yelling" at her husband about "everything" he did - from talking to training. (The office situation is such that 5 people are in one small room at one time. They had me sitting in the middle of the two of them. ) The ranting and yelling continued EVERY DAY and I am sitting in the middle of it. When one was teaching me something, the other would comment that it wasnt the way to do it. In addition, both are micro-managers. I have been in travel management since 1977 and this was very hard for me to accept. I tolerated it because I was learning their computer system, office procedures, etc. and thought perhaps it would cease. BUT - the wife controls everything! She even began speaking "for me" - she would say - " she (me) is ready to leave for the day, so dont give her any more work. " Last week the wife ranted for an hour when her husband was asking me to assist him with a computer project. She became so outraged that she left the room - yelling and ranting. She returned at the top of the stairs and demanded him to come upstairs to discuss something. I was the only person in the office at the time and could hear extreme yelling. Eventually he came down to the office with a face so stressed - you would have thought he'd been scared by something! Well - I guess he was! I asked if he thought I should leave for the day - and he said it wasn't necessary. He then began to tell me that she had been unhappy for 30 years - etc, etc, etc! I then told him " I had been thinking possibly I made a mistake coming to work for them", and that I suggested when they have a conflict that they leave the office - that it was not a healthy environment for us working there. ( I was informed by the other two part-time employees a couple weeks after I started working for them - that they are constantly arguing and I would get used to it. Not everyone does and I dont know how they could stand it. ) The wife went out for a while and came back in the afternoon and sat quietly for a while doing computer work, with no apology for her outrage - nothing! My contract states a miniimum of 35 hours a week and they recently painted the office - asking me not to come in one day. During the holidays work is slower so I have gone home early because of nothing to do. I finally asked them if we could talk about a few concerns so we met recently. They wanted to know what my issues were: I expressed my feelings about "a successful business should bring about happiness - so why all the arguing"? "It's like no one else matters - no apologies for the yelling outbreaks - why? I sit between them both arguing all day and I should at least be heard. They hired an experienced travel professional, therefore all I needed were guidelines and I can take-it-from-there. Why did they feel they needed to micro-manage an experienced person?" Their answers were : "we arent going to change". "I think this relationship is no longer going to work because we will be sensitive about saying the wrong thing." Well - now it looks like "I am the bad person", when I am not! Do I have any legal recourse or will these people go like this? I gave up a comfortable job for this - feeling it was a better choice - and now I am out of a job! Please let me know. Thanks.

-- posted by clewless