: 因为我更顾家,经理就针对我,结果她丢了工作。
Okay, so I worked at this home improvement store for about eight years. I started in North Carolina, but moved up north to be with my best friend and her husband when she got pregnant. I transferred to a local store and worked my butt off.
At first, I was in the garden section, but because they were short-staffed, I got moved around a lot. The problem was, HR messed up and the new store thought I only wanted part-time. Since I'd already moved, I took a part-time job at a gym to make ends meet, while constantly asking for full-time at the store. Nothing ever changed.
Then my goddaughter was born. I lived with my friends and helped take care of her a lot, especially during COVID. We got really close, and I'd use my time off to help out.
After about six months, I'd built a good reputation. I was known for my work ethic and willingness to help anyone, even if I didn't have close friends there. That's when this new assistant manager came in. She was super abrasive and always wanted things her way. The first thing I heard about her was when she fired a girl for having a Playboy tag on her jacket. A bunch of us walked out in protest and got the store manager to reverse her decision. It wasn't the first time we'd done that, actually – we'd walked out before when another assistant manager made sexist comments to a cashier.
Soon after, I finally got a full-time position in Receiving. The supervisor was kind of a grumpy guy, and we often clashed, especially when I had to babysit my goddaughter while her parents worked. I loved spending time with her and always showed pictures and told stories to my coworkers. My supervisor, though, wasn't happy that I couldn't work overtime because of my second job or babysitting duties.
Then I heard a rumor going around that my goddaughter was actually my own daughter, and that I'd fathered her behind my friend's husband's back. I didn't know who started it, but the assistant manager had made some pretty nasty comments about men taking care of kids, so I had my suspicions.
My holiday requests for Thanksgiving and Christmas got denied without any explanation, even though I'd asked for those days off the year before and gotten them. Then, my supervisor tested positive for COVID, so I had to self-isolate. Management and my supervisor kept calling and texting me, wanting me to find an at-home test and come back to work ASAP. I had to tell everyone I'd been in contact with that I'd been exposed, which risked messing up their holiday plans.
Thankfully, my test came back negative.
A week later, we got hit with a huge snow and ice storm. I have a four-wheel drive vehicle so I was able to make it into work, but near the end of my shift, I found out that my friend's husband had been in a car accident and was stranded. They had also lost power at their home, with an infant so I left work to help them get home. I didn't have many sick hours left, but I called out the next day and said it was a family emergency. The snow and ice were still bad, and we still didn't have power, but management kept calling me, demanding that I come back to work. That would have meant leaving my family stranded at my apartment, with no way to get supplies or get home when the power came back on.
I was done.
The next Sunday morning, I went into work and put my resignation letter on HR's desk. I made it effective immediately, since I live in an at-will state. Was it petty? Yeah, maybe. But I'd given eight years of my life to that company and asked for very little in return. As I was leaving, my supervisor asked if I was "finally" coming back to work. I just told him I was quitting, ignored his comments, and left.
A few hours later, I got a text from the assistant manager that said, "We will see how long you can take care of your lovechild without us."
That's when I knew who was behind the rumors.
My friends knew about the rumors from the beginning, and I didn't want them hearing about it from anyone else. They're my best friends, and they've given me the greatest gift in my goddaughter, who they insist I call my niece because I'm family. The term "lovechild" felt like a slur against her, and I wasn't okay with that. My friends weren't either.
They told me that my assistant manager had really screwed up. It was time to get corporate HR involved, so I started collecting evidence – the texts from my supervisor, the call records, and that text message. If I was going to leave, I was going to make sure the people who had been targeting me faced some consequences.
What happened next I heard from friends who still worked there, so I can't be 100% sure about everything, but apparently, the assistant manager really messed things up. The next day, she held a meeting with management and supervisors and announced that I'd been fired for "job abandonment and immorality." I'm pretty sure "immorality" isn't a fireable offense in retail. To my supervisor's credit, he defended me, and she fired him on the spot. The HR rep then said that I hadn't been fired, that I'd quit on my own. The assistant manager tried to fire him too, right in front of everyone.
That's when things really fell apart.
According to my friend, entire departments started walking out or quitting because they'd had their own issues with the assistant manager.
* The entire Appliances department quit.
* The Garden department left with their manager to work for a competitor.
* The Front Desk walked out in protest because the assistant manager had threatened Muslim part-timers and told them they couldn't wear their headscarves if they wanted hours.
* Lumber, Receiving's main partner, quit.
* The Pro Desk joined the Front Desk protest because the assistant manager had threatened a Sikh man.
* Both head cashiers quit, and the other cashiers walked out.
* The Operations Manager told the District Manager what was happening and then quit, along with the HR rep and my old supervisor.
The last thing my friend heard was that the assistant manager was running to her car after she found out that the district staff was on their way. The store manager had to shut the store down for the next two days.
I've been in touch with the other people who were affected, and we're putting together all the evidence we have because some of them are hiring lawyers. I think the company is going to try and keep this quiet. I never thought anything like this would happen.
I'm starting a full-time job at the gym soon, and I'm enjoying the extra sleep and time I get to spend with my family. I'm never working 56-64 hour weeks again. And I'm never setting foot in that store again. I hope my assistant manager enjoyed her little power trip, because I doubt she'll ever have that kind of authority again.
**TLDR:** An assistant manager abused her power and harassed me and several other employees, which led to her downfall and the biggest mass quitting I've ever seen.
Fuck Home Depot! Lmao
I worked there for years as well. Started in Garden. Then Head cashier. Then Front End Manager. Had the ASM and 2 of his buddies there sexually harassing me the entire time. SM of course did nothing.
They didn't know that the southern district manager was a family friend, one day I was chatting on the phone with her and they walked in on their usual BS and I just let them say everything they normally did while she heard every single word.
I quit that day, and they were fired within 24 hours. Satisfying.