While at work, you should feel like you are safe and comfortable to do your job to the best of your ability.

What would you do if your manager kept making inappropriate jokes and gossiping about employees, which was making you feel awkward?

That is what happened to the temp worker in this story, so she reported it to the agency and they notified her manager, so now things are even worse.

AITA: Should I have directly confronted my manager at work about his behavior, instead of seeking help from the staffing company?

I started a temp job about a month ago through a staffing company. The job has a very small crew, and there’s only one manager.

Why do people do this type of thing?

I quickly became uncomfortable with the manager because he made off-color jokes.

It wasn’t directed toward me; He either talked to everyone in the room, or with another man, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Even if people don’t mind, it is inappropriate.

As far as I could tell, everyone else was either amused, or didn’t care. He also constantly gossips about employees to the other employees. He says he doesn’t believe their excuses for absence, talks about their annoying habits, etc.

Again, no one else seemed to be bothered. But I always felt very uncomfortable. I knew that if he talks about other employees behind their backs, he would do the same about me.

These are all very reasonable.

I didn’t feel comfortable confronting the manager for several reasons:

1- I was worried he’d gossip about it

2- He’s the manager

3- I was new there, and I didn’t feel comfortable coming into the social group, and complaining about it

That is a common issue with temp jobs.

The temp job doesn’t have an HR department, and the highest level manager I’m aware of is the one I was having problems with.

So, I asked the staffing service for help. I described the situation, and requested advice. I wasn’t sure if they could help, but I figured they’d point me in the direction of someone who could.

Good, someone is there to help.

The person I emailed expressed dismay at hearing what had been going on. She assured me I’d remain confidential.

I didn’t hear anything else from the staffing company. I expected they’d ask me some clarifying questions, but after acknowledging my concerns, I didn’t get any response from them. I waited, and figured they’d get back to me when they had advice, or some info about what they were doing.

Oh, the temp agency said something.

They never did. Several days after I’d contacted the staffing service, someone from the temp job confronted me, and asked why I’d accused the manager of harassment!

She was clearly upset, and she said if I didn’t like something, I should have told them, instead of getting the manager in trouble.

I would feel betrayed.

I asked her if someone from the staffing agency had specifically said I reported the manager, and she said yes.

I was shocked that my name had been brought into it after I was assured I’d remain confidential. I was shocked they were told I’d accused the manager of harassment, which isn’t what had happened.

Her feelings are valid.

And I was shocked that I hadn’t been updated about the situation. I contacted the staffing agency again, and asked why the employees had been told I said anything.

The woman I talked to didn’t know, but she said she would look into it, and get back to me. No one ever got back to me.

Hopefully this is actually true.

I called again a few days later, and was told that the person who had mentioned my name had been dealt with, and I was advised to just ignore anyone who was bothering me.

My question is: Did I do this wrong? Should I have left the staffing company out of it?

Should I have approached the manager or someone else I worked with to talk about my feelings? Is there something I could have done differently?

AITA?

This is a difficult situation, and she did the right thing. If she was comfortable with it, she could have approached the manager directly, but that can be very difficult. The bottom line, she did nothing wrong.

Take a look at what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

It is the agency’s job to fix it.

Here is someone who says she handled it well.

It is just a temp job, time to leave.

Here is someone who was in a similar situation.

She did the right thing, even if it didn’t fix the problem in the end.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.