What are my rights if my boss wrongly challenged me regarding the hours that I worked?
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What are my rights if my boss wrongly challenged me regarding the hours that I worked?
My boss made quite a large issue out of me not being at work when I was. He told me he was here looking for me, that I was nowhere to be found and that I was wrongly recording hours when I was not working. I sent him emails I had sent during those hours to prove I was working, and it turns out he wasn’t even here that day. He then apologized and I explained that he really questioned my integrity and I was very upset. This has never happened before. If I had not had those emails, he would have been positive he was right. That is scary. Isn’t that harassment?
Asked on September 16, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Maine
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Unfortunately, not all harassment is illegal--in fact, most is perfectly legal. An employer may be unfair, unreasonable, unprofessional, rude, abusive (not physically, obviously), etc. to any employee he wishes, except when--
1) The employee has a contract, and the employer's behavior violates some term of the contract;
2) The negative treatment is based on a protected category; e.g. the employee is being harassed because of his or her race, sex, religion, age over 40, disability, etc.
3) The negative treatment is retaliation for having brought a protected claim (such as for overtime; or that you were discriminated against as in 2), above; or for worker's compensation) or for having used a protected benefit (like FMLA leave).
Other than as the above, the employer may question or insult you, and could even fire you, for no good reason or an incorrect reason.
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