In case you didn’t pick up on it, Studly is back! He HATED the past few months away, because he was literally in hell. He was sent to an airport in the south east USA and aside from the muggy heat wave going on there, he had a manager who hated him. After having his knee surgery he was declared fit for duty but required to have physical therapy to get full range of motion back. He made appointments during his personal time and it didn’t affect his work hours at all, but the supervisor objected to him using the vehicle all of the traveling employees had access to in order to get to his appointments. She knew he was seeing a doctor, but not why he was seeing the doctor and she repeatedly asked him what his visits were regarding and told him that he could “trust her” with his medical history.

He politely declined to share a number of times and when he finally did tell her she declared that his injury was “too serious” to keep him on the business trip and that she would be sending him back. Part of the perks of being sent away for three months at a time is increase in pay, so being sent back early would not only cut his pay back down but it could affect his ability to go on another business trip. I advised him to contact HR and let them know that she was using his medical history against him after badgering him about what was wrong with him.

After much drama, the manager’s boss said it was fine for him to continue work since it wasn’t impacting his job and then the Big Boss bitched out the Hellish Manager for acting inappropriately. From then on, Studly was on her shit list. She started picking on another employee, telling them they were required by the department to buy a printer for their computer, even though they had an office with a printer. When this other person objected and asked Studly (since it was her first business trip and she and Studly knew each other for years), he stood up for her saying a personal printer wasn’t necessary or required by the company handbook. Despite being proven right (again), the damage was done. She really hated him, constantly picking at every little thing he did. If he used the company car in a way she didn’t like (ex: parking it “too far away from the entrance”) he got in trouble. If he took too long of a bathroom break, he got in trouble. The other employee bought the printer after seeing the way the supervisor treated Studly.

One weekend, Studly decided to take a roadtrip to nearby famous city. He alerted a supervisor that he would be back in time for his shift on Monday, rented a car using his own money and took off. He got a call hours into the drive from Hellish Manager screaming at him for leaving the hotel they were staying at. She told him this was strike three – he would be sent home and would never be allowed on the road again.

She tried again to get him removed and again was told he didn’t do anything wrong. Finally she resorted to small trickery to get him in trouble. Everyone turned in their physical timesheets to Hellish Manager and she was supposed to sign and fax them to Headquarters. Everyone else’s would get signed and faxed, but his went “missing” or she would fax without a signature, blaming him.

The final straw came on his evaluation at the end of the trip. She gave him marks so low that he was in danger of being fired. After much in-fighting, the Big Boss ruled that he deserved higher marks and Studly came home happy to be away from Hellish Manager. I’m glad he’s home too…