One New Hire Can Derail or Destroy a Career
I was looking at the EEOC web site and came across a legal decision that caused an extreme sense of déjà vu because the decision contained language that mirrored a racially-based employment action used against a good friend.
According to the EEOC web site, the decision for Thomas, 183 F.3d at 62-65 denied the summary judgment for an employer because a reasonable person could conclude that the Black plaintiff’s layoff was based on racially biased performance evaluations. Specifically, after a new supervisor was hired in a department, the plaintiff, the office’s only African American customer service representative, went from being one of the highest rated employees to one of the lowest rated. The evidence suggested that the new supervisor deliberately undermined the Black plaintiff’s work, rated the plaintiff harsher than Whites, and that the plaintiff’s earlier high ratings were more accurate.
My good friend had been receiving yearly performance evaluations, which rated her as exceptional across categories. She received the highest ratings the company had to offer. TWO DAYS after a new, non-Black director was brought in, my friend was told that “a number of people” had all sorts of complaints about her job performance and behavior. FOUR DAYS after this director was brought in, my good friend was suspended. Mere weeks after that she was hit with a RIF (reduction in force). Yet, the new director was seeking applicants to consider for her position, among others. So, there really was no reduction or restructuring taking place. That excuse for letting her go was simply a pretext to hide the racially-based motive to run her out. Fake performance issues and documentation of these fabricated performance deficiencies served to fulfill the intentional purge of Black workers from this new director’s department.
It just goes to show how the hiring of one person, who is racist, can change the dynamics in an office and the direction of someone’s career. Even more, the hiring of one racist can have a huge impact on a Black worker’s future at their current place of employment. It’s horrible to be targeted for racial motives. It’s even worse to be fired, laid-off or forced to resign because of racism.
It’s a shame that some supervisors and other members of authority get away with targeting Black workers from their very first day of employment. Do you realize how racist you have to be in order to be unable to control your racist impulses during your first days and weeks of employment? If you don't even want to pretend not to be racist, you really do have it bad. Psychotic bad!
Thankfully, some Blacks report these individuals to agencies, such as the EEOC, in order to vindicate their rights and to hold employers responsible for letting racist supervisors and others with authority violate the law.
There is still a lot of fighting to be done in this struggle to end racially-based abuses.
Source: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/race-color.html#N_141_
According to the EEOC web site, the decision for Thomas, 183 F.3d at 62-65 denied the summary judgment for an employer because a reasonable person could conclude that the Black plaintiff’s layoff was based on racially biased performance evaluations. Specifically, after a new supervisor was hired in a department, the plaintiff, the office’s only African American customer service representative, went from being one of the highest rated employees to one of the lowest rated. The evidence suggested that the new supervisor deliberately undermined the Black plaintiff’s work, rated the plaintiff harsher than Whites, and that the plaintiff’s earlier high ratings were more accurate.
My good friend had been receiving yearly performance evaluations, which rated her as exceptional across categories. She received the highest ratings the company had to offer. TWO DAYS after a new, non-Black director was brought in, my friend was told that “a number of people” had all sorts of complaints about her job performance and behavior. FOUR DAYS after this director was brought in, my good friend was suspended. Mere weeks after that she was hit with a RIF (reduction in force). Yet, the new director was seeking applicants to consider for her position, among others. So, there really was no reduction or restructuring taking place. That excuse for letting her go was simply a pretext to hide the racially-based motive to run her out. Fake performance issues and documentation of these fabricated performance deficiencies served to fulfill the intentional purge of Black workers from this new director’s department.
It just goes to show how the hiring of one person, who is racist, can change the dynamics in an office and the direction of someone’s career. Even more, the hiring of one racist can have a huge impact on a Black worker’s future at their current place of employment. It’s horrible to be targeted for racial motives. It’s even worse to be fired, laid-off or forced to resign because of racism.
It’s a shame that some supervisors and other members of authority get away with targeting Black workers from their very first day of employment. Do you realize how racist you have to be in order to be unable to control your racist impulses during your first days and weeks of employment? If you don't even want to pretend not to be racist, you really do have it bad. Psychotic bad!
Thankfully, some Blacks report these individuals to agencies, such as the EEOC, in order to vindicate their rights and to hold employers responsible for letting racist supervisors and others with authority violate the law.
There is still a lot of fighting to be done in this struggle to end racially-based abuses.
Source: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/race-color.html#N_141_
Labels: discrimination, employment action, false allegations, legal decisions, supervisor, termination
posted by S. Mary Wills at 1:31 PM
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