Pretty sure the saga of the slave driven company has come to an end I’m the only HR person at this company. Friday I had full admin rights, and went to check email Saturday; account locked. Payroll/HRIS locked out. PEO service says no pending termination is on my file. Went to the office today to get my things just in case. Located in CA. Was about to report numerous violations too. All because I couldn’t solve 8 months of payroll issues in a day. 🫠 Good riddance, I’m getting a lawyer.

like
Posting as :
works at
You are currently posting as works at

Do it! There are so many HR Openings posted in California. Don’t resign, take the unemployment.

like

So update to this craziness. Woke up at 5am yesterday to a random check in my account. For those of you, you know this is the nail in the coffin essentially. So I went to the office space early (like 7am) dropped off company laptop, cords, shredded anything remaining and deleted everything off the computer. Turned in key card (we had an office in a WeWork). Emailed them saying explicitly that I only want to communicate by email, even though they were trying to get me to “meet at 12:30”. Nope. Not gonna spend $50 in Uber to find out I was terminated. They sent the formal letter at 3:30p yesterday for “at will” termination. Cowards. They have so much work piling up (tax changes in payroll, I9 of 3 employees, paystubs to former employees for ICE, bonus clawbacks with the employment lawyer). Oh well. They didn’t hide this well, it was sloppy, a choice made in the heat of possible frustration of how US laws work. Oddly enough all employees here listed their work under “stealth startup” cause the company didn’t want them to list themselves as working there. 🤔 No worries about me, I have interviews lined up as things were odd in week 3/4! It pays off to be constantly applying and entertaining phone calls for future opportunities turns out. No matter how early you are into a new job.

Every employee felt the same way. Treated horribly, worked to the bone, let go inexplicably “at will”, and worse unable to file for unemployment due to company not giving proper info to do so. The sales guy was shocked this happened and it doesn’t give him much confidence moving forward. I merely told him to be careful.

So ends this saga. With any luck todays interview goes well, feels good and clicks and I start next Tuesday. Fingers crossed!

like

Wow! That sounds like one toxic work environment! I'm glad you are getting a lawyer though. Be sure to review that company on Glassdoor and indeed to warn future employees

like

Yeah I’ve been working every weekend since I started 2 months ago. Do they think I wouldn’t notice my access just disappeared??? Literally cannot do my job in any capacity. I laid off 4 people and one resigned, changed payroll/HRIS/benefits/I9 for non us citizens, PIP, tried to fix tax issues, worked with legal to circumvent 16 lawsuits for bonus clawbacks on laid off employees, cobra notices, leave admin and recruiting for 16 positions. I guess that wasn’t enough. It was pure hell.

Executive who knows nothing about HR demanded for the payroll process and I advised why that’s a bad plan as I had a plan to get it all done by 12/22 or 12/30 as it has to be. Kept demanding it be sent to him. So I sent the email to the payroll provider. 12 hours later all access was revoked. I kept a document between me and this executive detailing what I did weekly and the results. It’s not like he never knew what I was up to. Constantly kept him up to date. There’s just certain things a late 20 something year old executive from another country with no HR experience who went to engineering school not business school shouldn’t really need to know as it clutters his work day. But oh well. They violated 20 laws during my time there (which I told them about!) and I’m willing to bet $100 they mess up my PTO pay out per CA law and end up paying my daily rate for 30 days over 10 hours of PTO I accumulated before we swapped to UPTO. (They will claim their handbook says they don’t pay out PTO)

like

Just curious, which PEO (if you’re comfortable sharing)? If there were issues, were any of them their responsibility?

like

None of them were their responsibility thankfully! New PEO was VERY compliant and I’ve used them before.

likesmart

So sorry to hear about your experience; definitely sounds like a toxic environment, which I’m sure has affected your mental health. I hope you’ll find something quickly. Rough as it is, you’ll be stronger & wiser as a result. Pray for guidance on how to navigate your dealings with them. No doubt they’re trying to break you. Let them see you were built for this! Stay focused & make sure that whatever you do or how you respond isn’t done when you’re angry. Praying for you. Better is ahead.

like

Oh for sure. I’m trying to figure out how to ask for my email access back. Like how do you casually say “Hey, my access looks like it’s blocked can we fix this?” To the person who probably took it away to begin with? Running everything through my lawyer right now before I say or do anything. It’s really hard. I mean I did put in my weekly notes to leadership the feeling of unrealistic expectations and what it was doing to me (which I downloaded) and no response of how to solve it or why I was feeling that way.

Sounds awful you deserve better ☺️

Thank you it is awful!

So as of this morning before 8am, still locked out of email; my entire permissions have been changed to where I’m a regular employee and I ONLY have access to our hiring platform. Can’t access admin side of old payroll, can access employee side. New PEO service admin rights have been taken away (no notice on having those taken away). Checked my comp, hasn’t changed. So no demotion…that I’m aware of. It looks like I’ve been demoted to a recruiter. No notice on change of scope of work either, this all happened literally overnight. Mind you if there was a performance/conduct issue we have to go through proper documentation and process on this. We haven’t. If they don’t term me, I’ll be going out on short term disability in January for IOP due to this place.

Still applying for new places just in case, in the event I find a new place I give no notice and just drop everything off and leave. I’m still gonna report the violations. To lock me out of my email over the weekend is just insane. It looks like they cut my responsibilities by 80-90%. I suspect a pay cut will follow or an hours cut will follow…gonna chat with lawyer today.

WHAT??!?! This is crazy. I would definitely recommend getting an attorney. That sounds like pure chaos.

Geez. There's a lot happening. I hope everything goes well.

Related Posts

Is it possible to live in Austin without a car? Moving down for a few months from Dallas but don't plan on bringing a car.

like

Who is currently hiring entry-level OCM consultants? My close friend studied communications and organizational change, but found their way into logistics. They are looking for opportunities and I think they would be a much better fit as a consultant. My company’s hiring cycle ended so I’m seeing if I can help point them in the right direction before next year. Appreciate any pointers on certs that might help too! (I’m in analytics and not as familiar) Thanks!!

like

Anyone use 6figr premium for salary research?

What are the best neighborhoods to live in Denver?

Girlfriend and I are in our mid-Twenties. My office is in CBD and she will be working in Arvada. We are looking for places to rent and make roughly 200k combined.

like

Hi,
Lead-technology is only for development role or it might be qa or production support in synechron

like

Top firms for PBM consulting?

like

Experience hire applied via referral 10 days ago. How much time does it take to hear back after the pymetrics at BCG?

like

Bain & Company Hello, I received an offer as a Senior Practice Manager at Bain. The profit sharing range is 0-12% in the offer letter. Is it typical to receive the midpoint (6%)? Also, what do the annual salary increases typically look like? Any insights are much appreciated. Bain & Company Boston Consulting Group McKinsey & Company

Bain & Company Hi, does anybody know what the compensation is for BCG Senior Practice Manager? This is an internal role. Boston Consulting Group Bain & Company McKinsey & Company

like

To all the event profs out there, could anyone please advise on what is the base salary of a Senior Event Coordinator in Toronto? Thanks!

like

What’s that one song you can’t get out of your head right now?

like

Hi folks,What is the wfh situation in fidelity?

like

I have been tagged for this project that doesn’t start until June 10th. My utilization is going to drop significantly but at the same time the deployment team cannot present me elsewhere. Ugh!

like

Microsoft 🐟 I’m joining soon and curious to know about the parental leave policy. Are you able to take leave within a year of your start date/is there a waiting period before becoming eligible for the leave? Thanks in advance!

like

Should whoever came up with the hashtag BabyNut be fired?

likefunny

Is anyone looking for a great school in New Jersey to join for the 19/20 school year?

Anyone listening to the podcast “Dr. Death”? Both fascinating and horrifying...

like

Hello fishes, can someone tell me what percentage bonus can I expect for supervising associate-64 in CBS for different performance levels.
(In the offer letter it was mentioned as 10 percent.)

like

Is it true that AFS doesn’t allow people to start with a positive PTO balance?

like

Is Spain still a hotspot for good/cheap 2D animation production? Any studios to recommend?

Additional Posts in Human Resources

If my company is going through a reorganization, is it a terrible time to ask for a raise? Or a good opportunity that I would be missing? I currently feel underpaid, but I technically fall above the median in my area… I’m torn

like

How does everyone feel about the online SHRM learning for SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP for Certification?
Do you skip around? Do you follow the path? Where does one start?

like

Is anyone else exhausted with their consulting staff thinking they’re gods? Being treated with disrespect constantly by them is so draining. How do you manage your responses to them that’s not a 30 second turnaround?

likesmartfunny

Advice on taking and passing the SPHR exam?

likehelpful

Can you sell your used shrm cp books from the learning system? If so where?

like

What programs do my fellow HR managers recommend as far as personality assessments for hiring ?

like

SPHR exam- has anyone ever been “randomly selected” for an application audit? This just happened to me and the sheer amount of effort that is going to go into collecting all the documents almost makes me not want to follow through. Since I didn’t finish undergrad, they’re asking for a copy of my high school diploma or transcript and that itself is going to be an absolute nightmare to get hold of. Guess I’m not really looking for a solution here, just venting.

like

I’m studying for the SHRM-CP with the Mometrix (study guides, online course, and flash cards), however I’m super overwhelmed with all of the information. What are some best practices to ensure I grasp all of the concept ? Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

Hi everyone,
Looking for a M&A HR checklist that includes due diligence through integration. I have one but would like to see what else is out there and compare. Happy to share my email directly.

likehelpful

I’m currently working with a senior level HR candidate. This individual has a doctorate in business with a focus in HR, her SPHR, Federal, and private sector experience at the singer level, and has a fabulous personality. I’m curious is anyone else having difficulties play some candidates like this? At this point I’m starting to think it’s racial or her sex based of the lack of interest in this candidate. Any thoughts?

like

Do you still implement reference checks (on top of background checks)? I’m not convinced of the value add to the selection process and it takes a lot of time and resources

like

Hi, I am bringing together a team through a reorg any suggestions on how to bring a new team together remotely?

like

Is it worth becoming certified in compensation? I have 5 years of benefits and my new employer wants me to move into Total Rewards. Is this a better career move than just remaining in Benefits?

like

Why is it so hard to find a remote HR position? I have my SHRM-SCP, my MBA and over 10 years of experience being an HR Manager.

likesmart

Curious how folks are governing/auditing their HRIS data. Wondering if this always done it manually.

like

Do you think resume past behaviour is really a predator for future behaviour ? To me there has to be more psychological statistic on this to ring true as all work variable differ for each workplace, including performance expectations, tasks and evaluations.

like

Has anyone completed Cornell’s EMHRM program? If so, any advice for the official interview that happens after the application is submitted?

like

Hello everyone! How do you manage holiday pay when the holiday is on a Saturday/ Sunday. For example, if I have someone working on Christmas (Sunday), they should be paid 1.5 but what if they work on Monday as well?I know this might sound silly to some people but I’m covering for payroll for the holidays and I don’t want to mess up!

like

Looking for advice! I was approved to work remotely but my salary will decrease 10%. I received two raises so the decrease brings me down to my previous salary. I was told that it’s due to the cost of labor in the area.

I’ve been with my company for 8+ yrs, I love my manager and the work I do (engagement, recognition, & wellness programs) but I feel like I’m limiting myself since I have the experience, an HRM degree, and SHRM-CP credentials.

Should I apply for roles outside the company?

like

New to Fishbowl?

Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
That was just a preview…
Sign Up to see all discussions
  • Discover what it’s like to work at companies from real professionals
  • Get candid advice from people in your field in a safe space
  • Chat and network with other professionals in your field
Sign up in seconds to unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.

Already a user?
Login here

Share

Embed this post

Copy and paste embed code on your site

Preview

Download the
Fishbowl app

See what’s happening in your industry
from the palm of your hand.

A phone with Fishbowl app

Scan your QR code to download
Fishbowl app on your mobile

Download app

Sign up for free to view this conversation on Fishbowl

By continuing you agree to Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Already have an account? Log in

Sign up for free to continue using Fishbowl

By continuing you agree to Terms of Use(New) and Privacy Policy(New)
Messaging rates may apply

Already have an account? Log in

For account settings, visit Fishbowl on Desktop Browser or

General

Legal