Pennsylvania. Employee unsure of what to do.
I will give as much info as I can without doxxing myself. I am greatly afraid of my coworkers finding this, as I fear getting fired for speaking about this.
I work at a dog daycare and boarding establishment. Recently, a dog was injured at our business due to another dog. The attacking dog, we'll call him Spot, is known for aggressive play behavior, and was placed in the calmer room for some inexplicable reason. It wasn't my decision. He went after another dog, Fido, and we have footage of much of the altercation, but only what happened indoors. Not outdoors. Here's where things get tricky.
We are understaffed. Corporate does not want to pay for us to have a person in every daycare room at all times. The shift layout is this: one person up front handling customer service and watching the cameras set up in the rooms, one person cycling through rooms to clean to make sure there's no over correcting during play, and one person as the back of house runner, who helps bring dogs to and from rooms, handles any add ons the customers signed their dogs up for, laundry, food, meds, etc. I am usually a runner, sometimes I will be in rooms, but there is a lot to get done with only two people in the back of house per shift.
Due to this layout, Spot roughhoused with Fido for a long time before anyone saw that it was causing injury. Nobody up front was watching the cameras, I was doing my duties as a runner and heard no signs of distress like yelping or screams. Nobody did. It was noticed until someone walked by and saw red on Spot's face. The dogs were fighting for a long time. The manager that day was hesitant to take Fido to the vet, and only did so due to the insistence of me and one other employee. Spot, the aggressor, has been given multiple chances, and it was only this incident that got him banned. There have been other incidents, including one where I was bit, but none of them are noted in his file. There was no warning to avoid putting him in the calmer room. This entire situation is a series of horrible decisions that every single employee, myself included, should be ashamed of. I am ashamed.
This manager now wants us all to tell a certain version of the truth (so a lie) to keep the mom of the dog from wanting footage. He wants us to say the fight happened outside and we have no footage. We do have footage. I am wondering if this woman will sue and see the footage anyway.
What do I do here? She picks the dog up from boarding tomorrow, he has been in our care while he recovers. She will ask to see footage, regardless of what story I'm supposed to tell. Neither managers in charge will be in tomorrow, and this will all be put on the shoulders of staff. I'm at a loss. All of this feels very wrong. What would be the legal way to deal with this, and is there an ethical way to deal with this without avoiding termination or legal trouble? Thanks.