Maintain a Meeting Log
If you are under attack on your job (read: being subjected to racially-based/illegal mistreatment), you should keep track of every meeting you participate in regarding any alleged negative behavior on your part. This includes logging/recording all meetings you attend with the person who is making accusations against you or leading a chorus of coworkers to make false charges against you.
It’s important to remember that once you’ve been identified as a “troublemaker,” by making noise about racially-based mistreatment, your company’s solution may include getting rid of you as opposed to firing the perpetrator who is causing you a hostile work environment and who is potentially breaking the law. This is an especially likely reality if the person who is harassing you is of a higher status than you are at your company. The company may tend to shield a higher-up as opposed to supporting a “peon” who is being mistreated. They’ll privately call it a “business decision.” But, that is reality. A higher-up has a much more vital role for the company and they will likely not be willing to part with this person, even regarding a racial matter that might explode in their faces.
So, if you have to attend a meeting regarding a racially-based or other sensitive issue, you have to look out for your interests and you have to maintain an accurate record of what is happening to you on the job. When you participate in any meetings regarding mistreatment, record everything. Take copious notes. Ask many questions and get answers. If answers can’t be provided to you, ask for follow-up to get the information from the other participants. If you receive no feedback regarding your questions, note your employer’s refusal to provide you with answers in your log.
Be sure to find out if there are any expectations for after the meeting. Are you expected to do something or speak to some other authority at work to get the situation resolved? What’s next? What’s been resolved? What penalty, if any, did your harasser receive? You have a right to know and you have a right to ask. Be sure you know the status of most, if not all issues, by the end of each meeting.
It’s important to remember that once you’ve been identified as a “troublemaker,” by making noise about racially-based mistreatment, your company’s solution may include getting rid of you as opposed to firing the perpetrator who is causing you a hostile work environment and who is potentially breaking the law. This is an especially likely reality if the person who is harassing you is of a higher status than you are at your company. The company may tend to shield a higher-up as opposed to supporting a “peon” who is being mistreated. They’ll privately call it a “business decision.” But, that is reality. A higher-up has a much more vital role for the company and they will likely not be willing to part with this person, even regarding a racial matter that might explode in their faces.
So, if you have to attend a meeting regarding a racially-based or other sensitive issue, you have to look out for your interests and you have to maintain an accurate record of what is happening to you on the job. When you participate in any meetings regarding mistreatment, record everything. Take copious notes. Ask many questions and get answers. If answers can’t be provided to you, ask for follow-up to get the information from the other participants. If you receive no feedback regarding your questions, note your employer’s refusal to provide you with answers in your log.
Be sure to find out if there are any expectations for after the meeting. Are you expected to do something or speak to some other authority at work to get the situation resolved? What’s next? What’s been resolved? What penalty, if any, did your harasser receive? You have a right to know and you have a right to ask. Be sure you know the status of most, if not all issues, by the end of each meeting.
posted by S. Mary Wills at 7:40 AM
2 Comments:
I'm thinking that a good example of this points to the story in this link, where the manager had a noose hanging around mainly black employees, and what it took to finally get it removed: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/05/chernoff.noose/index.html
Sage advice Mary, I ran into that myself in my first summer job while in college. I had converted to Islam recently, and my employer didn't like my skin color or my faith. He tried to artfully conceal it, but he eventually wound up in situations where it very clearly came out, often with witnesses. I'd learned a few things from working on student newspapers back in high school, so I made sure to document everything in context which is key.
When this guy later tried to block my promotion and withhold my salary, I showed the jerk the transcripts I'd been accumulating on him, and his attitude changed faster than a drunk who's found a winning lottery ticket on 5th Street.
Real-time documentation (which doesn't have to be exactly "real time" but usually, at least, the same or next day) is the heart of winning when negotiation and arbitration come around. If your case really is backed up by the facts on the ground, your documentation will usually enable you to win well before the courts even have to get involved.
The Nubian Manifesto
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