Racial Discrimination or at will?
I work for a large insurance agency (at-will). 5 months ago a coworker refused to work for a producer any longer due to his work ethic. I also work for said producer but not with her. The co. did not post the job or make any offers to anyone(me) in-house or publicly but hired a white person alot less qualified than me. At this time they also announced that my current 2 person team would now include this new person and book of business and she would be my superior.
In all this time there has been no training or support given to me for the new person and the new business which is very different from the work I was doing before she was hired, which I have been stressing since she was hired. I have made some minor mistakes with the new stuff (no training) but my prior work has been rock solid.
Now I am being told that I have been incompetent not only with the new stuff but the past 3 years and my managers have been just too afraid to tell me. They fear my reaction should I be critized. I have preformance reviews with great work preformance and have never had any discipline problems where anyone would think to be afraid of me. I keep to myself and do my job and go home. I am however the only black woman/person. I have 2 weeks to prove that I am worthy before being terminated.
This reeks of a setup and discrimination. They dont want me on the job and they dont want me on the new team. I am pretty sure there is no song or dance I can do in the next 2 weeks to save my job. Do I have a case?
Answers (1)
Your situation does reek of a setup and discrimination. Doing nothing is an option, but probably not a good one.
You should get specific, tactical advice from attorney, since you can do a number of things to put yourself in a better position to save your job or increase your leverage in a severance negotiation. This is only general legal information and some common sense advice.
First, be the best employee this insurance company ever had. Never give it an excuse to terminate your employment. Beam sunshine. Hum a happy tune. This is very hard to do in your situation, but you avoid being labeled as an "attitude problem."
Pick your battle. Call them when you have obvious, unfair discrimination and simply ask that it stop. It might work. Also, this is protected activity, so if they fire you because you asked for a lawful workplace, you will have a claim for retaliation in addition to racial discrimination. However, this is a risky tactic (it could get you fired) and should only be done with reasoned judgment and advice of legal counsel.
I can offer that counsel at this stage if you like. We offer an initial consultation and charge $200 for what is typically a 90 minute meeting. I can do a consultation by telephone if the distance is a problem. If you would like our assistance, please call Jenny at 330.665.5445, ext. 0 and ask her to get you on my calendar.
posted by Neil Klingshirn | Aug 29, 2007 1:52 PM [EST]
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