Is it okay to complain to management after receiving role elimination notice

Question

A friend of mine was bullied for 6+ months by her manager to promote a subordinate with whom he had an affair. This subordinate is an average performer with nothing much to show to be promoted from a Sr. Engineer to a Staff Engineer. My friend gave a pushback as she felt it is unethical and unfair to her other subordinates. He threatened her that her performance rating would be impacted. Further he said she could have potential fights with her spouse and that her family relations could get strained. He started excluding her from meetings, every month he would come to her and ask her to promote the subordinate. Last month, he said to her give her a promotion and I will move her to a different team. My friend said, go ahead move her to whichever team you want to, but I am unable to justify the promotion. My friend complained to HR of his behaviour. The meeting with HR was hot and voices went high. Last week, she got a termination letter and all the documents and evidence she had was confiscated from her. She would like to complain to the top management of this behaviour by her manager.

Since the employment is 'at-will' she has no where to complain. The company has given her a standard letter protecting their rights and the rights of their current, and past employees under the US Law. But there is no word that they will equivalently honor and not purposely defame her and sabbottage her job hunt.

In this circumstance would it be more of a negative impact for her to send a letter documenting the sequence of facts that occured with the manager to the highest level of leadership? Would it negatively impact her career? Would the manager be able to sue her for sending the letter. She was with the organization for a year.

This is a reputed multinational company located in the United States.

Thanks much

What we would like to achieve -

We believe the manager has been unprofessional and would not want another person to go thru the same torture. We would hate to see this manager being promoted to higher levels as he is unethical in his practices. Especially bullying.

Also, we would like to write the letter as a documentation of facts in case the manager comes behind her in the future

Answer 1

I suggest she not send the letter. It serves no purpose and likely won't amount to much. If HR saw no problem with a manager trying to coerce a subordinate to promote someone he had a relationship with, they're not likely to care about the contents of that letter. She is instead free to post a review of the employer on various job boards if she feels it will not negatively affect her future job prospects, but should not make any allegations of misconduct and instead discuss her time there.

For future references, she's free to state she was terminated without cause. I would not go into the personal issues between her and her previous manager. Let the company disclose whatever they want.

The bottom line is that she was fired without cause. She should file for unemployment, appeal it if denied, and start looking for a new job.

Answer 2

HR is never your friend. Writing letters will do nothing (and if it did... your friend would be unlikely to find out anyway).

If your friend wants to pursue the issue, the only recourse they have is to talk to an employment attorney. They're the only people who can listen to all the evidence and determine if there's a case worth chasing.

Grudges are very heavy. Don't carry them too long; move on as soon as possible.

Answer 3

IANAL. This sounds a lot like she should consult a lawyer. My understanding of at-will employment is you can only be let go for any LEGAL reason more than ANY reason. I can’t say whether this passes the test to be considered illegal, but there are definitely components of sexual harassment at play where abuse of position is occurring.

This also underscores what I’ve seen a few of us say (and PeteCon added while I was typing this). HR is not your friend. Their job is to protect the company, not to protect righteousness. About the only ethical role HR can be relied on to play is where there is clear and provable misconduct by the management. If the scandal can’t be prevented, then they are likely to attempt to distance the company from the wrongdoing.

As to the letter, the career advice is to drop this whole thing and based on similar questions here, 80% of people are going to agree with walking away. Whether or not in the form of a letter to be sent, she should definitely keep a written record of the facts. While it may not be the proof desired without the confiscated information, it would serve to raise the question of just why does this information no longer exist.

That said, I personally would applaud her following her ethics. Continuing to reward behavior enforces it. When doing the mental calculus, only she can ascertain how much satisfaction she will gain from following her integrity vs. how much risk she’s willing to endure. My recollections of the definitions around slander and libel are that she can say pretty much anything so long as they are either 1) factual or 2) presented as her opinion. I would suggest that facts she does not have evidence to prove be presented as her opinion or recollection.

LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Better Business Bureau, even possibly local news outlets are options. It is conceivable that HR will decide it is in the company’s best interest to do the right thing if their image is tarnished enough. But remember that other employers will see what she posts and threats will very likely come from the company, possibly even that manager. People have a way of turning their misconduct into other people’s faults in their own minds

Answer 4

In this circumstance would it be more of a negative impact for her to send a letter documenting the sequence of facts that occured with the manager to the highest level of leadership?

Depends on the company culture, the particulars of the industry, and the values of the executive that you're sending the letter to. It's possible it might do nothing, it's possible that the manager might lose his job as well, it's possible it might backfire on her.

Would it negatively impact her career?

Well, obviously she shouldn't list the manager as a reference if she does, but she probably shouldn't do that anyway.

Would the manager be able to sue her for sending the letter.

I'm not a lawyer, but as long as she sticks to the facts and doesn't allege anything that isn't true, the manager shouldn't have grounds to sue her for defamation - he could still try, but it's unlikely that he'd win. The truth is an absolute defense against defamation accusations.