QUESTION
What are my wife legal options for being grossly mistreated at work?
Asked on Oct 23rd, 2018 on Discrimination - New York
More details to this question:
My wife is a guidance counselor in a very low income part of Brooklyn. She is very good at her job and regularly goes the extra mile for the students. The principal and assistant principals almost daily treat her like a 'second class citizen' . She comes home and cries everyday, her hair is falling out from stress and she has told me the second she feels like she is in survival mode and fighting for her life when she's at school. She has reached out to the union. The principal at one time had been a chapter leader and after a closed door meeting, the union rep told my wife "The principal will not harass you any more". It hasn't stopped. Now my wife feels the union will not represent her properly. She doesn't want to expose herself to retribution by greiving the principal again. I don't know how to help her....
1 ANSWER
Your wife should schedule a consult with an employment lawyer. We will probably not recommend grieving anyone.
We will help her:
1) Determine whether this principal is a good fit for her. She probably needs to start applying for other jobs ASAP.
2) We will help her try to keep her job. She needs to have good performance evaluations or she might risk losing even a union job. We can coach her on that.
3) We will explain in detail why she needs to keep her union happy. The best way is for her to get involved with the union.
Bottom line. She is in a political job. And those jobs today demand results. If the principal she works for or the union rep fears for their own jobs that will trickle down to her.
Have her gather all her performance evaluations and start calling us employment lawyers. We can help guide her but the decision of whether she wants to keep her job will be hers to make in the end.
Grieving the principal would not have been our first choice. She needs an employment lawyer to retain ASAP!
Answered on Oct 24th, 2018 at 5:57 AM