Post your abusive trainer stories here

I'll start with mine! I have a couple of years experience as a driver, so I know how to drive a truck. So with that in mind, the next time I am ever stuck with a "trainer", I am going to have to remind him that 1) I am the driver, and 2) do not correct my driving unless there is something obviously dangerous about it.

I got hired on with this fuel hauling company, and they put me with a trainer. His role, was to train me to get certified at the loading racks and to teach me how to unload the fuel. This guy, had zero experience as a trainer. I was his first trainee, and he clearly thought "trainee" meant "slave." This guy had me working through my lunch breaks, kept me from taking 10 minute breaks, and threw me under the bus to management constantly.

One day in particular stands out. This guy tried to keep me at work long after I had clocked out, and I left without his 'blessing.' This was a clear pattern of behavior at this point, and I wasn't having it on this particular day. The next day, this guy flipped out at me for leaving after work, because 'the trainee leaving before the trainer doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.' This guy then accused me of being 'self-centered', among other things. I had to remind him that working off the clock was illegal, and I wasn't going to have any of it.

His Jekyll and Hyde personality was unlike anything I have dealt with in the workplace. To see and hear this guy interact with management, he was a total fake workplace politician; he was conversational and cordial to the dispatcher's faces, he name dropped all of the top management on an hourly basis, and made it a point to constantly remind me that he was connected. But as soon as nobody was around, he would change 180 degrees and act like he was about to stab me repeatedly.

He made me do all of the driving, and criticized every single thing that was wrong, that wasn't wrong, and that could possibly go wrong under a very certain and specific set of circumstances that we would probably never, ever find ourselves in. I was always shifting too rough, driving too slow, and it was my fault the guy remodeling his bathroom didn't call him back.

This guy was unprofessional, racist, and told me I couldn't listen to the radio while driving. Meanwhile, he sat in the passenger seat sleeping and listening to conservative talk radio on his headphones, laughing to himself and conversing with the broadcasters as if he were a part of the live broadcast himself. AT this time, Requiem for a Dream is coming to mind, and he is the old psychotic woman thinking she is on the gameshow. . . (if you remember that movie, haha)

Long story short, I got fired for complaining about this guy. And I don't really care. Screw 'em. Post your stories here, I know CR ENGLAND, Swift, Werner and the other bottom feeders have similar horror stories.

 

The terminal manager was about as useless as the trainer. This was a company, that seemed completely stellar on the surface. But it became apparent that the company thrived on a hostile work environment, constant and pervasive wage theft, and cut-throat policies. For example, my coworker was a really , really nice guy- he was hired the day before me. His trainer told him he wasn't allowed to talk to anybody, and to 'keep to himself' because everyone is a rat, or some paranoid crap like that. His trainer seems to have forgotten that prison was 15 years ago and now , he is a truck driver. This isn't the prison yard dude, this is the trucking yard. Put the shank away man.

By the way Chinatown, what you described sounded like a very good retaliation lawsuit. But as my lawyer tells me, you'd rather have a job, than a lawsuit

With that in mind, it was a really good move on my part to formally complain in writing of being forced to work off the clock, 2 days before the company fired me. When I explained to the terminal manager very calmly, my cause of action (read: I'm going to sue you all so hard that by time we are done digging into your pocketbooks, and maxing out your insurance policy premiums; i'll be fist deep inside of you and digging up behind the back of your molars) , the look on his face was really priceless. The dude stuttered and said, "your complaint uh, has nothing to do with this." To which I replied with some labor code statutes about retaliatory discharge, the legally protected nature of my complaint, and that due to the close temporal proximity between my complaint and my discharge, that California public policy infers that they are breaking the law. Anyways, can't talk much more about that aspect. That place was worthless, and a waste of time. Like that ugly girl one bangs for a couple of weeks until she stopped returning phone calls and you both go your separate ways ! Heh.

 

Not sure if I found something better, but I have founds something similar. 2 years experience and a perfect driving record will get a lot of opportunities coming my way for sure. I was on the phone with one potential employer while another called asking me for an interview. I do want to be very careful however. I can't just employer hop, and I don't want to get stuck to an employer that is intolerable.