Need advice on a letter to my boss' boss.

Question

I work at a municipal pool. My manager has a nasty habit of being in a bad mood, nearly every day. I feel that no matter what her personal life is, she should not take it out on other employees. She is a control freak on a power trip. I am 28 years old, and she treats me like a teenager. She treats the lifeguards like kindergartners. She has exhibited behaviors such as favoritism, prejudice, outbursts of anger, making children cry, etc. She has even gone so far as to tell a few of us that we "need to get saved". She has also told me "I gave you every Sunday off, because you need to go to church." This is somewhat disturbing to me. She is unapproachable with concerns or problems. There are families and children that will not come to the pool when she is there. I could go on and on about things that she has said or done that are inappropriate. There are 6 lifeguards that are writing letters to the city, and numerous parents as well. The goal of these letters will be to ensure that she is not hired for this position next year. I am somewhat scared of being retaliated against if she finds out that I am writing a letter. Would you write the letter, or does it seem inappropriate to go over her head? Have you written such a letter? What details should I include?

Answer 1

yes i would write it and yes if she does go after you or all ove you you can get her fired that is the law.

Answer 2

well first off she most likely works for the city (government ) and you should have a union,forcing or promoting  religion on workers in the work place is a serious violation and she can be fired for this ,secondly a complaint to your union should settle this matter quickly she is clearly in violation of work place harrassment and the separation of church and state act,you dont have to deal with this just stand up to her through your union or city counsel office

Answer 3

I would be very careful about this.  It is always bad policy to go over your boss's head.  If you decide to do this, make sure you have plausible deny-ability.

Answer 4

Any thing you write should be the truth.  Hopefully you wrote down the date of any incidents for proof.  

Answer 5

This sort of letter is always risky, because this person is in power over you and you cannot for certain predict how her boss will take this information.

If you know of other credible people who have witnessed behaviors and are dissatisfied with her performance, I suggest a letter signed by many of you, this will give more weight and credibilty to what you have to say, it also will make sure that others won't just let this uncomfortable thing slide and not write the letter because everyone else is taking care of it.

I would present as follows:

We are approaching you regarding the behavior of X, and want to bring some issues to your attention that we feel are of concern - state the types of behavior that concern you.

Then provide examples of what you are objecting to:  Be very specific as to the behavior, when and where it happened and who was present.  You can use your judgement about which examples and how many to use.  It helps if your statements or examples can be independantly verfied.

Then talk about how this bad behavior effects people, the culture at the pool, safety, etc.  Again, be specific.

Then say what you think ought to be done or not be done.

Then thank them for taking the time to read the letter.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Definitely write it. Write one that just tells them what you just mentioned here. She'll be gone.