experience with a hostile work environment

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Curious if anyone has experience with a hostile work environment case? 😓

Specializes in Long-term care.

I am in this situation. It is incredible to me how awful people can be. I have been humiliated over months.  They are cruel and relentless. I dared tell the administrator and it made things worse. I have been blocked from the exit door when another employee wanted to intimidate me. He did succeed,  by the way. I am in a protected class. Because I am over 40 years old. I am 56 and the oldest nurse at the facility.  I have started to look for information about what I can do to make it stop or even bring a lawsuit against my employer. The problem is attorneys don't want to get involved until they know there is a good chance of winning the case. I can report my case to the EOE bureau and they will investigate. If they find the employer did not follow the laws and protect me from harassment that happened because of my protected status, an attorney might consider taking my case for a lawsuit. Depending on the amount of money I would be awarded. Employees have tactics to drag these cases on for years and attorney's know they will not make enough money for the work they will need to put into the case. Plus I will need to pay an attorney to help me through the process of presenting a winnable case to the EOE. Basically to be successful in court against an employer it has to be a large cooperation with a lot of revenue and it should be a group of people bringing the case against the employer so that the amount of money the court might award is significant enough to make an attorney want to take the case. So individuals ever prevail? Yes but it isn't easy and it isn't often.

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Specializes in Long-term care.

Working in a hostile environment is equal to being physically abused at work. The psychological and emotional toll it takes on a person and their family is bad. Gossip is like workplace violence. People have no idea and can't understand it until they experience it. They have no idea how horrible it is for a person going through it. It's easy to assume as an adult being bullied you can take it better than a child being bullied. That assumption is wrong.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.
JohnHood said:

I highly recommend retirement.

I would love to retire! My problem is that I did an MSN and have student loans. The PSLF program is supposed to forgive my loans after 10 years. I have about 4 years left. I have found a new job and so far, so good!  It is 30 mi closer to my home so I am home by 2000 and actually have time to unwind/decompress where before, I would get home around 2100 and have to literally, pack my lunch and go to bed to get up earlier. I feel SO much less stress right now! And I am making more $$ so I will work as long as I can, I enjoy it!  Plan is to try for 67. 

I'm glad you are enjoying retirement! I didn't think I would ever even think about it, but I am now 🙂 

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