I have a friend who works for a large company in our area. He has worked there for almost two years. During the first part of his employment...

Question

I have a friend who works for a large company in our area. He has worked there for almost two years. During the first part of his employment, he received nothing but great performance reviews, and was told that because his work was so good, they were going to promote him to supervisor. Around the same time, the supervisor of his department went on medical leave and he was given temporary supervisory responsibility in her place, again being told that when she came back, he would receive management training and promotion. However, when he began supervising the employees, they did not like that he held them to a higher standard and made them more accountable for their performance than the previous manager did. This caused a continuous barrage of harassment and even threats of physical harm for my friend. He complained to the executives over the department about it, and nothing was done. However, he was afraid to go in to work because the threats were continuing and they were very credible. When one of the executives finally saw the threats being made for himself, he decided to take drastic action and told my friend that he needed to go on a "stress leave". My friend did as he was told, and while he was gone, the former supervisor returned from her leave. When my friend got approval to come back from his, he was told that anything that had been promised to him by the previous executive would not be honored (that executive had transferred to another department in the meantime). The promotion he had been promised was given to another employee who is very close friends with the supervisor, and the employees who caused the hostile work environment were still there; the harassment resumed immediately. Since then, my friend has complained numerous times to his HR department. His complaints are about the continuing harassment, the denial of his promotion, as well as about other company policies that are not being adhered to (there are quite a few--the environment under this supervisor and executive above her is very unprofessional). He also complained that while he was on leave, he had discovered that he has a medical issue that needs several tests to diagnose. He scheduled those tests for Fridays because his schedule had always been Sunday-Thursday. However, when he informed his supervisor about those medical tests, she changed his schedule so that he would have to work on Fridays. When he contacted HR about this, he was told that they had taken all of his FMLA time, vacation days and sick days away while he was on this stress leave. They informed him that he cannot miss work for any reason without the risk of being terminated. He has since continued to question this, because they made him go on stress leave; he didn't request it. Additionally, the supervisor that was on medical leave came back and still was allowed to keep her vacation/sick time. Shortly after these complaints, he was taken into a meeting with the HR department and was informed that they were no longer going to have his position there and that he would be laid off in two weeks. They also told him that he cannot receive unemployment benefits as this is a "planned" layoff. What can my friend do about this?

Answer

He can consult with an employment rights attorney and he might have some issues which deserve legal proceedings. Only a personal consultation, with a review of all pertinent information, will give you the answers that you need for this set of facts.