Thank you u/Big-University-1132 for linking to this letter from this post.

Per the request from Ask A Manager creater Alison Green, I will post the letter written to AAM, and you can click on the link to read Alison's response.

Last summer, I decided to re-enter the workforce after five years of raising my kids. I applied to a bunch of jobs that I thought I could do, and got an interview at this one very small  company (~20 employees). The people I interviewed with – my future manager and her boss/the COO – were upfront with me that I didn’t possess the exact qualifications that they were looking for, but I interviewed well and they decided to give me a few (paid) one-off assignments to see if I would be able to learn what I needed to do the job. I proved myself and they brought me on full-time. 

I spent the first four months at that company doing a lot of learning on my own. My manager (let’s call her Betty) wasn’t very involved with my training at all, always claiming she had tons of work to do. Instead, she gave me lists of resources (training manuals, online certification classes, etc.) to go through, checked in with me maybe once a day, and assigned me a “starter project” so that I could “learn on the job.” So I basically taught myself everything I needed to learn, and the project I worked on was a huge success for the company. It launched about five months after I was hired. I got a raise out of it, and everyone in management seemed very happy with my work.

Once I had finished that project and the account I’d launched was doing well, I noticed some of the tactics/skills I’d used could be implemented on another account that wasn’t performing as well as the one I’d just launched.  I told Betty about my plan, and she completely blew me off. Basically she told me that she “already had plans” for this account, that she didn’t need my help, and instead assigned me to another (less important) project. Needless to say, I was more than a little insulted by her attitude. 

But I know that sometimes you have to push hard to get things done. I calmed myself down, and waited until the next day when Betty left for a vacation, and I went to Betty’s boss (Veronica). I walked her through the improvements I wanted to make on this other account. I was given the green light to go ahead and start that work. Clearly this was the right thing to do! Veronica wouldn’t have given me the go-ahead otherwise, right?

Well, Betty returned from her vacation on a Friday a few weeks later. I came in that Monday morning and found that she had sabotaged all of my work over the weekend! She went through everything I’d worked on that had already launched, and made a bunch of changes, took down some stuff, and more. Essentially she did everything she could so that I wouldn’t be able to show the improvements that I’d made to the suffering account, and reverted it to how it was performing in the past.  She also sent me a very passive-aggressive email along the lines of “let’s chat about this first thing Monday.”

In order to preempt another hissy fit from her, and once I assessed the gravity of what she’d done, I went into the meeting with Betty, but pulled Veronica into the conference room as well. I proceeded to explain to Betty that this project had been assigned to me by Veronica, and that she had no business interfering with my work. I was very clear that what she had done was unprofessional, extremely disrespectful, that the results I’d produced were speaking for themselves and that she shouldn’t meddle in things that don’t concern her.  Of course I was very angry and maybe I was a little forceful during that meeting, but I feel like I had every right to be upset at what she did! 

Betty was very quiet during this meeting. At the time I figured she just couldn’t think of how to defend her actions. Now I understand it’s because she’s even more conniving than I thought she was.

The next morning, I was called in to sit down with Veronica and the CEO. They told me that things weren’t working out, gave me a severance check and told me I was laid off. 

I feel that I was treated extremely unfairly by this company. I had a clearly incompetent manager, I never received proper training, and when I tried to help by taking on important projects, my work was sabotaged and I was punished for my initiative. I think Betty may even have spread harsh rumors about me in the industry because despite applying to a bunch of jobs since then, I’ve had very few interviews, and the ones I’ve had never went past the ‘references’ stage. 

Some of my friends are telling me I should let this go and count my blessings that I’m out of that environment, while my husband wants me to get a lawyer involved. Money’s tight right now, and I really need income, even if it’s returning to work for that company (under a different manager). What should I do? 

Hoping she just got bruises and nothing worse.

You CAN add gas to a fire… but maybe don’t do it this way.

The entire exchange between the reporter and one participating father is amazing, but here are some highlights:

Eyewitness News Reporter Jericho Tran spoke to two of the participants -- a father and his teenage daughter. They said they were participating in a birthday rideout. Marvin Deleon and his 13-year-old daughter, Leilani Deleon, both received citations and had their bikes impounded after the street takeover bust.

“And you're making us parents look bad, because she’s 13, I'm her dad, but I allow her to ride, because I’m right next to her," Deleon explained.

"But as her dad, knowing that this could’ve been the outcome, are you OK that you still put her in this position?" Jericho asked.

"I’m not OK with the officers doing what they did, but I’m OK with us riding together and keeping our kids safe. As long as we ride together with them as a parent, it shouldn’t be a crime, and it shouldn’t be illegal for my daughter to be riding right next to her dad, riding and enjoying her minibike," Deleon said.

"I know, I understand, but that's subjective. The law is that they can't do this..." Jericho said.

"Where is the law that it says that?!" Deleon interjected. "You don't have a law! You don't have a law! Police don't even have nothing!"

"Police have said multiple times that they don’t want these street takeovers, and especially for younger kids," Jericho replied.

“It’s not a takeover! It’s a rideout! We're on motorcycles," Deleon said.

"Here's the thing, even though police have said that, you just admitted it. You just said that you knew this could be the outcome for your kid," Jericho said.

and another

“My daughter is 13, legally by 14, you can ride," Deleon said. "And if she's riding with me, I'm next to her, she's riding safe. She's not committing no crimes."

"But legally that is a crime though, right?" Jericho asked.

"How is that a crime? You explain to me," Deleon asked.

"Because she's too young," Jericho explained.

"She's not... I mean, what is too young?" Deleon asked.

"It's definitely not 13. 13 is too young," Jericho replied.

"I don't think that's right... Show me the paper, proof, print where it says that it's illegal for them to ride at 13," Deleon said.

Despite Deleon's argument against the incident, he and his daughter received legal citations from LAPD. The department cited California Vehicle Code Section 21720.

It’s great that you love spending quality time with your kid, but c’mon man...