Bullied into quitting my job?

Nosferatu

Hey all. Lately, I've been recieving heat at work for not doing my job. I was hired to assemble, repair, and test electronics. Here's the first email I recieved from the boss:

As you may have noticed, a considerable amount of garbage has blown on the lawn and around the building. Please grab a garbage bag and collect all of this debris. In the future, I would appreciate you finding the initiative to perform this work on your own instead of waiting for me to ask you or send you an e-mail. Does that make sense? I await your reply.

I ended up not replying to this email or else I would have told him to go @#$% himself. This stressed me out for a few days, but I decided to be the best damn yard care guy I possibly could. I promptly went outside to pick up garbage. Yesterday, I went and picked up garbage again. Today, I recieved the following email:

This morning when I arrived at the office I couldn't help but notice the large amount of garbage that had blown onto the lawn and around the lot in general. I am sure you noticed it as well on your way in. I hope it was your intent to pick it up.

Effective immediately, your job description will be amended to include the following:

At 8:00 you will conduct a complete visual inspection of the front lawn, driveway, back lot, and side yard.
You will pick up and bag all foreign material that has blown in.
You will then deposit the garbage bag in dumpster.

I am very particular about the upkeep of our building and lot. A growing collection of garbage or graffiti does not help to present the professional image we aspire to.

I was disappointed that you failed to respond to my last e-mail. If you have any questions or if the above directive is not clear, please come and see me immediately.

This didn't affect me as much, since I'm in a pretty good mood today. I'm really starting to wonder if he's trying to bully me into quitting. Personally, I would quit, but I'm in no position to be jobless, since I'm getting married in two months.

Any thoughts on this?

desib77

Have you thought about looking for another job and then quitting once you have other work? That is usually pretty safe.

I would think if your job was "amended" then your pay should also be "amended."

Desi

Stefanie

Tell him you want a F***IN raise!

Insomniac

Nosferatu, this is pretty strange. I'd think that yard maintenance would be well outside your job description. It's puzzling that he'd expect this of you. How many are in your place of business? Because, if there are 10 or 20, and he only asks this of you, then it's way out of line. If it's just you and him, then maybe not so much, but still not appropriate. Does he seem to like you otherwise? Is he happy with your work? If he seems to generally dislike you, then, yeah, sounds like he's trying to get you to quit, which is easier on him, from a legal standpoint, than firing you.

I hope this all works out for you; if it's a job you like, it would be too bad if you had to find another. Best of luck to you.

avishai

I'd look for a job and then tell him to go F himself.

Stefanie

I'm getting married in two months.

I didnt know. Congrats you deserve it.

itsallgoodnow

I would have a few choice words for him, too. I'm sorry you are going through this. I've had jobs with difficult superiors and I just couldn't win with them. It's best to just not waste any more time there. Get busy finding something else, if you can.

PS I'd leave before winter, otherwise then he'll have you shoveling snow, too!

Golf

Sounds like he's 'flexing' his authority. Since your getting married and need the $$$$, I guess what your doing is the safe and a wise thing for now. You haven't given us enough information about this character. I know what I would have done because I've been in that position before and he regretted flexing his authority. Bullies are wimps.

Guest 77

Nosferatu

Because, if there are 10 or 20, and he only asks this of you, then it's way out of line.

There's over 20 people working here. Not sure why I got picked to do this.

Does he seem to like you otherwise? Is he happy with your work?

We rarely speak. We seem to only speak at work functions. He's never around to see my work, but others around here are quite happy with my work. I'm only guessing that they tell him that I'm doing a good job (I know it's been done in the past). There's a few things that I'm suspecting is causing him to be an asshole toward me:

1) There has been a noticeable drop in employees in the past couple of years. Work has slowed down quite a bit. Bonuses have been decreasing in the past couple of years.

2) I didn't invite him to my wedding. (I didn't invite anyone I work with)

It's almost tempting to go off on my own, start my own repair business, contact all the people my company deals with, and repair their stuff for a much less charge.

I'll tell you something though, I'll quit when I'm ready, not when he's ready.

iiz2cool

Don't you hate job descriptions that include "other duties as assigned"? This guy sounds like a real asshole. If you need the job, bite the bullet for a while but start looking for something else. He may or may not be trying to bully you into quitting, but when someone starts acting like that it's unlikely things will improve.

In the meantime, do a good job with the yard work, and since he's SOOOOOOO particular about it, you can email him daily reports on your new assignment. You can include type and amount of garbage picked up, method of disposal, length of time taken to pick up and transport garbage to dumpster, methods of transporting garbage, statistics on garbage composition such as ratio of candy bar wrappers to empty cigarette packs.

Maybe, if he has half a brain, he'll see just how fucking stupid he's acting. But it's not likely.

Walter

Bullied into quitting my job?

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