jooser

Hey all, I don't wanna dump my personal garbage everywhere, but I have very traumatic thing that I am dealing with right now, -and yes it is a trigger for me. In late November, I was assaulted physically at work by another employee there. I work for a huge company (which I will not name). The offending individual threw a large measurement tool at me. It is about 12 inches long, made of steel, has sharp edges and corners and weighs roughly 8-10 lbs. The object bounced off of my Team Leader's arm and I managed to block it with my hand before it hit my chest. I suffered a laceration and some bruising. After throwing the object at me the individual became verbally threatening and got into my face when I tried to explain that he had in fact caused me harm. I walked away, but was extremely shaken up.

My company found out about the altercation the next day. HR did an investigation and at that time I let them know that I wanted out of the work area because I was not comfortable with that individual anymore. They waited 3 and a half weeks before they got back to us. They put me on probation for 18 months and gave the other guy 24 months. Call me crazy, but I was stunned. My depression has gotten 10 times worse and I am having panic attacks. Needless to say my alcoholism kicked into overdrive. At this time they still refuse to move me out of the area, despite having my doctor vouch for me. I am currently off on medical leave for depression and I am not sure I can ever go back. I am thinking of calling an attorney. Any advice for me?

Thanks,
jooser

Anna

Calling an attorney is a great idea.

Were there witnesses to the crime?

Why didn't you go directly to the police when you were assaulted? I have to say, that would have been my move.

I hope you get through this difficult time.

jooser

Yeah, I started to go to the police, and you're right I should've. There were three witnesses, including my team leader, who got hit by the thrown object as well. None of this is consistent. I have seen people fired there for just murmuring a threat towards someone else.

wooforever

I would go to an lawyer has soon as possible. You should see if you can still press chargers against the guy. Maybe look into a restraining order out on the guy. You should not have to be afaird to go to work. Someone will help you just need to ask

Tommyh

focus on the steps,get your butt back to work and face reality.Thats what you should do.Period !

That kind of stuff happened on a lot of my Saturday nights for me when I was drinking.
I am not going to let some dude run me off a job by throwing something at me,and you should not either.

GreenTea

First off, you need to keep in mind the purpose of HR... Many people don't understand what their (HR's) function is... They think they're there to provide some sort of "impartial justice" or something, and that simply isn't the case...

The primary function of HR is to prevent the company from being sued... Pure, plain and simple... They do not care about the employee's interests.

More likely than not, during the course of their "investigation", they talked with the co-worker to find out why he threw the tool at you... What kind of a response do you think the co-worker gave? Probably something along the lines of being provoked by you...

Believe it or not, this "counter-claim" probably had some weight with HR. From their perspective, employees simply do not spontaneously start throwing things at each other without some sort of cause... From their perspective, an employee's primary concern is to avoid being fired. *Something* must have happened to precipitate the assault or else it wouldn't have happened.

Remember back when you were a kid, and the schoolyard bully walked up to you and start throwing punches, and somehow YOU got into trouble for fighting? Its basically the same thing.

Fairness doesn't enter into it. Keeping everybody working and the company running is all that matters to them... If someone has a problem with someone else, they don't care about *why*... Instead its a matter of "can they work together?"

The fact that there were witnesses, and that one of them was your team lead, should work in your favor, and is probably why the other person got a longer "probation" period... But as far as HR is concerned, that's about the extent of it.

Definitely talk to a lawyer, especially if there are medical issues resulting from it... Definitely talk to a cop... The limits vary from State to State, but you might have as long as six months or even a year to file charges.

One other thing... Definitely plan on not working for that company for very much longer... Either HR/management will get rid of you, (him or you or both) -- and they can be very creative in making the company appear harmless and reasonable in doing so -- or else you'll get very fed up with working in a h#ll-hole (which it sounds like it has become).

Remember too that if the other person is any kind of bully, they'll "play the mob" making themselves look like the victim and you the problem, especially since and while you're out on leave... "See? See? He's the screwed up one! That's why he's not here! I'm the good employee who is mentally stable -- he's just a psycho!"

Bottom line, its time to move on from there... Assault charges are a second issue.

C2H5OH_Free

I'm not a lawyer, but there is a term called 'constructive discharge' which, if you can prove your case, allows you to collect lost wages and damages if you find you have to quit your job to due to situations like this.

Go here Constructive Discharge

Read that, get a lawyer, and nail them.

Make sure though, and be honest with yourself, before you pursue this path. Consider it the end of this job.

jooser

Thanks for the advice everyone. One more point that I'd like to add. The reason he threw the steel gage at me and threatened me was that I accidentally hit him with a rubber band from about 30 feet away. No harm done by anyone who saw it. This isn't a rare occurance either, as I said, we had NO supervision and were a fairly happy-go-lucky bunch, except this particular guy. By the reports I received from my "new" group leader, the guy took full responsibility for his actions and admitted that he completely over-reacted. My group lead, who is a salaried employee and therefore I hold accountable as speaking for the company, told me that I got 18 months of probation because the company needed me to stay put because I had the most experience and training in this job and everyone else was relatively new. Thus in essence, after waiting for almost 8 years to move to day shift (my time for transfer was up in 1 month) the company took advantage of someone else's screw-up to tie me down for another year and a half. It also knocked me out of any consideration for a team leader promotion (I had been in the pool for a year).

thanks,
jooser

indigo

I'm sorry that you're having to go through all this I will say as the others have go through it via an attorney and best of luck.

GreenTea

Again, fairness doesn't enter into it... Its more like a chess game in some respects, except that if you point out that the company's knight isn't supposed to move that way, you're conveniently branded as "difficult" and "uncooperative".

In the current economic climate, "spin" runs rampant. "Honesty" and "integrity" are unknown concepts and management would have you believe that valuable employees are a dime a dozen... Anything that happens is viewed in the light of "how can this help the company?" and you pretty much have to be at least a director in order to be considered a "real person".

This de-humanizing of employees -- the current phrase is "commoditization of resources" -- is how unions get formed. Those in management positions tend to start seeing the world as having two kinds of folks: "managers", that is, "adults" and "stupid spoiled kids" who aren't actually people.