Unfair practices at work????

My company recently hired a new store manager since my previous manager was relocating. The new manager heard about the job through a friend and has a personal connection with the district manager. She was previously earning a high income in mortgage and running a sober living house. She has now been with us for about 2 months. There have been several inappropriate incidents during her firsts months, such as running her other 2 businesses on the side which caused her to be on the phone about every 15 minutes, she still does not know how to complete her simple duties without help or creating an error. Before she was hired my store had a very strong team and I get along with all my coworkers, I was promoted after two months of working there and really was enjoying my job. Now this new manager came in just as hobby while the mortgage market is low, and has been clashing with everyone. Ultimately a few weeks ago an incident occurred between the two of us that required a employee meeting including our district manager. During the meeting I basically explained everything that was going on that wasn't suppose to be going on. After the meeting I was under the impression that everyone was able to get everything out and start anew, but I guess that wasn't the case. After the meeting my manger gave me a hug and apologized. When I returned to work on a shift with her I had dropped all previous tension. I could still feel a tad of animosity from her, but wasn't really a concern. Now were a few weeks later, and I specifically mentioned to the manager that I had full availability during my spring break next week, and she decided just to give me my minimum hours. I decided not to say anything. Then she decided yesterday that she would do the schedules three weeks in advance in the back( this is also an issue we discussed at the meeting, that office hour work was to be done on mondays) and faxed and displayed them when she was done. Earlier that day she had been standoffish to me, but later started talking like everything was just dandy. So i decided this would be the best time to approach her about my decline in hours because I continue to work as hard as usual. I brought the schedule to her attention and she asked me if I wanted to know the truth, so i replied of course i do. She basically explained that she didn't like my attitude and felt I was bringing a negative vibe to the store. I was blindsided because she had been acting extra nice to my face these past weeks, and all of a sudden she turns a evil scorned switch, and basically tells me she cut my hours because she doesn't like me, and does not want to work with me, and is scheduling me around her schedule. Obviously she has no grounds to fire me because I'm one of the top performers. IS IT LEGAL FOR A MANAGER TO SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY, AND CUT MY HOURS JUST BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T LIKE ME, AND SPOKE HONESTLY DURING AN EMPLOYEE MEETING???Unfair practices at work????
Your conduct may be protected against retaliation under the National Labor Relations Act. Although the principle motivation for the NLRA is to protect employees that are trying to unionize, it also extends some protection to an employee who complains about general working conditions on behalf of others, even if the conditions are not unlawful.



Keep in mind though that your employer can still terminate you for other reasons if you are an at will employee, i.e. you don't have an employment contract, and your position is not covered by a collective bargaining agreement, i.e. you are not in a labor union.



A retaliation suit would let a jury second guess an employer's motives. If bad things follow quickly behind protected conduct, juries tend to believe that the protected conduct played a part. Lawsuits however are expensive, and generally speaking, a plaintiff has to show that he or she exhausted an employer's internal procedures for resolving retaliation or that such efforts would have been futile, so your first course of action should be to file a complaint with your Human Resources department alleging retaliation by your manager.