Posted negative review of an employer on social media, manager replied saying I have sexual harassment accusations

Question

I work for a company that does marketing. They send me around to different stores to give out samples of products. This particular company has been unfair and dishonest in the past. I have reduced my time spent with them to only once a week.

I was on a social media group and someone had posted about the same company. She said she was having trouble getting paid. I replied that they had been very dishonest in my experience. My manager saw my post and texted me saying she had reported me to HR for it and wont be assigning any more shifts. I shouldn't have done this but I put a screen shot of this text on the group (without any personal information) and she replied by putting screen shots of my text messages she interpreted as rude* and saying there have been multiple sexual harassment claims made about me.

First off, I'm only aware of one incident that could even remotely be considered "sexual harassment". I was never really given the details regarding it. It seemed to have blown over.

Second, I made a public criticism against a company. My manager responded by making a criticism about me personally. Let alone sexual harassment is a serious accusation.

As it is now I only have one more scheduled shift but I would really like to work it. I really like the job, just not management or the politics. How should I proceed? I've got most of this documented. I took a screen shot of my managers social media post but forgot to take a screen shot of my own. I have already deleted my post and her replies to it, I didn't want it to escalate into anything further.

Option 1) Have a calm conversation with my manager and say I would be disposed to work my scheduled shift and then resign. Option 2) report her to HR for saying I have sexual harassment allegations with the company. Also play hardball and say I need two weeks notice to be fired.

I would also like to know if there were any "sexual harassment claims" made about me and their details. I certainly do not believe I was or intended to "sexually harass" anyone.

(*she posted a text message of me telling her that she is not my manager and I didn't think it was appropriate for her to be telling me what to do. This did happen because management changed and when she had initially introduced herself to me she said she was just helping out, and I didn't know she became the manager)

This is a large company which makes heavy use of it's social media presence and surprisingly many people assume they are ethical.

Added: I have no need or desire to use this company as a reference or continue working for them past one more shift.

Something that seems suspicious to me, a few days ago my manager and her manager contacted me about a report I needed to urgently complete. It didn't make sense to me and I said I already did this. They then simply ignored me and wouldn't respond to any of my communications asking if it was resolved.

Answer 1

My manager saw my post and texted me saying she had reported me to HR for it and wont be assigning any more shifts. I shouldn't have done this but I put a screen shot of this text on the group (without any personal information) and she replied by putting screen shots of my text messages she interpreted as rude* and saying there have been multiple sexual harassment claims made about me.

As it is now I only have one more scheduled shift but I would really like to work it. I really like the job, just not management or the politics. How should I proceed?

You should do nothing, and hope that the currently-scheduled shift stays scheduled.

You have burned your bridges by publicly criticizing your company, using enough information so that your manager knew it was you, then publicly exposing that your manager reported you to HR.

You were already warned to be careful due to your prior incident. But choosing to make your criticism public wasn't being careful at all. Now, there are consequences.

Meanwhile, you should make sure you are in a position financially to lose all future shifts with this company.

Answer 2

Dude. Get out of there. Don't even bother to use them as a reference.

I would also say 'lawyer up' but it looks like you've deleted the evidence required to prove your case, if you had one (airing HR-related stuff like this can lead to a hostile working environment, which can be illegal in some jurisdictions, but it's also not like you didn't throw the first stone in this regard.). Either way, they (and you) have shown how low they are willing to sink and you capitulated. They posted that there because they wanted you to delete the bad comment. They now know they can do the same thing with the same result.

Answer 3

While your manager has acted quite unprofessionally (and depending on your laws publicly lying about sexual harassment cases might allow you to sue her), criticising the company on a social media group can be a legal reason to end your employment.

Normally your manager cannot fire you, someone in HR has to agree. So talking to HR might be worthwhile.

Answer 4

We like to give advice of changing job.
In this case the manager should known that "claim" should be make to HR and you would know about it. If it's not made to HR then it's a gossip and deflamation. And this is what she basically does. It should be reported to HR as such, especially if a company try to have certain image on SM.

And also change jobs. Having one with manager who use make up accusation for leverage is a bad thing.