Jerk Home Depot Manager Makes Employee With Severe Allergies Work In The Flower Section, Gets Justice Served
Some managers are nice enough, others… not so much. A Redditor who used to work at Home Depot has shared a story of how carrying out an ill-advised order from a manager who made no effort to accommodate a serious pollen allergy got the callous jerk fired, and commenters are pleased to see karma doing its job. Bored Panda even reached out to the Reddit user for comment, which you can find by scrolling down!
The story was posted on r/MaliciousCompliance, a subreddit for stories about deliberately following instructions that one knows won’t end well just to stick it to the person who gave them.
Image credits: William Brawley (not the actual photo)
A Reddit user who goes by tortellini21, while working as a cashier at Home Depot in high school, was ordered by a manager, “Bob”, to cover the garden department. Bob was unmoved (to put it nicely) when asked whether he was sure he didn’t want to staff the department with someone who wasn’t severely allergic to pollen.
Lacking a doctor’s note and driven by spite, the cashier went and gave it a try anyway.
Luckily, it just so happened to be audit day, and the regional manager wasn’t too pleased to see a cashier trying to serve customers while covered in rashes and throwing up under the counter.
Check out this Redditor’s story of “malicious compliance”
Image credits: tortellini21
Fortunately, this time, the case was clear-cut enough that the regional manager shut it down right away, but if you’re in a situation where allergies are interfering with your work and your manager isn’t taking it seriously, they could get into legal trouble.
Many countries in North America and Europe have defined severe allergies that can prevent one from breathing or doing their job as protected disabilities. A manager who just wants to cut corners and not have their will questioned will probably want to avoid a lawsuit.
Here’s what commenters had to say
Still, if you have severe allergies, having a record of them will probably make things easier for you when negotiating for accommodations.
Bored Panda reached out to tortellini21 for comment and lessons learned: “This experience has made me realize that not every person is fit for every job they want to work. I got lucky that Nick was there when he was, but I also have learned to be my own self advocate. I stand up for myself a lot more now,” says the Reddit user, who we hope stays far away from huge greenhouses packed with flowers now.
I agree that the employee should have had the medical condition on file with the employer, especially since the likelihood of him coming into contact with pollen at a DIY store was pretty good. But the manager was probably not fired for defying the executive and more likely fired for throwing out registered complaints over the past 5 years since that kind of action can open Home Depot up to a class action lawsuit by former employees and an investigation by the FLSA.
It is important to have any medical condition that might impact your job to be on file with your HR department. And having a pollen allergy while working in a facility that sells plants is definitely something to document Not that I believe their boss acted correctly - he should have made the accommodation pending appropriate documentation. And if appropriate documentation was not provided within the next 10 business days, then there would be disciplinary action to avoid the chance that it was just because they did not like the garden section.
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Do you really have to vomit from hay fever? Honest question. I have a friend with hay fever, and it never got as bad as vomiting. Just tears, sneezing and headaches.
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But lets not get laws in place to protect the workforce, or god forbid... UNIONS!
I agree that the employee should have had the medical condition on file with the employer, especially since the likelihood of him coming into contact with pollen at a DIY store was pretty good. But the manager was probably not fired for defying the executive and more likely fired for throwing out registered complaints over the past 5 years since that kind of action can open Home Depot up to a class action lawsuit by former employees and an investigation by the FLSA.
It is important to have any medical condition that might impact your job to be on file with your HR department. And having a pollen allergy while working in a facility that sells plants is definitely something to document Not that I believe their boss acted correctly - he should have made the accommodation pending appropriate documentation. And if appropriate documentation was not provided within the next 10 business days, then there would be disciplinary action to avoid the chance that it was just because they did not like the garden section.
Load More Replies... Do you really have to vomit from hay fever? Honest question. I have a friend with hay fever, and it never got as bad as vomiting. Just tears, sneezing and headaches.
Load More Replies... But lets not get laws in place to protect the workforce, or god forbid... UNIONS!
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