Complaint Review: Best Buy

It all starts with my first day back to the store after the New Year. On January 7th, I was on the schedule for opening and as I arrive to the building, the General Manager, Mr. Timothy Shehan opens the door. He greets me and I acknowledge him and proceed to the employee area. As I make my way into the store, I greet one of the LP associates and inquire about their holiday, Mr. Shehan over hears the brief conversation and says, "Hey, that's not fair!", referencing the fact that I did not greet him the same. Shortly thereafter, the daily 'Chalk Talk' meeting was called. After the initial store wide call, there was a special "shout out" for me by Mr. Shehan:    

 "Where's Kandice? Anyone seen Kandice? I wanna wait until she gets here to start."

I hear my name and once I clock in, I proceed to the globe where the meeting is always held. Working in the computer department, the globe is a very short walk from this department, so I am very well aware of Tim's personal shout outs for me. As I arrive to the globe, he proceeds with the updates, but not before acknowledging that I made it to the globe to all of the associates already present and making the statement along the lines of, 'I waited just for you', with my reply of, "Joy".

After this day is when I start to feel personally attacked, harassed and taunted by Mr. Shehan and his cohort, Mitch Lowmax. 

January 8, 2012: I have a moment before the store opens, so I use a computer in the department to look up directions to a temporary agency that I planned on visiting that was referred to me moments before I came into work. I've never had an issue with using the computer before and I have seen other employees do the same, so I help myself. As I get to the website, customers walk in the door and I abandoned the computer, knowing that the display software will reset the browser. Little did I know I was under a microscope of surveillance with Mr. Shehan, who since the situation listed above, ironically visited the computer department more. After I walked away from the computer to tend to the customers that were in thestore, Mr. Shehan walked the other way to the computer to see what was on it. By his head shake and disgruntled grunt and mumble, I figured he saw what was on the computer. For the rest of the day, he paced around the department waiting for a moment that I had to myself, but that was a rather busy day, so he didn't get a moment to speak with me until it was time for me to 'check out'. Of course, I'm bracing myself for how the conversation is going to go because the tension was high when I walked into the SDR office.

After the other employees that were in the room depart, I'm sitting with Mr. Shehan, Mr. Lomax, and my immediate Supervisor, Mr. Steven Gibson. (No female management and the door shut.) Mr. Lomax starts the conversation with, "Do you like working here", my honest reply was, "Sometimes". He follows up with questions about what happened earlier that morning, which he was not present for and I gave him my honest answer, "I don't make enough money here to keep my Internet on, so I used the computer to look up an inquiry I had." I owned up to my poor judgment call, accept the consequences and move on with the conversation, all while Mr. Shehan is rolling his eyes at everything I had to say. Then, the conversation changed to, "I'm concerned with your disconnection with employees and customers", says Mr. Lomax and I am taken aback my this accusation because most of my customers are very pleased with their customer service experience with me, also considering that a couple of my productivity numbers are top three in a department of thirteen and I only work three days a week maximum. I defend myself and let the two managers know that accusation is false and there are sales for that particular day to prove such. The accusation that I am disconnected with employees can not have but so much validity because I don't go into other departments, my Supervisor does not feel like I create a hostile work environment with my department, so where is this coming from? No one can give me an answer. My Supervisor cannot verify this to be true because we talk about the flow and function of the department consistently with the other team members, there isn't a written statement by another employee(s), and there aren't any behavior reprimands in my employee file, so this leads me to believe this is personal.

After the conversation ended, I gather my belongings and clock out to go home and in the front of store Mr. Lomax, who led the entire conversation and was not present for any of the scenarios listed, and Mr. Shehan were standing near the front of the store. As I walk by them, they very loudly acknowledge me leaving (the store is still open) by saying, "You ain't gotta say bye", "Bye!!!" "See you tomorrow", and Mr. Lomax chimes in sarcastically and laughing, "No, see you next week!" After feeling like I've been personally attacked, I'm now being taunted.

At this point, I'm frustrated, upset, embarrassed, and powerless. I have never been outwardly disrespectful to these men for them to treat me in such a manner, but the story continues.

After a long short staffed, no break evening on January 10th, its finally time for our department walk. Mr. Shehan comes in to check us out, however I saw him several moments before our check out and no words or eye contact were exchanged, even though I was most certainly close enough for him to greet me. After the meeting between the two in management, I'm not sure how to react to them, so I think my best bet in keeping the peace is not to say much at all. Mr. Shehan approaches my direction and finally speaks. I nod my head and he replied with disdain in front of my coworker, "Why don't you just leave if you're so angry. Just go!" I didn't reply, finished the walk of my department and left.All of these scenarios are relevant to the fact that they correlate with my scheduling. Before any of these scenarios took place, I was working roughly 15 hours a week, then it declined to 9, and then to have the upcoming week, (January 22-27) completely revoked. I come to work on Tuesday and notice that my hours for the following week are now removed. There was no notice, no explanation or justification of why this was done. Earlier that day, I find out that a co-worker who works similar hours, turned in his resignation. I only had nine hours that week, so I was hoping I had one more day to my schedule, but to my dismay, I have absolutely none, after I made it very aware that I could use the extra hours and being that my productivity from the weeks prior, I believe I earned, however, Mr. Lomax did say that he, "would like to give me more hours, but I look at numbers and I don't see it here". (Making this statement while looking at a tracker where I am in the top three of a few categories.)I am very concerned that these actions are not protocol for BBY, also concerned with how I am being treated. I honestly don't believe that there is any just cause for taking me off next week's schedule. There is no documentation supporting this decision. If the labor was too high, there is normally a notice: posted in the break room or our Supervisor would notify us as soon as he could.  With the management staff abusing their powers, my opinion, how am I supposed to work in this environment? 

Is there anyway this case can go to court? I know Maryland is an At-Will employment State, however is there anything that can be done? Unfortunately, the taunting does not stop here.