Harassment at work. Where do I go from here? (employees, average, degree)

[Bbllack]

I am so glad that I have discovered this site with so many resources in regard with employment discrimination. I have learned so much from different posters on this site and this is the reason why I would like to post my situation in order to receive guidance.

I am a black guy who works for a bank in a Fresno, California. That bank operates throughout the world. When I first started my job 4 years ago, I had a coworker Ken, white guy, who was purposely ignoring me. I would greet him; he would pretend he didn’t hear me. I would be standing next to him to ask for help and his eyes would be freeze on his computer as if I didn’t exist. I realized his snubbing attitude was only directed at me and I was the only black guy on the team.

Then, one day, I had enough of his behavior; I asked him if he was doing this to me because I was black. Ken reported me to HR that I call him a racist. I was summoned by HR. Bill, at top executive in our branch who happened to be the HR vice-president, asked me why I called Ken a racist. (Bill is also white), I explain to Bill the situation about Ken’s snubbing. Then, Bill got very angry at me and told me I didn’t have enough proof to call Ken a racist. I explain to Bill that I didn’t call Ken a racist but I was just asking him a question if his snubbing to me was because I was black. Bill said this question is just the same as calling Ken a racist.

At this point, I felt Bill was discriminating. For instance, if an airplane hit a building in Manhattan,, everyone will be on the edge of their seat “Is this an act of terrorism?” No one respond with “You can’t call someone a terrorist without proof” But in my case with Ken, why my apprehension of racism is met with “You can’t call someone a racist without proof” As a black male who had been through tribulations, I had developed an eye to recognize subtle discrimination (racism) when facing one.
Anyway, this matter was closed.

Then few days later, Ken offended an African lady on our department as he was giving her instruction on how to perform a task. Ken was basically screaming and barking order at the African lady as he was standing next to her by her computer. At one point, Ken told the lady “You should look at me as I am talking to you” The lady was so offended that she run to the lady room and sobbed uncontrollably. She had to be rescued by a manager who sent her home for that day. Adding to that, this was the second time that Ken had been hostile to that African lady.

Ken’s case and the African lady were again on Bill’s desk, the HR vice president. A number of witnesses came forward to support the African lady version of event. For some reason, Bill downplays the whole event in spite of the many witnesses and in spite of the fact that this was the second time it happens.Bill told the African lady that she was overreacting. He said that if Ken told her that she should look at him while he was talking to him, it is because in this culture you have to look at the person you are talking to. It became evident Bill was using the dominant white culture as a norm when it comes to dealing with internal complaint and not taking in consideration individual differences.

Ken didn’t stop there. Since he was a popular guy at work, he managed to found allies. I and the African lady started to get ignore by a number of people. And it was difficult to report this to HR since we knew where Bill is standing. Life at work became difficult.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, I decided to write to the company board of ethics in regard to Bill’s discrimination when dealing with internal investigation that had perpetuated disadvantage on the minority.In my letter, I explain to the board of ethics that I am facing daily harassment at work that is usually small in nature but not trivial in effect. Those small harassments are especially powerful when taken together. And the tragic part is that maybe some of the behavior that I perceive as racist may not be racist at all but just because Bill would take a talk of racism as an accusation of racism, I am not able to talk to anyone about this.

Then, few weeks latter, the board of ethics was sending Sue as external investigator. Sue was coming from a different branch of the bank. I was so overjoyed that finally I could be able to talk to someone who could understand my point of view.

Before my meeting with Sue took place, I made a shocking discovery. Though Sue is from a different branch, Bill that I am accusing was her direct supervisor. I printed Sue’s profile that showed Bill as her supervisor and I waited for Sue for the day of the meeting.When my meeting with Sue started, Sue introduced herself as someone who was assigned as an investigator. Then I pulled her profile that I have printed and told her I wasn’t able to deal with her over this matter due to a conflict of interest.

Sue tried to persuade me that she is a professional who can make an objective decision on this matter. I explained to Sue that the board of ethics had failed to show diligence in investigating this matter by sending someone who works for the responding out of the thousands of the company employees around the world. Given this fact, I am withdrawing this matter completely.

I felt like the board of ethics tried to trick me with this case by sending Bill’s assistant this case for review and handling. Had I know discovered that Sue was Bill’s assistant; I was probably going to get Bill himself taking control of the entire investigation.Where do I go from here? Is this a case of failure to properly investigate allegation of discrimination by the board of ethics? Is this a case of discrimination by Bill? Is this a case of attempt of fraud by the Board of ethics which tried to set Bill to investigate his own case?

[manderly6]

That is pretty much impossible to read.

[jasper12]

Maybe he just did not like you. Should have just left it alone unless it created a direct negative impact on your job performance.

I am white, and a white woman I work with treats me just as bad, if not worse, as she actively lied about me to get me fired. There are psycho mean people everywhere. I kept the issues about her behavior on her, and how it negatively impacted performance of the team, and service coordination. Stay with that, IMO, even if this guy wears a white robe w/ a hood on weekends, your trying to make it a race issue detracts from the real issue of the bottom line, which is...this person's attitude and behavior negatively impact the work environment. Don't make it about race...you will lose.

What is your ultimate goal? He won't be fired. He won't ever be nice to you. What do you want to achieve? You may even still have to work with him.

The best you can hope for is that everyone gets "training" on diversity, usually a movie, and people will resent you for making this an issue.

[chiroptera]

Originally Posted by jasper12

Maybe he just did not like you. Should have just left it alone unless it created a direct negative impact on your job performance.

I am white, and a white woman I work with treats me just as bad, if not worse, as she actively lied about me to get me fired. There are psycho mean people everywhere. I kept the issues about her behavior on her, and how it negatively impacted performance of the team, and service coordination. Stay with that, IMO, even if this guy wears a white robe w/ a hood on weekends, your trying to make it a race issue detracts from the real issue of the bottom line, which is...this person's attitude and behavior negatively impact the work environment. Don't make it about race...you will lose.

What is your ultimate goal? He won't be fired. He won't ever be nice to you. What do you want to achieve? You may even still have to work with him.

The best you can hope for is that everyone gets "training" on diversity, usually a movie, and people will resent you for making this an issue.

This makes sense to me.

What tangible harm has been done to you by Ken, Bill and Sue? Without tangible harm (as opposed to "my feelings are hurt") I don't think complaining will get you anywhere you really want to be.

So far all I get is that Ken (who happens to be white) isn't friendly to you and there's a lady from Africa who was offended by him. That's it in a nutshell, right?

I dunno... I've worked most of my 40-plus years as a minority female in traditionally male jobs; sometimes people aren't that friendly because of whatever and sometimes I'm offended by someone for some reason. If there's no obvious reason or defiency of skill, I mark it up to individual differences, not sexism or racism, and don't give it another thought.

There's a whole raft of sayings about how for the most part, you cannot control what happens to you or how others act, but you can control how you react to it. It seems that you are choosing to react from a position of powerlessness (They are doing hurtful things to me!) and expecting someone else (HR, ethics board, whatever) to come to your rescue and make your boo-boos all better. How about coming from a position of power and control instead?

[artsyguy]

Report everyone, who was uncooperative to you, by name on rip off complaint websites. Most employees who were treated unfairly are getting justice by making public blogs about it and or reporting it on complaint websites like complaintsboard.

[OngletNYC]

I tried hard to read the whole post but I just couldn't get through it.

In my opinion, you are in the wrong for making everything about race in the first place. For all you know, he doesn't like you because you remind him of his Little League arch-nemesis. Or a guy who stole his girlfriend 10 years ago. Shoot... maybe you talk too much, or you hum while you eat! Surely you don't think that you are so perfect and wonderful, the only reason one might *not* like you is your skin color? Surely there are black people out there who don't like you either.

Get over yourself! Work isn't a popularity contest. Unless you are being actively discriminated against - and according to your story, you aren't - s t f u and do your job.

[kodaka]

You sound like the angry black guy--the stereotypical black guy with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. You make everything about race and are itching for a fight.

I agree with the above posters: probably the guy just didn't like you. Maybe he didn't like your hairdo or your cologne or whatever. But then you went and made a federal case out of it. Of course the rest of your coworkers aren't going to want to socialize with you, after you've created this racial issue. They are afraid to say anything for fear you'll write to the ethics board about them!

Work isn't about socializing and no one is required to like you. I do hope you learn an important lesson from this situation. Focus on your WORK at work.

[Perryview22]

I'm not sure what resources are on this board in regard to employment discrimination. This is one rough crowd on this board...not a place to come looking for people to acknowledge racial hostility in the workplace.

In fact, there is no where in this country that is a resource for discrimination. Even the phony gov't agencies like the EEOC won't help you there. If you don't have an audiovisual tape of the boss slinging racial slurs at you - and even then to the degree that its "severe" and "pervasive" that agency will just assist your employer in terminating you. That is, if it's the subtle (de facto legal) kind, God help you.

[OngletNYC]

Originally Posted by Perryview22

I'm not sure what resources are on this board in regard to employment discrimination. This is one rough crowd on this board...not a place to come looking for people to acknowledge racial hostility in the workplace.

In fact, there is no where in this country that is a resource for discrimination. Even the phony gov't agencies like the EEOC won't help you there. If you don't have an audiovisual tape of the boss slinging racial slurs at you - and even then to the degree that its "severe" and "pervasive" that agency will just assist your employer in terminating you. That is, if it's the subtle (de facto legal) kind, God help you.

I am black.

Here's the truth: we working people who make up middle income america are under attack for reasons that have nothing to do with race.

The white guy who's office is next door to yours isn't uptight and unhappy because he has to work with a black guy. He's uptight and unhappy because ALL of us working people are under siege right in America right now. I guarantee you, the average white guy at your office who is unhappy isn't thinking "Why am I working with black people?" He's thinking, "Why have I worked so hard every day for the last 5 years and still haven't received a lousy f-ing raise?"

Racism, I think it's mostly a scam now. All hard working Americans are screwed now.

[artsyguy]

Racism is not a scam in the south or southwest lol. It's real. It's clandestine. Minorities of equal education and background are more likely to be out of work than white Anglo people (research: Tim Wise).

Where are you from? San Fransisco? Chicago? Maybe racism is a scam there. But it's still real to other people regardless of what you or other minorities may think.

Originally Posted by OngletNYC

I am black.

Here's the truth: we working people who make up middle income america are under attack for reasons that have nothing to do with race.

The white guy who's office is next door to yours isn't uptight and unhappy because he has to work with a black guy. He's uptight and unhappy because ALL of us working people are under siege right in America right now. I guarantee you, the average white guy at your office who is unhappy isn't thinking "Why am I working with black people?" He's thinking, "Why have I worked so hard every day for the last 5 years and still haven't received a lousy f-ing raise?"

Racism, I think it's mostly a scam now. All hard working Americans are screwed now.