Oh Man, I can't tell you how close to my heart your story hit me. This isn't a labor relations issue, it's a family issue. That prick of an in-law you're stuck with wasn't sending you a message about how he felt about you as an employee. He was sending you a message about how he feels about you as a husband to his daughter, and a member of the family. Any in-law that truely cared about you as a member of the family would not have cast you aside like that. If he had a concern about the stories regarding your alleged use of medication, he would have talked to you about it, asked if you were comfortable about talking to him about it, offerred help, advice, or simply an ear. Then he would have had a little chat with the employee who spread the story right before handing him his walking papers for discussing such personal information at the workplace. I have the in-laws from hell; I've been through hell and back with them. The stories I could tell would rot your socks. Nothing you do will be good enough for people like this. Don't waste your time or energy on this guy. Walk away from fighting this in the courts, but it might do you some good to have a man-to-man talk about what he did to you, provided you're not one man short here. You teach people how to treat you. It's time to call class to order. If you don't mind me asking, where does your wife sit on this? Are you a united front? Please don't tell me she's sitting on the fence because she doesn't want to offend daddy. I don't claim that everyone should be like me, but if my mother pulled something like this on my wife, there would be hell to pay. Remember where the responsibility for this mess resides. It's now a rather difficult matter of holding him accountable.
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Sherman, set the way-back machine to 1970.