u/Mollyjones85

Warning: This is lengthy:

For over three years, I was a teacher at a state agency that served some of the state’s most vulnerable young people. I accepted this role with the belief that my experience, education, and dedication to students would allow me to make a difference. No, I walked away after what I felt was bullying, retaliation, unfair treatment, over-monitoring, and disability discrimination.

I asked for reasonable accommodations from the beginning of my job that would allow me to communicate effectively and safely in a secure setting. These weren’t special requests. These were the accommodations I needed to do my work and stay safe. It took years, though. Requests were delayed, refused, limited, or carried out in ways that did not meet the challenges that I had presented.

The more I fought for myself, the more hostile my workplace environment was. I was singled out for enforcement of regulations, over-scrutinized, professionally isolated, micromanaged, surveilled, held to changing expectations, mandated with limits that did not seem to be applied to others, and had my professional judgment second-guessed repeatedly.

I didn't keep my mouth shut.

I sought support from supervisors and administrators. I reached out to Human Resources and Employee Relations. I documented incidents, submitted safety concerns, filed accommodation requests, filed grievances and complaints, produced written rebuttals, and presented evidence.

When the internal systems failed to address my issues, I moved outside the agency. “I reached out to state human resources people, state government offices, legislators, elected officials, and others in state administration. I requested an independent evaluation and supplied documents about the accommodation issues, treatment at work, retaliation, discrimination, and safety issues I had experienced.

Eventually I even approached the media, since I felt I had exhausted practically every other route open to me.

Still, no one seriously got involved.

Perhaps that’s the most disturbing part of my experience. I followed the procedures employees are told to follow. I recorded what happened. I expressed concerns. I submitted grievances. I went above their heads. I contacted elected officials and attempted to bring public attention to what was happening.

But I continued to go to work knowing that the people I had reported still had a lot of power over my day-to-day working conditions.

I finally left. Not because I stopped caring about my students or couldn’t do my job anymore, but because I no longer believed the environment would improve.

I'm an experienced teacher, and I understood how to document matters, submit formal complaints, keep evidence, contact government officials, and advocate for myself. And I still could not receive any real assistance.

This makes me worry about what happens to the workers who don’t know how to negotiate with such organizations, who are too scared or too tired to keep fighting.

I am not seeking sympathy. I am seeking a sense of responsibility.

Discrimination, retaliation, and harassment policies are meaningless if employees cannot get effective protection when they turn to their employer for help.

I may have walked away from that workplace, but I will not walk away from what happened.”

The question that remains is a simple one:

How can an employee ask supervisors, Human Resources, state officials, lawmakers, and even the media for help, and still be left with nowhere to turn?

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what partnership really means.
I lost my partner about five years ago, and I’ve been on my own ever since. Before that, I was married for more than 20 years, and looking back, I often felt like I spent so much of myself giving to someone else that I forgot who I was.
I recently took a few days away just to clear my head. I’ve driven across the country, flown to Hawaii, visited national parks, and hiked countless trails with my dog. I’m grateful that I’ve learned to enjoy my own company and that I haven’t waited for someone else to start living my life.
But if I’m being honest, there are moments when I look around at a beautiful view and wish there was someone beside me to share it with.
The difference now is that I don’t want to lose myself again. I don’t want a relationship where one person does all the giving while the other simply takes. I’ve worked too hard to rediscover who I am.
Maybe it’s a Gen X thing. Maybe it’s just life experience. But I’ve reached a point where I don’t want to be someone’s everything while becoming nothing to myself.
I don’t think I’m asking for too much. I don’t need perfection. I just want a true partner. Someone who brings as much to the relationship as I do. Someone who encourages my independence instead of expecting me to sacrifice it. Someone who complements my life rather than consumes it.
Does anyone else ever feel this way?

I am in the last days of leaving a job that has been one of the most difficult situations of my career. For the last year I was singled out by a supervisor, held to standards no one else was, and constantly micromanaged. Another admin was constantly watching me on cameras, checking my computer activities, making it hard to just do my work. I hadn't done anything wrong. I was trying to do the best I could for my job. This only made things worse when I refused to compromise the confidences of coworkers who had shared their concerns with me. If they wanted such information, I informed my bosses, they had to go right to those employees. I wasn’t going to betray someone’s trust. At the same time, I continued to face abuse, harassment, and retaliation while battling for years for accommodations for people with disabilities that should never have been delayed. It was a great toll on my health and well-being. I am moving on to a new position now and I am happy for the opportunity. But I keep returning to one question. I have had many people telling me to move on, to be thankful that I have a new position and to get on with my life. A part of me gets that advice. But another part of me says that if executives abuse their power or retaliate against employees or deny people the accommodations they need, they should be held accountable. Not for retribution, but to help make sure it doesn’t happen to someone else. I continue to reach out to agency heads and other suitable groups because I believe change demands accountability. So I'm curious what others think? If you were in my shoes would you just let it go and leave it in the past? Or would you continue to seek responsibility in the hope that future employees are not subjected to similar treatment?

I’ve been separated from my husband for almost ten years. I own my own home and, like most people, I work hard and struggle to make ends meet.
My husband is much older and essentially retired, with no pension or retirement income. His house had become unlivable because of mice, bugs, dog waste, and years of neglect. When my younger son and his wife needed a place to stay, I offered them the entire upstairs of my townhouse. They have their own space, and I don’t charge them rent or ask them to help with bills because I know they’re trying to save for a place of their own.
What has been difficult is that, because I left their father years ago, some of my children still seem to carry resentment. I didn’t think my son did, but lately he constantly complains that my house is too far from everything, that he spends too much on gas, and that he wishes he could move back near his dad’s house.
I find myself wondering if I’m being overly sensitive. I hear those comments and, instead of appreciating that I’m trying to help, they come across as ungrateful. I had to support myself from the time I was 16, so I never had the kind of safety net I’m trying to provide for my own kids.
I’m genuinely curious if others have experienced this. Is this simply normal frustration from young adults trying to establish themselves? Is it leftover family resentment? Or has there been a shift where some younger adults expect more from their parents than previous generations did?
I’m not looking to criticize an entire generation. I know there are plenty of hardworking young people. I’m just trying to understand whether I’m expecting too much appreciation or whether my feelings are reasonable.

My supervisor has started docking my sick leave for every little thing, five minutes here, ten minutes there, if I leave a few minutes early. Yet when I come in early, stay late, or work through my lunch, none of that extra time is recognized or compensated.

What makes it even more frustrating is that, as far as I can tell, no other employees are being treated this way. This feels less like a policy and more like targeted pettiness.

I work in a right-to-work state with no union representation, and HR has been no help. As a salaried employee, I’m left wondering: is it even legal to deduct leave in tiny increments for a few minutes while ignoring all the extra time worked?

My toxic supervisor caught wind that I accepted a new position and will be leaving in July (even though I haven't officially given notice yet). Ever since, she has amped up the bullying and targeted harassment. She’s actively writing me up for things everyone else does, and if I try to question it, she shuts me down. To make it worse, she’s completely poisoned the well with the other managers, so now the whole leadership team treats me with hostility and coldness. I tried going to HR, but of course, they only exist to protect the agency and did absolutely nothing. I have 8 weeks left of this nightmare. I’m just trying to survive the countdown, but it is so incredibly exhausting. Has anyone dealt with this kind of toxic countdown? How do I protect my mental health and my professional reputation for these final two months?

I’m leaving my job in July, but until then I still have to deal with this witch of a supervisor. Yesterday she suddenly decided that I’m not allowed to go to lunch until the building is completely clear. Funny how this “rule” only applies to me while everyone else goes to lunch normally.

My lunch is unpaid and only 30 minutes long. By the time the building finally cleared and I was walking out the door, she told me I had to be back by 11:50. It was already 11:30, so I lost 10 minutes of my lunch because of her petty nonsense.

On top of that, she now wants to write me up because I revised a report incorrectly. I had no idea the revision wasn’t to her satisfaction until I was suddenly being disciplined for it.

July cannot come fast enough. And no, they don’t know I’m leaving. I’ve kept it quiet because I know they’d make my life even harder if they did.

My partner just was offered a job with RMC Events. However, as they were showing him a presentation, it said something about training for 16 hours ( 2 8 hour days) that was unpaid. Is this true? Isn’t this illegal? I know VA is a right to work state, but still…

My partner just was offered a job with RMC Events. However, as they were showing him a presentation, it said something about training for 16 hours ( 2 8 hour days) that was unpaid. Is this true? Isn’t this illegal? I know VA is a right to work state, but still…

My evil supervisor sent an all-staff email yesterday, wishing good luck and telling us all to wish them all good luck for those who left LAST WEEK. They are gone. They won’t see his email! To top it off, one of the people he mentioned he actually fired!

Why bother at all sending something like this out? 🤷‍♀️