#HostileWorkEnvironment #SignOnBonus #LegalAdvice
Hey there! 🌟 Have you ever dealt with a hostile work environment? It’s tough, right? I’m here to share a situation a friend of mine is going through and would love to hear your thoughts on it.
So, my friend works in the medical field and has been facing a hostile work environment because of her manager. 💼 Things have gotten so bad that OSHA has been involved and her coworker was offered compensation to avoid legal action. 😳 Now, her manager has targeted my friend, making her work life unbearable.
She’s finally landed a new job and is resigning tomorrow but there’s a catch – she received a significant sign-on bonus that she has to repay if she leaves within 2 years. 😬
Do you think there’s a way for her to avoid repaying the sign-on bonus? Maybe threatening legal action for the hostile work environment? 🤔 She’s not sure how to navigate this situation.
Any advice or insights you can offer would be incredibly helpful! Let’s brainstorm some solutions together. 💡 #HelpAFriend #WorkplaceAdvice
I think firstly, you need to get your friend’s story straight. If OSHA is involved, the company isn’t going to be at the point of saying ‘please let us pay you to shut up’.
If they were at that point, they’d have just offered to let her go early without paying back the sign on bonus.
All that nonsense aside, a lot of sign on bonus things have a little ‘if/when you leave employment for any reason’. This could include getting fired, a layoff, building disappeared, etc.
I think your ‘friend’ needs to just ask for this sign on bonus to be included in whatever payoff the company is trying to do here.
Just don’t pay it back and make the company pursue legal action to get it back. If/when they do that, get a lawyer. The lawyer can create some type of countersuit that will cost the company money to defend (even if your friend wouldn’t ultimately prevail). Then you can simply settle for “we drop the lawsuit and you drop the lawsuit and no money changes hands”.
Hostile people, attitudes and situations are not a legal hostile environment unless they are based on a legally protected class or action.
OSHA doesn’t deal with hostile environments.
Working without breaks would be illegal in almost all situations, unless the person is salary exempt. That would be a state issue.
Offering to pay her to not take legal action is – interesting and is missing reasons and details before a response can be given. Extorting people is illegal.
I think you’re missing a lot of details here. OSHA wouldn’t be involved in a hostile work environment situation. They are concerned with occupational safety.
She took the bonus with the contingencies attached, so she needs to meet them or she’ll have to pay back the money. Trying to retroactively claim hostility in order to get out of paying it is just going to look like she’s trying to get out of paying it. There won’t be any credibility to her claims.
I have know a lot of people that have tried many ways to get out of repaying a sign-on bonus. None worked out.
She needs a labor lawyer yesterday.