u/papertraillog

When she first started I was really optimistic because I was the manager of my department while being forced to do tasks for that position too since people kept quitting. Highly toxic environment. I genuinely wanted her to make it so I didn’t have to do two jobs. So I gave her immediate support.

She made a couple mistakes in her first two weeks. No big deal, she’d literally just started and corporate “training” there was always sink or swim. But now eyes were on her. Here I am not only excelling, generally liked, making a higher salary because of my tenure, and younger. She started to target me to make me look like a problem.

I won’t go on and on with examples, just picture the boss that is bullying you, treating you like garbage, and undermining you daily.

She took off Friday-Sunday and didn’t let me know. We really needed her support and her being there was planned! A couple of minor things went wrong which my GM questioned me about.

I tell him some of it was out of my control due to vendors, which was true. Then I casually drop something like, “I really wish [name] would’ve been here, she’s so good at [blah blah]”

• What do you mean? She wasn’t here?
• No.
• Was she here Saturday?
• I didn’t see her, I sent her a text on but she never responded.
• Hm. And Sunday?
• No, I hope she’s okay. I know she’s been having a hard time lately.
• What do you mean?
• She just seems.. overwhelmed I guess? But I know a big job. I just really hope she stays here because she clearly knows what she’s doing.
• Is there anything else?
• Yes.. I don’t know if I should share this because we all have hard days but.. I knocked on her office door last week because we were so busy and we needed help…when she opened it she was crying a lot. I asked if she was okay and she slammed the door and left an hour later. I don’t know how to help her, I know she can be a strong part of the team.

Corporate had a meeting with her 2 days later. She never came back after that meeting.

Do I feel bad? Absolutely not. She was a bully and honestly, I probably did her a favor lol. I finally got out of that place 4 months later.

The only lie was the crying. The statements about randomly not showing up for days, especially the days we needed her, refusing to respond to texts and emails, and her appearing to be overwhelmed were true.

Montana is the only exception, but even in the others you cannot legally be fired for protected reasons.

Examples:
• You report a serious work safety violation to OSHA.
• You make a discrimination or harassment complaint.
• You contact the health department because the conditions of the kitchen you work in is putting the public at risk.
Then you’re fired a week later, or your hours are drastically reduced, or you’re put on a PIP out of nowhere.

We can prove wrongful termination and take legal action as long as we can prove it, no matter where we live.

Also, employees are not actually required to make report to their supervisor or HR before reporting violations to agencies directly! If there’s one thing a toxic boss hates, it’s when we go around them…

Remember Charleston White? 😂

Really went back and forth on talking about my tool here because I am active in this sub and I want to continue to be a genuinely supportive person to people sharing their stories. But it is actually helping people so if one person here needs it then it’s worth it for the downvotes.

My background: Executive chef, hostile work environment for 2+ years, harassment complaint made near the end, nothing happened. Even though I was still a high performer my mental health plummeted. I took 2 weeks of FMLA, came back to relentless bullying from a new manager, received an impossible (and false) PIP, then constructive discharge. I was depressed but confident that I could sue and win because I had a lot of proof but I literally had no idea where to begin.

Things I had to figure out alone and at my lowest:

• How to get an attorney to actually take my case
• How the actually EEOC works
• Is what happened illegal or was it just bullying
• What actually counts as ‘evidence’
• What agency handles what law
• What details are needed about the people involved
• How to put 2 years of crap in chronological order
• Importance of copies of handbook, job offer, etc.
• Easiest way to keep track of jobs I was applying for as proof that I wasn’t just trying not to work
• How to prove emotional distress
• wtf is contemporaneous evidence
• How will I find a therapist without insurance

I could go on and on but basically I had to learn everything I possibly could about the employment law world. It was incredibly hard, painful, exhausting, overwhelming. I got an attorney and we recently reached a resolution.

I started building Traily during this time and 5 months later published in January. It and every resource inside is there because I needed it. Because ai was unreliable in many ways during my preparation pre-attorney, there is zero ai in the app.

Everything is free, and almost every tool stays free. If you need to go deeper and log more of certain things, that’s a sub, but honestly no one should need this for more than a few months max anyway. I could’ve left my job in the first 90 days and sued if I’d know a single fckng employment law and what to actually document vs what was just hurting my feelings.

The goal is not to get rich and it’s not to promote lawsuits. It’s to give people the clarity they need to get out or at least stop being gaslit. I don’t want anyone to navigate this from scratch, alone, depressed, and confused ever again.

Thank you for reading, and I am sorry if this post rubs someone the wrong way. It’s not a place for promotion but it is a place to support and help others stand up to toxic work environments.

Below is an actual post from a a few days ago from a Reddit user. So many comments like “Congrats!” “How did you market??” “Tell me how!”

Well, they can’t because it isn’t true.

• “A few months ago we started sharing on Reddit” False, it was a few weeks ago.
• A week ago, this same account posted “I'm hitting a brick wall and I'm not gaining much traction no matter how much I try.” Going on to say they might just give up.
• A day ago, they claim to reach 10k users thanks to the Reddit community.

It’s a growth-hacking post. People cheer for the underdog, engage with the post, buy the crap.

Also, signups/downloads/installs do not automatically equal actual users.

Just want to share for those who are buying into it. They aren’t dumb, but should see it for what it really is. It’s not smart, it breaks trust, and it’s lazy.

The post:

“We hit 10k users because of Reddit, so we're giving back. A few months ago, we started sharing [app name] on Reddit.
Some people gave us brutal feedback. Some people called out bugs. Some people told us the Ul was confusing. Some people actually tried it, broke it, and sent us better ideas than anything we had planned internally.
Honestly, that feedback helped us way more than we expected.
6 months later and we just crossed 10,000 users, and a huge part of that came from Reddit communities that gave us early attention, criticism, and support when we were still figuring things out.
So we wanted to give something back.
For Reddit users, we're giving 20% off everything”

Hi!

I launched my first app in January as paid only. I got lucky with a mid-viral social media post about it and got 132 downloads in 3 weeks. Massive win, I was so excited, but only a few subscribed. Even though I offered a 2-week free trial it still wasn’t working.

Early April I switched gears and now tons of features are free forever, but only limited entries for a few features if not paid. I’m still averaging 3-5 signups a day from marketing (huge deal to me!) and at least 1 person subscribe a week after they that hit that entry limit.

It’s a huge bummer though because at least 175 of those sign ups are still in my database/never deleted the app. But because they never passed the paywall and got the pop-up to accept notifications, there’s no way for me to let them know that they can now access the app for free unless I emailed each of them individually, which would probably go to their spam folder anyway. HUGE loss, much regret.

Hi!

I launched my first app in January as paid only. I got lucky with a mid-viral social media post about it and got 132 downloads in 3 weeks. Massive win, I was so excited, but only a few subscribed. Even though I offered a 2-week free trial it still wasn’t working.

Early April I switched gears and now tons of features are free forever, but only limited entries for a few features if not paid. I’m still averaging 3-5 signups a day from marketing (huge deal to me!) and at least 1 person subscribe a week after they that hit that entry limit.

It’s a huge bummer though because at least 175 of those sign ups are still in my database/never deleted the app. But because they never passed the paywall and got the pop-up to accept notifications, there’s no way for me to let them know that they can now access the app for free unless I emailed each of them individually, which would probably go to their spam folder anyway. HUGE loss, much regret.

Hi!

I launched my first app in January as paid only. I got lucky with a mid-viral social media post about it and got 132 downloads in 3 weeks. Massive win, I was so excited, but only a few subscribed. Even though I offered a 2-week free trial it still wasn’t working.

Early April I switched gears and now tons of features are free forever, but only limited entries for a few features if not paid. I’m still averaging 3-5 signups a day from marketing (huge deal to me!) and at least 1 person subscribe a week after they that hit that entry limit.

It’s a huge bummer though because at least 175 of those sign ups are still in my database/never deleted the app. But because they never passed the paywall and got the pop-up to accept notifications, there’s no way for me to let them know that they can now access the app for free unless I emailed each of them individually, which would probably go to their spam folder anyway. HUGE loss, much regret.

I see posts here that say they aren’t getting subs for their paid apps so wanted to share my experience.

I really hope this isn’t a ridiculous question. One example: on my website I have a short “founder story” section, but then I have a “contact us” form for user support. It feels.. I suppose inauthentic because obviously there is no “us.” I worry that it’s a confusing message, but it also feels weird to say “me,” or have my outlook email signature “Sincerely, [App name] Team.”

Am I supposed to have a founder story section but present the app publicly as if I have team? Is that completely obvious to other solo founders? Am I overthinking it?

I’m finally at a place where I can put more into marketing, but I need to figure this out. Any advice is appreciated. 🙏🏽

When my employment ended I wasn’t worried at all about getting an attorney because I’d saved everything over 2 years. I wanted it all perfectly organized (chef mentality) with every single thing (I thought) an attorney would obviously need before I started reaching out to them.

After countless hours a day over approximately 3 weeks, I’d obsessively organized over 4500 “items.”
Folders, subfolders, with subfolders.

Gut-punch reality:
• I reached out to over 40 attorneys.
• Less than 10 asked for evidence/attachments before consultation.
• I got 5 offers. Only 1 asked for attachments.
• The attorney I originally chose only asked for a paystub.
• The attorney I hired 2 months later didn’t ask for anything, was incredible, and got it resolved successfully in only a few months.

I want to mention that putting everything together was a wildly painful task I don’t think enough people talk about. I had to relive it all, including the things I’d forgotten. All of it unnecessary at that stage. Worse - plenty of it completely irrelevant and not even “evidence” of anything illegal.

The message here is NOT to stop documenting, but be organized from the start.
It’s also not, ‘attorneys that don’t want to review anything up front are bad.’ It could simply be because it isn’t necessary yet.

Research your rights. Seek legal advice. Save yourself time.

Live & learn!

When my employment ended I wasn’t worried at all about getting an attorney because I’d saved everything over 2 years. I wanted it all perfectly organized (chef mentality) with every single thing (I thought) an attorney would obviously need before I started reaching out to them.

After countless hours a day over approximately 3 weeks, I’d obsessively organized over 4500 “items.”
Folders, subfolders, with subfolders.

Gut-punch reality:
• I reached out to over 40 attorneys.
• Less than 10 asked for evidence/attachments before consultation.
• I got 5 offers. Only 1 asked for attachments.
• The attorney I originally chose only asked for a paystub.
• The attorney I hired 2 months later didn’t ask for anything, was incredible, and got it resolved successfully in only a few months.

I want to mention that putting everything together was a wildly painful task I don’t think enough people talk about. I had to relive it all, including the things I’d forgotten. All of it unnecessary at that stage.

The message here is NOT to stop documenting, but be organized from the start.
It’s also not, ‘attorneys that don’t want to review anything up front are bad.’ It could simply be because it isn’t necessary yet.

Live & learn!

When my employment ended I wasn’t worried at all about getting an attorney because I’d saved everything over 2 years. I wanted it all perfectly organized (chef mentality) with every single thing (I thought) an attorney would obviously need before I started reaching out to them.

After countless hours a day over approximately 3 weeks, I’d obsessively organized over 4500 “items.”
Folders, subfolders, with subfolders.

Gut-punch reality:
• I reached out to over 40 attorneys.
• Less than 10 asked for evidence/attachments before consultation.
• I got 5 offers. Only 1 asked for attachments.
• The attorney I originally chose only asked for a paystub.
• The attorney I hired 2 months later didn’t ask for anything, was incredible, and got it resolved successfully in only a few months.

I want to mention that putting everything together was a wildly painful task I don’t think enough people talk about. I had to relive it all, including the things I’d forgotten. All of it unnecessary at that stage.

The message here is NOT to stop documenting, but be organized from the start.
It’s also not, ‘attorneys that don’t want to review anything up front are bad.’ It could simply be because it isn’t necessary yet.

Live & learn!

Before we get to speak to the Employment Lawyer, we usually have to pass the phone screen. What to expect & some tips I learned the hard way.

First the simple questions before you get into the details of your situation.

1. ⁠Your full name
2. ⁠Name of employer
3. ⁠Current employment status (l
4. ⁠Exact dates of employment.
5. ⁠Job title (& job responsibilities, ex. ‘manager’)
6. ⁠Hourly wage or salary
7. ⁠Sometimes, “Have you had any prior write ups?”

After that you’ll hear something like, “tell me a little bit about your situation.” Think less ‘story time’ more ‘presenting a report.”

Ex:
• Incidents/Legal claim:
• Date(s) & Frequency of Incidents:
• Who Did It /Title):
• Reported To (Who/When):
• Outcome After Initial Report:
• Any Witnesses (Titles):
• Evidence available:
Current status:

If you already have something pending with an agency, like a filed EEOC charge or RTS letter, let them know.

“Emotional” piece..
Out of all the initial screens I had, not a single one asked me about the emotional impact. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter, but unless it’s wildly serious, it’s pretty much already assumed that we’re sad and angry lol.

They won’t always schedule these intake calls ahead of time. After you submit your web form, your phone might ring at any time. I had one call 15 minutes after I reached out.
If I didn’t have at least 20 minutes of uninterrupted time in a quiet place, I just let it go to voicemail and called back asap.

• Take notes during
• Don’t forget to breathe. Seems like a silly point, but when anxious we tend to speak fast and run out of breath. You likely will not get to say everything you want to say so don’t try to rush it all in.
• Thank them for their time & confirm next steps.

Really the only thing we can control is our delivery. In the beginning I learned that once a door closed, it stayed closed. If a firm denies it’s alright, just reflect on how you can convey the information better and try another one.

Quick bummer reality check though.. not everyone has a case, just a shitty boss.

First the simple questions before you get into the details of your situation.

1. ⁠Your full name
2. ⁠Name of employer
3. ⁠Current employment status (l
4. ⁠Exact dates of employment.
5. ⁠Job title (& job responsibilities, ex. ‘manager’)
6. ⁠Hourly wage or salary
7. ⁠Sometimes, “Have you had any prior write ups?”

After that you’ll hear something like, “tell me a little bit about your situation.” Think less ‘story time’ more ‘presenting a report.”

Ex:
• Incidents/Legal claim:
• Date(s) & Frequency of Incidents:
• Who Did It /Title):
• Reported To (Who/When):
• Outcome After Initial Report:
• Any Witnesses (Titles):
• Evidence available:
Current status:

If you already have something pending with an agency, like a filed EEOC charge or RTS letter, let them know.

“Emotional” piece..
Out of all the initial screens I had, not a single one asked me about the emotional impact. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter, but unless it’s wildly serious, it’s pretty much already assumed that we’re sad and angry lol.

They won’t always schedule these intake calls ahead of time. After you submit your web form, your phone might ring at any time. I had one call 15 minutes after I reached out.
If I didn’t have at least 20 minutes of uninterrupted time in a quiet place, I just let it go to voicemail and called back asap.

• Take notes during
• Don’t forget to breathe. Seems like a silly point, but when anxious we tend to speak fast and run out of breath. You likely will not get to say everything you want to say so don’t try to rush it all in.
• Thank them for their time & confirm next steps.

Really the only thing we can control is our delivery. In the beginning I learned that once a door closed, it stayed closed. If a firm denies it’s alright, just reflect on how you can convey the information better and try another one.

Quick bummer reality check though.. not everyone has a case, just a shitty boss.

you aren’t documenting enough. There’s a reason why in toxic relationships we say “I have the receipts!” You kept the texts & you have the proof that you aren’t crazy. The same applies to a toxic/hostile work environment.

If your job has you second-guessing yourself constantly, questioning your competency when you are performing well, or making you question your memory, start writing things down. At the very least you’ll keep your sanity. At most, you’ll see a pattern and take action.

Hi! Has anyone here done this? I assume the chances of getting featured are low, but wondering if anyone has had success. I’m thinking it wouldn’t hurt to try.

I think I have an interesting story behind the development. Averaging 2-3 sign ups/5 downloads a day (a lot in my mind!) since launching in February. I’m finally coming up in ai search engines a lot more often and higher ranked. Churn rate isn’t horrible, crash rate still 0%. I don’t know how much that all factors in though, first-time dev.

Anyone have any suggestions or experience with nominations?

Thank you!

Hi! Have any ladies here done this? I assume the chances of getting featured are low, but wondering if anyone has had success. I’m thinking it wouldn’t hurt to try.

I’m averaging 2-3 sign ups/5 downloads a day (a lot in my mind!) since launching in February. I’m finally coming up in ai search engines a lot more often and higher ranked. Churn rate isn’t horrible, crash rate still 0%. I don’t know how much that all factors in though, first-time dev.

Anyone have any suggestions or experience with nominations?

Thank you!