u/screamingheadsdg

I’ve been through a lot of garbage at past jobs where I felt like the bad bosses always won, but this week I finally stood up for myself, I was working the dressing room stall. For those who don’t know, you cannot leave the dressing room unattended. I was on my period and my stomach was absolutely killing me. I did the professional thing and called over the store walkie-talkie for coverage so I could use the restroom.
Someone came up to cover me. But as I was walking away, my manager decided to blast me over the open store radio channel for every single employee to hear. She started scolding me, claiming I was taking "too many breaks" and that I had already used the bathroom twice in three hours. She kept calling normal bathroom trips "breaks" over the walkie to publicly shame me.
I went and used the restroom anyway because, hello, human anatomy. While I was in there washing my hands, she walkied the person covering me and told them to stay put because she was sending me home.
She called me into her office and told me I couldn’t use the restroom every 30 to 40 minutes (which I wasn’t even doing, but even if I was, my stomach was upset!). She then proudly told me that she had already manually clocked me out five minutes prior—before she even called me into the office or told me I was being sent home. She told me if I was using the bathroom that much, I was "too sick to work" and forced me off the schedule, making me lose my wages.
Here is the thing: she thinks because I am young, I am naïve and dumb. She thought I would just go home, cry, and accept being pushed around. She would never try this with an older worker.
But I completely outsmarted her.
The second I got home, I bypassed our store completely and called the corporate HR Hotline. I didn't just report the walkie incident. I logged into the portal and added every single legal violation she committed:

Publicly shaming an employee over store radio (violates corporate respect policies).
Telling an employee they can't use the restroom (massive OSHA violation).
Secretly clocking me out while I was still on the clock (literal wage theft under federal labor laws).
I also reported another manager who previously threatened to write me up if I ever called out sick, which is why I came to work feeling unwell in the first place.
By trying to send me home "sick," she thought she was covering her tracks. Instead, she left a digital footprint of wage theft in the corporate timeclock system and a dozen coworkers as witnesses to her walkie-talkie stunt.
Corporate HR is now investigating her for multiple corporate and federal violations. She went from having all the power to being under a giant corporate microscope. I have my next shift tomorrow, and honestly, it’s kind of funny because if she even breathes in my direction wrong, it counts as illegal retaliation and she will dig her own professional grave.
Treat people how you want to be treated. Don't let toxic managers push you around just because you're young!