I hate to write blogs like this one. But sometimes I have no other idea of what to do to effect change.
My wife works for a local teaching hospital. She has worked there since 2003 and for the most part, she has enjoyed working for them. Over the past year or two, things have taken a very dark turn and she is constantly being mistreated by her co-workers and management.
The hospital was a great place to work for in the beginning. The benefits were good, pay was ok and the work environment was good. Lately, her supervisor, with the blessings and help of the Lab management, has worked to make my wife’s life a living hell.
She was hired to work 3:30PM to Midnight 5 days a week and one weekend a month. Shortly after being hired, they asked her to take on an extra weekend a month to help with the shortage of staff. That was in 2003. She has never been moved from that every other weekend schedule. She asked for 4:00 PM to 12:30 AM because our son was in High School and sometimes she would need to pick him up before going to work.
They gave her that schedule, but over this summer asked her to take 3:00 PM to 11:30 PM because a co-worker was out with an injury. Now that the co-worker has come back, my wife asked to return to 4:00 PM to 12:30 AM as school will start soon. Her supervisor, a man, told her that he was not going to give it to her since she thought she was “owed” it. She never said she was owed it, in fact, she was merely asking for her old schedule back.
This same supervisor has male employees under him. He allows them to take long breaks, to sit and surf the internet when there is work piled up, and refuses to say anything to them when they make a mistake or fail to follow protocol. Yet, he will happily, almost gleefully, go after any female employee who make a mistake, who is as little as 1 minute late to work or back from a break, and will do everything in his power to hound them to work faster and harder.
This recent schedule issue is only the tip of the sexism iceberg. However, every time my wife goes to management about it, they report her interaction to her supervisor and then tell her to deal with it. Then, of course, he makes her life more difficult for daring to say anything. This is appalling!
Repeated attempts to resolve this issue have failed. She comes home upset, depressed, and exhausted. She cannot afford to quit, there are no local jobs in her field right now, and she is scared to death to talk to anyone else about this for fear of being fired. In fact, we both fear this attempt to blow the whistle on the labor violations and the sexism at her work will result in her termination.
However, I must say something. I cannot continue to keep silent about it. I am hoping that rather than punish her, the hospital will work to resolve these issues and correct them. I am hoping they will come to her and assure her that she is a valued employee and that they want to correct the illegal behavior of her supervisor, not punish her into silence.
I can hope. Please God, let them hear her.