The greatest example of a situation like this in my life, would be when I worked as an assistant manager in a gym. The worst part of working in this gym was that the management was very judgmental. The management above me discriminated against people based on weight, race, sexual orientation and in many more places. They wanted skinny, white, healthy, muscular people to run n attend their gym. The problem was that many people who worked with us, and who worked out there, didn't fit their description.
They would make carry out actions for no reason, like writing people up for no reason, putting rules into place, and having meetings that would sometimes cross the line of discriminatory actions.
After 6 months of being passive to their inappropriate behavior, I decided to stand up against them. I decided to sit the two owners down and tell them how I felt. I told them that they had created an environment of fear and judgement. The biggest problem with this was that this was making our members uncomfortable with working out their. Unfortunately, this meeting was held at the expense of losing my job. I ended up having to walk away from the meeting after they had called me fat and told me that I needed to be working out more and should seek a personal trainers advice. I felt disrespected and degraded by people who I was suppose to be able to trust.
After I had the courage to leave, I received text messages from my employees telling me how much they loved me and were standing up for everything I had done and said. The entire staff left shortly after this meeting because when they confronted the owners about what had happened he lied to them.
Although it cost me a job an financial stability, I was overwhelmed with peace about leaving and knew I had stood up for something I believed in. Shortly after, I found a job and a place that I feel like I can be myself.
Karma will come.
-Living the dream
Hey Daisy, I think your experience is very inspiring. I love the fact that you stood up for what you believed and were not afraid to say what you needed to say. I can only imagine the horrors there would be if you stayed there and let everything you needed to say eat you up from the inside out. Plus you ended up receiving praise from your old coworkers even though that was not the reason why you did that. The owners should be ashamed of themselves for running the gym the way they did and should have given you a raise or some sort of promotion for having you speak your mind rather than being their puppet.
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