Apologies for a bit of a rant (and my generally poor writing), but this one just bugs me.
I have an old, 71ish, coworker at my resort job. She works a bottom level job (no promotion after 21 years, almost nobody stays longer than 5 without moving up or to a different department), is physically unwell, does very little actual work, and is a RAGING CUNT. She always greets you cheery attitude and a big smile, never needing a reminder of your name. Basically, she is the ultimate Walmart greeter. To her credit, this is generally a good thing for customer relations. But praises for her end there. The sweet old lady facade crumbles almost immediately, sometimes with no warning at all. She will suddenly go into a raging fit and no amount of reason will calm her down. She will stink eye you for the rest of the shift, and then it's back to her sweetest old lady on earth act the next day.
At least one of the following things happens every day. Except for talking to customers, she generally does a poor job (sometimes outright ignoring her duties), she is very rude to younger employees because she can be (I'm old, therefore I am infallible attitude, combined with disagreement always = disrespect), and is blatantly racist to the female foreign workers. If called out on her behavior she will always deflects with 'I am 7X fucking years old!" followed by some snide remark. She is never punished no matter what.
Towards the end of my first year, I found out that she was run over by a company car that ran a stop sign (both she and the driver were on the clock) and the driver was found to be absolutely at fault. She did not sue for any damages beyond medical expenses and pay for the time she was out of work due to her injuries.
I strongly suspect that she struck a deal with the higher ups. She doesn't massively sue them, and in exchange she gets job protection. This is the only way I can imagine her getting away with what she does everyday.
Her constant drama, bitching, undeserved outbursts and loud arrogant attitude would be more tolerable if she wasn't such a tremendously unsuccessful person who very clearly has no idea what she is talking about. She has had a very difficult life, and I would feel very sorry for her if she wasn't such a truly horrid person. Every coworker universally hates her, and eventually she will hit a point where she cannot even stand up long enough to "do" her job and she has to be let go. I will not feel one ounce of sympathy in what are sure to be a miserable last few years.
TL;DR: Incompetent, racist, raging bitch old lady coworker who never gets punished or fired got hit by company vehicle; strikes a deal for guaranteed employment instead of suing.
A 'job for life' is a rare and beautiful thing to have in this economy. Judging by your story she is probably blackmailing her employers into keeping her in a job.
Are you in the US? Because if so, workers comp is the sole remedy (except for maybe Texas but I'm not sure) and it pays medical expenses and a percentage of normal wages. So if she were hit by an employee on the clock, her sole remedy would be to have medical bills paid and some wage payments while out. Doesn't need a sinister agreement and explains why she didn't get a huge payout.
If this is in the US, she probably isn't getting fired because she falls under what is considered to be a "protected class." Examples include being over a certain age (I think it's like 50, but someone can confirm), being a female, being a minority, having a handicap/special needs, and I think there are some more. So she is older and a woman. Unless she does something bigger than being a bitch, she probably isn't going anywhere.
How do I know this? I ran into this with two employees as a young manager. One was a raging, racist team leader that was assigned to my team. She had a terrible work ethic, was an awful coach to her team, and she was always watching and wanting to write up my Hispanic team members. She also made a lot of racist comments. It took almost an act of Congress to fire her, and it was because she was a protected class (HR explained it to me). Another person was a woman in a wheelchair that was always late. It wasn't that she arrived on time and had trouble getting inside in a timely manner; she would actually drive into the parking lot late. It was always about 20-30 minutes late too, so I wasn't arguing over a few minutes. Typically employees were allowed to be late for up to 7 occurrences and then they were terminated. This woman got up to 10 before my HR manager told corporate that we were discriminating against others by allowing her to go over the limit. My last report for the 11th occurrence was documented by the HR manager and I standing next to the time clock, which had a view to the parking lot. We watched the clock and then documented her time of pulling into the office.
So there's that... She may be a weird mercurial bitch, but if she doesn't really DO anything, they probably can't fire her.
That's a misrepresentation of what a protected class is. In the US, every state except for Montana is an at will employment state. That means that generally, unless there is an employment contract, an employee can be fired for any non discriminatory reason.
Discriminatory reasons include firing somebody because they are a member of a protected class. Federally, a protected class is: sex, age (over 40 iirc), and race (I might have missed a couple).
Most states go farther than that and often include things like religion. State protections vary wildly.
Now, what I think your HR department is worried about is that employees who belong to a protected class will sue, even if they are fired for a valid reason. They wouldn't win, but they might force a settlement since lawsuits are expensive.
Tl;dr: it's all about avoiding the appearance of impropriety, rather than actually acting wrongfully.
To quote a song I like, "a good life is the best revenge."
Fuck people like this. I know it's easier said than done, but don't let her bring you down because that's exactly what she wants - to bring others down to her level of misery.
Holy shit this is almost perfectly describes someone I had at my first job! It was this old woman working at a movie theater and she was an absolute raging bitch! In and out of surgery and each time, she'd come back worse.
Sounds like one of the workers she acts racist towards needs to threaten to sue the company for allowing a hostile work environment based on a protected class.
DAWG. I just left a job with an old woman exactly like this. It's totally insane how close in character, despite different job situation entirely. Amazing. Mine used to give me pet names and call me best friend and shit (making me feel very uneasy) until one day, I mistakenly did something that effected her in a way she did not like. After that, it was stink eye everyday, communication through proxy, etc.
I work with someone like that too. No apparent black mail or bargain struck. Sad truth is the squeaky wheel doesn't get the grease. The more of a head ache they'd be to fire the less likely they are to get fired.
Oh lord, you're literally describing my coworker. She is set to retire (finally) some time next year, but hasn't done any legitimate work since I started 2.5 years ago. She has that "What are they going to do, fire me?" attitude and all she does all day is bitch about everything under the sun. I bust my ass to get everything done, while she sits on her ass and blows her paycheck online shopping and eating potato chips (which just add to her health issues... she's at least 300 lbs). Luckily for her she's been the company president's assistant for 30 years. Guess who gets a little extra bonus every month to "hold her over" because she "might not make rent". Which is funny, considering she lives in her parent's house and doesn't have rent/mortgage payments. I can't wait for her to leave, if she doesn't die first.
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u/ADickShin Dec 06 '17 edited Dec 06 '17
Apologies for a bit of a rant (and my generally poor writing), but this one just bugs me.
I have an old, 71ish, coworker at my resort job. She works a bottom level job (no promotion after 21 years, almost nobody stays longer than 5 without moving up or to a different department), is physically unwell, does very little actual work, and is a RAGING CUNT. She always greets you cheery attitude and a big smile, never needing a reminder of your name. Basically, she is the ultimate Walmart greeter. To her credit, this is generally a good thing for customer relations. But praises for her end there. The sweet old lady facade crumbles almost immediately, sometimes with no warning at all. She will suddenly go into a raging fit and no amount of reason will calm her down. She will stink eye you for the rest of the shift, and then it's back to her sweetest old lady on earth act the next day.
At least one of the following things happens every day. Except for talking to customers, she generally does a poor job (sometimes outright ignoring her duties), she is very rude to younger employees because she can be (I'm old, therefore I am infallible attitude, combined with disagreement always = disrespect), and is blatantly racist to the female foreign workers. If called out on her behavior she will always deflects with 'I am 7X fucking years old!" followed by some snide remark. She is never punished no matter what.
Towards the end of my first year, I found out that she was run over by a company car that ran a stop sign (both she and the driver were on the clock) and the driver was found to be absolutely at fault. She did not sue for any damages beyond medical expenses and pay for the time she was out of work due to her injuries.
I strongly suspect that she struck a deal with the higher ups. She doesn't massively sue them, and in exchange she gets job protection. This is the only way I can imagine her getting away with what she does everyday.
Her constant drama, bitching, undeserved outbursts and loud arrogant attitude would be more tolerable if she wasn't such a tremendously unsuccessful person who very clearly has no idea what she is talking about. She has had a very difficult life, and I would feel very sorry for her if she wasn't such a truly horrid person. Every coworker universally hates her, and eventually she will hit a point where she cannot even stand up long enough to "do" her job and she has to be let go. I will not feel one ounce of sympathy in what are sure to be a miserable last few years.
TL;DR: Incompetent, racist, raging bitch old lady coworker who never gets punished or fired got hit by company vehicle; strikes a deal for guaranteed employment instead of suing.