Alright, I'm in a bad situation right now and I need some advice and I know that this isn't dancing related but really, I have no where to turn to except for fellow dancers so I'm hoping that you can forgive me for posting something that's not dance related: I am a dance instructor in Washington State and I have been working at my studio for about 10 months now. My co workers are nice, my studio is... well, it's decent and the students are great. The only problem is that my boss is a living nightmare. For 10 months, he has gone on and on and on with his racist, derogatory, sexist, degrading statements and comments to staff and his manner has litterally driven away dozens of students. After 10 months, all of us are looking to get rid of him because from what I hear from senior staff members, he has been like this for a long time... years even. While it's not as often he still will go out to lunch, have a few drinks and come back drunk and try to handle students. The worst occasion that I witnessed was when he tried to give some new students a progress check while drunk (or at least very tipsy) and he nearly drove the poor girl to tears.
He is a co-owner and while his partner has warned him on several occasions, he refuses to heed those warnings and continues in his manner. And while that sounds like it may sound like that's a good thing since she would be on my side, it's not really. I have heard from another senior staff member that she hates him too and she is just waiting for some kind of excuse to fire him and close our studio down.
I'm in a real pickle here. I really want to sue to him and get him out of the studio that way because I know that his driving factor is money and that if he is just hit with some kind of stern warning that he will end up not listening and only make things worse for all of us but if we hit him in the wallet, he'll listen. But on the same token, I don't want to cause the loss of jobs for the other staff members cuz we really are a team there. All the other staff members have said that if I choose to pursue this, they will support me and testify if it goes to court, and I also have former staff members who are willing to do the same. My question is..... what do I do? Do I take him to court? and if I do.... anyone know a good orginization that would be willing to help out for cheap? None of us in the studio are very rich because our boss screws us on hours every chance he gets. I'm reaching out here, and I need some advice. Anything would be helpful. Thanks for reading!
~LB

You Haven't Truly Made It Until Your Head Is On A Pez Dispenser

You might try looking at the www.aclu-wa.org website for ideas. Just a quick run through I found this article that might give you a stepping stone: http://www.aclu-wa.org/issues/otherissues/Businesses.Can't.Discriminate.AR00.html

But since you have him also acting this way towards customers, you might want to also access the Better Business Bureau website.

We have a similiar situation at a local studio, but only a tenth of a degree, and I haven't heard of any abuses of students or blatant abuse of teachers. A lot of the teachers leave there within a year and have either joined other studios or have gone independent. In fact, a couple of them opened their own studio. And while teachers aren't allowed to tell students where they are going, word of mouth gets around pretty fast.

But what concerns me most of what you are saying is that the co-owner is thinking about closing the place down, if she can get rid of the jerk. What kind of hold does he have, that she can't just pull out? Plus, to bring legal action, could you do it against him as individual, and not the studio as a whole? Hopefully, there is a lawyers org. that you can get advice from.

But personal advice from a non-instructor, non-legal type, whose gone through slightly similiar...as much as loyalty to the workplace is admirable, loyalty to yourself is more important. The tone I got from your note is that this situation is making you upset, please watch out for signs of depression. Work is not worth your health and well-being, and there is always the option to leave.

Good luck,

You might want to examine these thoughts.

If the studio closes, would the contract restricting you and the other teachers be legally binding? Can a contract be enforced when one party no longer exists? Could the teachers and students then move en mass to another studio?

Is there anything legally stated or implied about the responsibilities of the other party to the contract which aren't being met? Like discrimination, or impossible working conditions? Maybe making the restrictive contracts null and void?

Depending on where the drinking occurs, if the owner was jailed for drunken driving would it a: sober him up or b: get him out of your hair

First off, thank you for the replies so far and the concern. That is most helpful to myself.

But to let you know where I stand currently, right now I am going to write a letter to the ACLU tonight to ask them for any kind of legal advice that they can give me and along with that, a former supervisor from the studio might be able to help me get in touch with a lawyer whom she was going to use when she was going to sue for back wages owed.
While this is kind of a futile situation for myself, as I am leaving in about 6 months to move to a different state to teach (unfortunetly, my contract has a no teaching at any other studio within 35 miles for 2 years after leaving), this is mostly just so that I can get the jack ass out of his position of power so that he can't hurt other teachers the way he's hurt the staff that we have now.
Oh and to answer the question about why the the other studio owner doesn't shut us down already... it's cuz she hates our studio (shown by the condition our studio is in, the floor is practically in splinters and no one even thinks about dancing in our practice room) but thanks to a couple of students in particular she keeps it open since they will spend money by the thousands and not even blink about it. So, again.... it's a money issue. Geez, if I had known that the dance business was so money oriented I don't think I would've gotten started in the first place... good thing i'm too addicted to leave now even if I wanted to. *smile*
~LB

You Haven't Truly Made It Until Your Head Is On A Pez Dispenser

Well, I got a letter back from the ACLU and to make a long story short... they sympathize but can't do anything about it. They gave me a couple of numbers to call and a couple of agencies that they said I might look into but unfortunetly, all of these agencies do have service fees which I do not have. So, the only option I have left is to talk to my friend who is a former supervisor at the studio and see if it would be possible for me to attach my discrimination suit onto her suit that she is throwing against the studio for failure to pay backwages owed. But that's the whole gist of it now and as it stands, I've got nothing.

You Haven't Truly Made It Until Your Head Is On A Pez Dispenser

What you're dealing with is just terrible. If I were you, I would try to talk to a lawyer. Do you know any that you could hit up for advice? Even a law student, maybe, would be able to give you some advice or point you in the right direction. Good luck!