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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    1

    Default Unwarranted Complaints To Management At Work

    State: California

    I am the lone african american working in an area that has a reputation for preferring caucasians and light-skinned asians over darker-skinned people in general and black people in particular. When I started in my job (~3.5 years ago), I had to deal with finding (generally) harassing messages written in my workspace (have photos) and (both racially and generally) harrassing comments made in public (no recordings). I also had to deal with people who would try to restrict me from the information and materials that I needed to get my job done.

    The management made it clear that I should quit if I didn't like things the way that they are. Left with a choice of stopping my career to take on a legal fight or working through it, I chose the latter. I accumulated enough clear, quantifiable achievements that even those who hated me had to respect me.

    Before I continue, I should mention that the organization in which I work purports to be very safety-concious. There are safety posters in every hallway and, although it has not happened yet, safety has been mentioned as a reason that a high-performing employee could be fired.

    A year ago, my organization hired a group of new chinese immigrants. A few months ago, I found out that one of them claimed to management that I had a series of accidents. When I confronted her about this (in front of management), she went from claiming that I had a series of accidents, to claiming that she assumed that I had a series of accidents. The claims stopped after that.

    There is also an issue of hiring by the new chinese immigrants; they make it very difficult to hire anyone who is not chinese. They have gone so far as to turn down non-chinese applicants with degrees that meet specifications in order to hire chinese applicants with lesser degrees.

    Recently, I found out that someone was taking complaints to me to management a rank above. Instead of accidents that never happened, they take small issues that never would have been mentioned against anyone else, and expand them to the point of incredulity. I've been told that there are people in upper management who want to have me fired because of this.

    What should I do? You can never complain about anything done in the name of pursuing safety because the organization can never be too safe.

    I haven't tried talking to management because of their response to my earlier problems, and because I know that they are a bit on edge (this organization has a series of other racial discrimination lawsuits pending against it). I'm afraid that if I talk to them, they will shut me out entirely and force me to sue.

    I only need to stay here another year. I don't want money, I want to complete my year and go.

    If I had to, I could document safety issues caused by caucasian/asian employees and draw a clear, sharp distinction with the problems that are being referred to upper management.

    An added complication: The organization that signs my checks is different from the organization whose doors I walk through every day. The two organizations share resources readily and are inexorably intertwined.

  2. #2
    panther10758 Guest

    Default Re: Unwarranted Complaints To Management At Work

    What is your legal question? If you want to tough it out another year do so. since there is no pending action against you there isnt much to fight over.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    21

    Default Re: Unwarranted Complaints To Management At Work

    Quote Quoting jfsebastian
    View Post
    State: California

    I am the lone african american working in an area that has a reputation for preferring caucasians and light-skinned asians over darker-skinned people in general and black people in particular. When I started in my job (~3.5 years ago), I had to deal with finding (generally) harassing messages written in my workspace (have photos) and (both racially and generally) harrassing comments made in public (no recordings). I also had to deal with people who would try to restrict me from the information and materials that I needed to get my job done.

    The management made it clear that I should quit if I didn't like things the way that they are. Left with a choice of stopping my career to take on a legal fight or working through it, I chose the latter. I accumulated enough clear, quantifiable achievements that even those who hated me had to respect me.

    Before I continue, I should mention that the organization in which I work purports to be very safety-concious. There are safety posters in every hallway and, although it has not happened yet, safety has been mentioned as a reason that a high-performing employee could be fired.

    A year ago, my organization hired a group of new chinese immigrants. A few months ago, I found out that one of them claimed to management that I had a series of accidents. When I confronted her about this (in front of management), she went from claiming that I had a series of accidents, to claiming that she assumed that I had a series of accidents. The claims stopped after that.

    There is also an issue of hiring by the new chinese immigrants; they make it very difficult to hire anyone who is not chinese. They have gone so far as to turn down non-chinese applicants with degrees that meet specifications in order to hire chinese applicants with lesser degrees.

    Recently, I found out that someone was taking complaints to me to management a rank above. Instead of accidents that never happened, they take small issues that never would have been mentioned against anyone else, and expand them to the point of incredulity. I've been told that there are people in upper management who want to have me fired because of this.

    What should I do? You can never complain about anything done in the name of pursuing safety because the organization can never be too safe.

    I haven't tried talking to management because of their response to my earlier problems, and because I know that they are a bit on edge (this organization has a series of other racial discrimination lawsuits pending against it). I'm afraid that if I talk to them, they will shut me out entirely and force me to sue.

    I only need to stay here another year. I don't want money, I want to complete my year and go.

    If I had to, I could document safety issues caused by caucasian/asian employees and draw a clear, sharp distinction with the problems that are being referred to upper management.

    An added complication: The organization that signs my checks is different from the organization whose doors I walk through every day. The two organizations share resources readily and are inexorably intertwined.
    Well, IMHO it sounds like you're already doing everything that can be done with regards to protecting yourself. The only other thing I can suggest is to make an anonymous complaint about the hiring practices there to the EEOC - if what you say is true, an audit (if they conduct one) will show a disproportionate number of Asians being hired to any other race.

    My advice is, keep on doing what you've been doing (gathering evidence for a fight you hope to never have) and keep your head down for a year. It's hard to say not knowing for whom you work or why one person pays you while another employs you, but paper is the key. Keep those pieces of paper and those photos.

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