I signed up with the Chrysalis Caltrans program and found the program to be filled with pushy bosses who, even though they are no longer in prison, still act like they are. Neither of my bosses understood how to establish a functional boss-to-employee relationship. One said things to us like "you guys had no trouble following orders in prison. So why can't you follow orders here?" The truth is directions were not communicated effectively and the laborers were left scratching our heads, unsure what we were supposed to do. And then the two bosses would come up to us while we were working and snap at us constantly for doing it wrong.
These problems came to a head when one of the bosses started pursuing me while I was trying to do work. He kept following after me yelling at me and degrading me in front of everyone else. I said I wasn't trying to have an argument with him; I just wanted to keep my mind on the job. I walked away from him several times. He continued to pursue me becoming more and more unhinged, degrading my personality and my work quality. I finally stopped what I was doing, looked him in the eye, and said "you don't have to degrade me in front of everyone else. This could be a private conversation. Let's talk after you've cooled down." My boss further pursued me and then said just loud enough so he and I could hear "Let's go take this to the McDonalds bathroom. I'll beat the shit out of you."
At this point, I realized that my boss still had prison in him, and we were past the point of no return. For now on, he was going to treat me every day like we were in prison and I was his bitch.
I reported the exchange to his supervisor. But his supervisor was his best buddy, always looking out for him. The supervisor didn't say a word back to me. He walked over to the other supervisor and they both started talking while staring at me.
I spent the next 30 minutes calling Chrysalis office, leaving messages telling them to come pick me up because I no longer felt safe around these two supervisors. I got no answer.
After the main office wouldn't pick up or respond to the messages I left on their voicemail, I called my brother and had him come pick me up and take me back to the Chrysalis office, a total 3 hour drive for him.
When I arrived at the Chrysalis office, I tried to find the supervisor/dispatcher of the CalTrans department. She was not in. So I described the event to my counselor.
Then I drove home.
On my way home, the supervisor/dispatcher of the CalTrans department (the boss of my two bosses), called me, told me I lost all pay for the rest of the day, and she told me that I was suspended for two weeks. She used a fake rule as a reason to suspend me, but it was clear that this was retaliation for my trying to report my boss for threatening to beat the shit out of me.
I asked her for the contact information of her boss. She refused to provide me with this information. I hung up and called the main office repeatedly until someone answered. After talking with several people, all refused to give me any contact information for any Chrysalis administrators.
And the next time the supervisor/dispatcher called me back, she said that my boss told her I was trying to pick a fight with my boss.
Two problems:
1. I solve all problems with non-threatening words. I'm trained in professional conflict resolution.
2. My boss was three times my size and strong. Even a fighter would think twice before picking a fight with him. And I have NEVER been a fighter.
On top of all of this, I haven't even gotten into all of the BS my two bosses pulled on a daily basis!
It was the supervisor's job to drive 8 of us crammed into a van every day from the office to the work site. He'd stick his phone on the windshield and browse while driving at the expense of our safety! I wanted to say something to him, but you can already see above what happens when their authority is questioned.
One time the supervisor drove the van forward while one of the laborers was standing on the trailer, washing his hands. When the van moved forward, the guy fell and got injured. After a while, one of the other laborers asked the boss if he was going to fill out an incident report. The supervisor responded "That's none of your damn business!"
There was a lot of hypocrisy in the policies they instituted. One day, a worker was playing a rap song that used the N word. The supervisor told him how there will be no N word while on the job. The next day, the supervisor played a song on his cell phone that used the N word. I couldn't believe it!
That was just one of the many inconsistencies in policy. The supervisor would often make up policies on the spot because he wanted to push a certain person, me for example, around. But when other workers did the same thing (or when the other boss did the same thing) he said nothing.
I was not the first. They previously pushed out a female worker, talking to her abusively. It upset her immensely. And we never saw her again. read more
