I work in brantford, Ontario, and jobs are very difficult to find due to the closure of 80 percent of industrial work. I have found a job that I can physically do, due to a prior job injury. I need this job. It is full-time, and pays my bills. I am at this factory through an agency, and was really hoping to become permanent.

The problem is the owner. He is an old Korean man, who still believes he lives there.

Here are some of his rules: no talking; no looking up from your job; do not acknowledge anyone who walks by or comes to your work station. No smiling; do not show your teeth, that is considered smiling.

You cannot cross your legs. You have to sit up straight in you chair. You cannot say good morning or good night until you are out of the plant.

You may not speak to anyone, while walking to and from the lunch room. You may only speak in the lunch room, and do not talk about personal issues.

You may never ask what the parts are used for that you are making; this is strictly forbidden.

You are never to discuss wages. You may never ever interrupt, or talk or ask any questions when this owner is talking to you. If you are doing any of the above, in his words, "You will be punished! Or fired!”

I asked for pliers for a job and he told me, no, that if I don't like working with my hands, to leave. He instructed a line leader to let him know if I complain again, and he will get rid of me.

It's crazy crap in there. There are over 80 employees, and all have conformed to his rules. Everyone is very unhappy, and calls him a Nazi. But everyone needs a job, so they tolerate it.

In my mind, this is major harassment, bullying and even bordering on human rights violations. I believe nobody should be treated this way. It is non union, so I complained to Human Resources, and she said her hands are tied -- that's what happens when it is a family business.

I then went to the agency, and they danced around it , and said well it's all how one perceives it. I told the agency that six of the temps left all due to this environment, and they are blowing me off saying well, I don't really think so. I told them I know so, since each of them told me they were leaving because it feels like a concentration camp.

What to do? I too am stuck in a position of needing a job that I can do. This is why the 80 people stay: because it is a steady job. Please, am I going crazy, should I conform and accept this nonsense?

Or, is there something I can do, to change this man's ways? --Sincerely, trapped in life, and it stinks!

In one case, an employee who was supposed to provide office coverage (i.e. stay late on her assigned day) failed to do so 36 times with repeated notices to do so. When I reminded her it was her time to stay late, she claimed harassment. She couldn't stay late because she sprained her ankle, it was too hot, she needed to vote, etc. All the other employees did it.

A current employee is claiming I'm harassing her by assigning her work. She's taken it to my first line, second line and third line supervisor. The whole group doesn't have much work to do and tries to avoid any assignment of work. She is mad because I asked her what time she arrived some days when I went to her desk and she wasn't there.

Sadly, employees like this use the harassment defense to mask their poor conduct or performance. Managers often "back off," and not because the higher ups don't agree or worry about actually losing an harassment case. They back off because it costs less money to let the loser stay and do whatever they want than to take 5-10 employees to work on removing the employee or working the alleged harassment case.

I believe there are some legitimate harassment cases, but in 25 years with the government in HR, most are a bunch of crap. Before you file a harassment case, take a hard look at yourself. If you are such a great employee, you are probably very marketable and can get another job quickly. Put your resume out there and see how you fare. If you don't get a job, focus on what the manager is telling you and consider whether there may be something that you can do differently.

He assigns unfinished work to my inbox and then shows it to management stating that I was assigned the work over a week ago and have not even touched it or looked at it. He is going to cost me my job if I don’t give him my meds and I am about to forward his emails to management as well as the entire floor. Aa soon as I hit the send button Ill be laughing as I walk out the door.

My advice: remain professional and log everything down that is done to you. Save e-mails, write notes and keep tabs on everything that is said and done to you. It helps build your case.

P.S. I later learned a past employee went through the same thing and she volunteered to help if we took this to court!

I have to just supervise the traffic counting work. I did not gain any knowledge by doing that. I have told my boss to please give me some engineering work. But he is not assigning me that. Now my CV is not approved yet. So what shall i do? Please help. I feel that my professional life is gone and I am very depressed. Please help!

My company is very aware of the situation and of his reputation as a bully. I have an excellent work record with three awards for outstanding work within the last four years. It is amazing what this man gets away with in the workplace. And I believe he actually enjoys being the bully in charge.

This guy refused to listen and was impatient with me, putting down the way I had done something. After taking over the data and manipulating it, it seems that my solutions were correct.

Since this guy was unpleasant, I went to another who helped for a while in a kinder manner, but eventually refused his help, since he thinks my boss should be teaching me. This puts me in a difficult situation but I am going to have to let my boss know that I find the culture of the workplace unpleasant and that is due, in part, to him.

I was told by this boss not to go to her supervisor. I went to the Union. Miraculously at the next level, all the negative issues were completely omitted. Later, this woman's supervisor (who became my new boss) told me that my hours were never supposed to be cut, and I was to resume working 10 more hours a week. I filed a grievance for unpaid hours that I would have and should have worked with the union but didn't because I was told not to.

During the first boss' management of me, she hounded me for punctuation, spelling, grammar, instead of training me on the details of the job. I am a medical person and she is not, yet she still criticized my physical assessments.

I went to HR, but nothing could be done. I went to corporate compliance. Again - nothing.

In the past, this particular manager had been made to take anger management classes, and other employees had to take stress leave because of her.

I finally wrote to upper management. When the job changed so drastically, it was something I would never have signed up for. I was told, "You were this close to burning bridges," in spite of following all the rules.

I am currently out of that situation. But the feeling of being hounded, lied to, and having hours cut without permission affected me deeply. How can a large corporation let this kind of behavior occur?

I am one of the oldest clerical people on staff and yet, instead of giving me jobs to help me excel they are giving me jobs to move me backward. I have worked for this agency for almost 10 years now and a new clerk was hired about two years ago as a "Wage position clerk" to come in and help get filing, work that needed done - done! She was moved into a position in our records department and given a desk and trained to do records stuff that I never had an opportunity to learn to do.

One particular manager who has said things about me in front of the executive employees is her boss, so anything I question about her is right away dismissed, as she is so busy because we just dumped everything on her. No one else was offered the opportunity to learn to do the job.

This past week, all four of the clerical personnel were in a meeting with management to be given specific duties to do and I was the only one who was given more than I am already doing. I also have been on the switchboard for the past nine years and have had to find my own relief for lunches and I don't get breaks like everyone else.

I can't get up and walk from one place to the other like the others and when I did ask management to set up a schedule for my lunches they refused to do it.

Our union president is also very rude to me when I question her about the way things are being divided among the clerical people. I will be attending our union meeting in February to voice my concerns.

He always puts us down, and will verbally criticize us, in front of our customers. He is always being derogatory towards me, especially, because I am the manager of this establishment. I am scared that he will "cost" me my job, because my department won't stand behind me.

I am the low person on our totem pole, where she is much higher authority. I have tried to ignore her, but she has me in tears at least once a week. It is surreal!

I could about my job.

My boss always told me what a great job I was doing and that I could take his place when her retires in a few years. He would take me out to lunch frequently and I always joined in when vendors took him out, he introduced me as who will be taking his place or who would be doing the ordering of chemicals. The other employees would pick on me about going to lunch and how he treated me different than them.

I finally told myself I would stop this by not accepting his lunch invitations anymore. When I did he changed. He wouldn't talk to me and even made comments like you and **** are getting to be buddies aren't we. This has been going on for almost two years. He has gotten to the point that everything I do he criticizes my procedure and makes comments to other employees. I have had enough. What can I do?

I have had multiple "verbal" and one actual "written" write up for things that happen in my office all around me on a daily basis.

Over the past few months I have been give a performance review, in which I was noted for being above average, as well as an additional pay raise per my job description. Monday I was hit with a meeting with this director, my supervisor, and an HR rep that's in another state, in which I was read a letter stating that I was not meeting my job responsibilities and my behavior is inappropriate in the work environment! I am on the verge of getting fired! But why? What did I do that doesn't happen in my office on a daily basis!

This is supposed to be a Christian based organization, and I would be happy to announce that this department is far from that! I am now forced to search for a new job in fear of being fired.

I know that resigning from my position would definitely look much better on my resume than getting fired. I just hate the fact that I am allowing the harassers to win!

this has caused a lot of resentment and hostility in our workplace with the workers who do all the work. in fact, the boss "watches" the workers and subjects the workers to criticism. if anybody complains to the boss about her "friends", they are labeled "disgruntled", "troublemakers" and their job is threatened and the boss fiercely protects her "friends", telling any complainer that her "friends" are the hardest working bunch she has ever seen and how valuable these employees are to the company.

If jobs were easy to find, several of us would have quit a long time ago.

It happened to me when I told a woman I was working with that I was attracted. But it was not a sexual or physical type of attraction, and used no supporting adjectives when I came clean. Inasmuch as I got let go five weeks later, I never saw it coming and to this day feel that I was set up in a saga of greed, betrayal and jealousy thick enough to challenge a seasoned novelist.

Saddest of all is the fact that one really has no legal form of recourse without the benefit of a union or other contract. This is one thing I hope to see changed before my life is over.

I have already talked to three lawyers, and they all said that I didn't have a case, although I may have one for character defamation and/or emotional distress, as I have been much more withdrawn ever since. I have also had much difficulty finding new work, and wonder if I have been blacklisted.

If managers dealing with internal politics bury your harassment claim, that too is against the law and those people higher up the corporate ladder can also be prosecuted.

Documentation is the first step in a successful harassment case. You should also consider talking to family members about it, though maybe not other same-level coworkers. Being able to tell someone other than management is also a grounding factor that can help win your case.