Keeping Copies of Timesheets Could Prove Elements of Your Case Against An Employer

If you are filing a grievance against your employer (and just as a general rule of thumb) you should always maintain copies of your timesheets. Even if you record your hours on an electronic timesheet, you should print your timesheets and place them in a file folder for safe keeping. If you have filed a grievance, you definitely want to keep a copy of your timesheets for the period of time covered in your complaint.

I’ve worked for an employer that falsified and manufactured timesheets to try to disprove a case against them that was being investigated by a state government agency. The reason this employer was unsuccessful in getting away with their submission of falsified documents was because the employee maintained a copy of all of her timesheets for that period and could show that new timesheets had suddenly “appeared” in her file (with completely different hours recorded). It would have been beyond her capacity to doctor an exact copy of the corporate timesheets, but much easier for her employers to do so. Keep this example in mind, when it comes to your own timesheets.

Keeping your timesheets will prove the amount of leave you used, if any, as a result of stress-related ailments due to harassment, discrimination or other illegal activities committed by your employer. You can use these timesheets to request a restoration of your sick leave used while you were being harassed and tormented at work. Timesheets will also show your general sick and vacation leave used, in case there is some later dispute about your attendance at work.

Keep in mind, when employers are being investigated or questioned, they want to show negative past behavior on your part. Leave is one area for employer’s to attack and is often one of the first targets they will hit. If you are being targeted at work, the torment is designed to cause you to lose your focus, make errors, force you to resign, and to cause any other side effects that will play into your employer's hands. Your employer wants to drive you to drinking and to the verge of a nervous breakdown, but will question your sick leave during these attacks. Your employer will also attack legitimate reasons for being out of the office.

In my case, on the first day of an attack by my supervisor, my supervisor falsely stated that everyone questioned my hours in and out of the office and everyone wondered where I was. She told me, “We want you to come to work.” And, she said it as if I had been out of the office on a routine basis. The only absences I had from the office were pre-approved and involved work-related travel (out of state) and client meetings that took place off site. Yet, my supervisor was declaring that no one knew where I was, what I was working on, and wondered when I got anything done—because I was supposedly chronically out the office.

I have a copy of all my timesheets to prove that this statement was an obvious and intentional lie. But, it didn’t change the fact that my employer gave it the good old fashioned college try in order to justify their unjustified attacks against me. That’s why I am passing this warning on to you. Don’t let your employer have the only copy of your timesheets. It could come back to haunt you.

Finally, you may want to maintain a copy of your previous year’s timesheets as added insurance against manipulation by your employer. If your employer feels the need to create long-term problems with your employment, they may go well into the past to show so-called performance/attendance issues on your part.

Remember, even your legitimate use of sick leave and vacation leave may come under attack from your employer. When requesting advance leave, make sure your time off is approved, forms are signed by the proper authority, coworkers are notified of your schedule, your assignments are covered during your time out of the office, and that you have a copy of your signed and approved leave form in your personal file.

Final thought: If you’re under attack at work, always get a note from your doctor, if you’re out sick.

Fighting Back Against False Allegations That You Have Communication Issues

Many people we work with are unable to separate their race-based perceptions from reality. As a result, when some people work with Blacks, they may be preconditioned to miscontrue things said or done by a Black worker based on their own racial prejudices and stereotyping. For instance, a person with racial biases may be interacting with a Black worker, who asks several questions about the procedures being used on a project.

The Black worker may be labeled as being difficult to work with, very negative, hostile or may be accused of not being a team player simply because this person has a preconceived notion that Blacks are argumentative and confrontational. Instead of taking the questions as legitimate business and task-related questions, the Black worker may be looked at as being insubordinate, rude or "talking back." This is how race-based prejudices and biases can feed into problems in the workplace.

In the workplace, many Blacks hear about these race-based prejudices and stereotypes with the accusation that they have "communication issues."

Allowing someone to falsely characterize you as being angry, defensive, hostile, pissed off, distant/aloof, unable to take constructive criticism, etc. is a major problem. You could end up constantly trying to erase the negative and false perceptions created about you by those who have labeled you as having a problem communicating with staff. Being labeled as having communication issues will affect your performance evaluations, salary increase, and can significantly decrease your chance to advance within the company. Anytime you are falsely accused of having communication issues, you have to give serious thought about how to respond.

Here are some things you can do:

TIP#1: When it comes to so-called communication issues, try not to let the conversation become about your personality. Let it be known, right up front, that if your personality is to be discussed and dissected, you would expect that the personality of everyone involved (in whatever issue was raised) be discussed and dissected—person by person.

Why? Because, once the conversation goes down the path of discussing a Black person’s personality, it will likely become an all consuming, one-sided affair where the Black person will be expected to accept and acknowledge any list of faults being offered up by White coworkers and managers. If everyone’s personality isn’t being discussed, your personality should not be discussed. Communication is a two-way street. No individual should be held accountable for a conversation taking a perverse turn for the worse.

TIP #2: Check your company’s personnel manual to see what the guidelines are for handling work-based issues and personality-based issues. For instance, I had a former employer that explicitly stated that supervisors should stay away from making personality-based assessments of employees. Find out if there is similar language in your company’s personnel guidelines. Make sure that so-called personality issues, particularly fraudulent personality issues, do not creep into your performance evaluations and are not held against you in some other way.

TIP #3: Be careful approaching a person regarding racial stereotyping and labeling. I can guarantee that conversation will likely go quickly downhill--no matter how delicately you address the issue. All the person will hear is that you are calling them a racist. Even if they are, you have to be careful with a conversation like this. But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have the conversation. However, before having any sort of conversation about such a sensitive issue, address the problem with your supervisor first to give them a heads up that this is an issue you have to deal with. Trust me, the person you speak to is probably going to run straight to your supervisor anyway. If it's a White woman, she may go to your supervisor crying and blubbering. All of that emotion will take the focus off of what has been happening and you will be in a defensive position about something other than what you intended to discuss. Before you speak to someone about race-based stereotyping, have as many examples as you can about how they are falsely labeling you based on racial perceptions and how they are making race-influenced assessments about your behavior, your speech, the motivation behind your actions, etc. If your supervisor says that you shouldn't discuss the issue with the person, you should contact Human Resources to try to get the matter resolved.

TIP #4: Document how this person has twisted your words and/or intentionally or untentionally misread the motivation of your actions. Document this person, if you know they have similar problems with other minorities. Find out everything you can about these other issues. Try to get statements from people, which will support your allegations that this person may have a problem working with Blacks and other so-called minorities. You can then address any issues with your supervisor. Remember, it’s important to show patterns of negative behavior from this individual. You have to prove that this person’s actions are negatively impacting your ability to do your job and/or your career (e.g., diminishing your promotion potential during performance review time, etc.)

Tip #5: Consider asking coworkers to shoot you an email regarding the quality of your work and your overall job performance/behavior. This should include comments about their working relationship with you. It's always a great weapon to have written statements that contradict someone's false claims about you.

Attack Your Employer's Credibility

One of the tactics you can use to defeat the lies and false accusations of an employer is to attack their credibility—the same as your employer will attack yours!

There are four basic components for looking into who is or isn’t credible: inherent plausibility, corroboration, motive to falsify, and past history. These are the same components that your employer will try to use to show that you—and not they—lack the credibility to be taken seriously.

Here are some of the questions you should ask yourself regarding the four basic components. These components are also helpful in shaping your overall arguments and positions regarding your complaint and any actions taken by your employer.

Inherent plausibility

--Are your employer’s arguments and positions believable at face value? Why or why not?

--Do their statements and evidence (real or fabricated) make sense? Why or why not?

--Are the actions of your employer justified/appropriate based on allegations or has your employer overreached or overreacted? Explain your position in detail.

--Do the actions of your employer adhere with written policies and procedures or are there violations? For instance, does written policy state/suggest that you should have first been placed on oral warning, but your employer jumped 3 phases and suspended you? Or, was your complaint automatically supposed to be internally investigated (based on your complaint), but your employer did not look into the facts/blatantly ignored your complaint? Provide specifics, provide copies of written policies and procedures, and explain how policies and procedures were violated.

When it comes to inherent plausibility, your goal is to shoot holes in every one of your employer’s arguments and positions. You should be thinking of cross examinations at a trial, when the defense is trying to shut down and destroy prosecution witnesses. Attack! Attack! Attack!

Motive to Falsify

--Does your employer have a reason to lie?

If so, show how your employer's cover story is simply designed as a pretext to hide their real motive--discrimination, harassment, etc. Use your employer's arguments against them to expose contradictions, violations of policy, etc. Use circumstantial or direct evidence to show the false case that was built by your employer.

--Do your employer's witnesses have a reason to lie?

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, ‘If you think they’re out to get you, they probably are?”

Well, I’m aware of a case of race-based retaliation, where an employer tried to cover up activities against a Black manager by essentially bribing the Black staff in her department to make statements against her or to pretend they did not know what was going on within the department.

Suddenly, there was a market review conducted of salaries within the department and all of these underpaid Black employees received increases. Additionally, Black employees that were willing to sign false statements against the manager were also given a separate salary increase. There was suddenly a performance award given out with a $1,000 bonus. Coincidentally, a Black person in the manager’s department won the award. The award was touted as being a new annual award, but the award was NEVER given out again!

In my case, my two main witnesses received harassing treatment and were calling me to tell me about sudden performance issues they were being alleged to have. They both felt that they were being told to shut up about what they witnessed and heard being said to me.

These are the things you should try to expose because they show people’s motive to lie on you. Some people do not need money to lie. They will lie simply to win favor with your employer and they will HOPE that lying provides them a benefit somewhere along the line. These types of people may feel lying just amounts to office politics and smartly playing the corporate game, so they will take down anyone that may present them with a problem and they will do whatever it takes to show they are a team player.

Some people have a motivation to lie in order to protect someone in the workplace that is highly valued, that they have a close relationship with, etc. You can help prove motivation by showing the links between staff, managers, important business deals, etc.

Corroboration

--Is there witness testimony?

--Is there physical evidence?

You need to create and maintain a list of witnesses that can back up your story of workplace events. If employees resign, that have witnessed your mistreatment, get their contact information or—at the very least—snoop around and find out what company they’ve gone to work for. You can always look them up later.

If possible, get your witnesses to write statements about what they’ve seen. Ask them to get the statements notarized. Someone close to you may be willing to do this! If you think someone would be hesitant to provide you a statement or even to write down what happened in an email, trap them. Yes, I hate to go there, but sometimes you have to trick people into telling the truth. Just see if you can get the person to engage in an email conversation with you about the incident. You can be like, “Can you believe she called me a ------ ?” And, keep the conversation going as long as possible to show that you were called an offensive name, as per this example, and that someone else heard the slur.

As far as physical evidence, document everything, save all hard copies of important and relevant paperwork (e.g., administrative forms, timesheets, etc.), forward important email, memos, etc. to your personal internet account, and if there has been physical violence—take pictures. If there has been physical violence, you should also call the police and make a report. You can also secretly tape record conversations and meetings. Even if it’s not admissible in court, you can use it to convince an investigator, lawyer, etc. to understand that your case is with merit and should be investigated.

Past Record

--Does your employer have a history of similar behavior and allegations?

You saw how they did Michael Jackson at his trial. Right or wrong, when there is an accusation, there is also an attempt to show a pattern of bad behavior. If you are under attack by your employer, you already know what I am talking about. In my case, one false allegation led to another and another. Before you knew it, my employer was trolling through my previous performance evaluations from years before and they were taking a sentence or two from the section about improving performance. They added this information to my current review and then wrote, in my latest review, that I was habitually and continually having these problems. This was a lie, but they were smart. They needed to make me a problem employee. They could only do that by pretending that I was consistently engaged in negative behavior. They twisted feedback on minor improvements that any employee could make and made them into a federal case that allegedly warranted me being targeted for HR attention.

This is what employers do, when they’ve committed to a course of action against an employee (e.g., setting a person up for termination, demotion, etc.).

You have to take the same tactic and show how your employer has a past history of engaging in mistreatment, misconduct, not investigating allegations of race-based abuses, or how they’ve previously engaged in discrimination, harassment, retaliation, etc. Ask questions and snoop around. One of your coworkers may have information you can use. Or, you may already know about how someone was dogged out by your employer, but you were uninvolved in the incident. Write down everything you know about that case and any others that are similar or show the same corporate dysfunctions you believe to be a problem in your case. Show the patterns!

Red Flag Words That Can Create Idea You've Had a Pattern of Bad Behavior or Performance

In order to figure out if you are being documented at work as a poor performer/under-achiever or as a behavior problem, one of the things you have to look at is whether or not you are being documented--in writing. It's bad enough to have false allegations made face-to-face, but it's another more troubling problem to have those lies put to paper. Written documentation of so-called poor performance or behavior issues can lead to written warnings, probation, suspension, demotions, and even termination.

If you believe you are being documented with a false pattern of problems, if you believe minor behavior problems are being exaggerated (regarding the length of the so-called problem and/or severity of the problem), and if you believe you are being set up for employment actions, you need to decide how you are going to respond. Any false allegations can come back to haunt you. For instance on performance evaluations.

One of my coworkers received a memo that attributed the typographical errors of other staff to her. It was known that she did not make these mistakes. However, she was told, in writing, that this lack of quality control was unacceptable and that she caused the company embarassment with the client, time, and money to correct the mistakes.

My coworker continued to be accused of making such errors because it helped show a pattern of negative behavior that was later used as part of the justification to place her on probation and threaten her with termination. She ended up receiving various performance deficiency memos that were nothing but a laundry list of false claims made out to look like substantial problems she'd been having for a lengthy period of time. She was also made to appear to not be showing any improvement on correcting the false behavior.

I wanted to list, as I've done in the past, a series of words or phrases that should make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Some of the red flag words and phrases include:

• “Consistently” or “often” or “frequently” or “repeatedly” or “chronically” or “habitually,” etc. - The point is that you have allegedly demonstrated a pattern of making the same mistake or exhibiting the same negative behavior, such as demonstrating a bad poor attitude, arriving to work late, missing deadlines, etc.

• “I’ve noticed…” – For the same reason as above.

• “Many people…” or “Some people…” or “A number of people…” or “Everyone” - The point is to show that there is corroboration for the accusation. It’s not just one person’s point of view that you have a problem--everyone or many people allegedly believe the same thing. People making this statement, generally won’t name names, they’ll just make a blanket statement about so-called mass perceptions about you.

• “I’ve talked to you in the past about…” - The point is not just to criticize you, but to show that you have shown no improvement in some negative behavior that was previously brought to your attention.

• “I’m concerned by…” or “I’m puzzled by…” or “I’m troubled by…” - The point is to show that there is something extremely off-putting or unprofessional about your behavior and that it likely represents a potentially major problem.

• “If you would have…” or “If you had only” or “I thought that you…” - The point is the “you” part of the sentence because the writer is stating that you are solely to blame for something going wrong.

These are just examples of some subtle ways that you can be documented for performance deficiencies at work. If the allegation isn’t true, this represents a potentially devastating problem; in terms of your ability to maintain a positive reputation and any impact the misrepresentations may have your performance evaluations, etc.

Receiving one criticism may not be a big deal, even though it could represent someone’s effort to document you. It’s the form that the criticism takes that makes a written complaint have the potential to be extremely damaging to your reputation. It’s one thing to be told that you have missed a deadline, but it’s another to be told that you “consistently” miss deadlines.

Please note: An insolated incidence of criticism usually has no right to appear in your performance evaluation, even if it did involve major issue. Normally, any atypical behavior is included in the notes/comments of a performance evaluation. Therefore, if an incident was isolated, your review should not be tainted to make it appear as if this was a recurring problem. It can be noted on your evaluation, but your review should be reflective of your consistent and normal work performance.

Always read your email or memos carefully. Look at the words that precede and follow criticisms! Understand when you are being documented and you can get on the offensive and, hopefully, derail the train that’s headed in your direction. Respond to the email with facts. Don’t attack the sender; simply clarify what you believe to be false about their criticism. But, don’t be defensive.

Black people have a fine line to tread between explaining something and being called defensive. Apparently, White people explain and Black people defend! So, briefly make your point, professionally, and move on!

Gathering Your Documentation: Incidents to Track

This is an important reminder about the types of information you should track, if you are the victim of racial discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation. This is based on a post from early 2007. I think it’s a great bit of information for any new readers and just something that we should all keep in mind.

Types of information to track

□ A copy of your company’s personnel manual or, at the very least, the applicable sections that are germane to your case. If you are saying that your company violated or ignored its own policies and procedures, having a copy of the actual written polices and procedures will go a long way in helping you to prove your point.

□ A copy of your company’s anti-harassment policy. If you have been harassed, you can use this to show how the company did not effectively adhere to nor implement their written policies on this behavior.

□ A copy of any official documentation that shows a change in your employment status. For instance, if you are forced to relocate to an undesirable location or to a department that is not a match for your job skills (which could be construed as a form of punishment) or if you are demoted, receive a pay cut or are stripped of your supervisory role, be sure to keep a copy of any official documentation, including the supporting documents used against you, for your records and for any complaint that you file against your company. Also keep a copy of your responses (written and verbal) to these employment actions.

□ A copy of your job description.

□ A copy of the job description for the next level of work higher than yours or for the job you wanted to be promoted to. For instance, if you are an Account Executive, you should try to get your hands on a job description for a Senior Account Executive. You can use this job description as a comparison tool by highlighting how you were already doing much or some of the work for the job in which you were denied a promotion.

□ A copy of your offer/hire letter. This will show the terms of employment that you were offered and what was agreed to prior to accepting a job with your employer. You can use this letter to show how your job morphed (immediately or over time) into a position that you did not agree to work in. For instance, I have spoken to African Americans who have complained that they were told they’d be doing one job (including supervising staff), yet when they began work, they were in a job that was somewhat or substantially different than the job they applied for and were promised by their new employer.

□ A copy of your timesheets for the period of time covered in your complaint. I have worked for an employer that falsified and manufactured timesheets to try to disprove a case against them that was being investigated by a state agency. The reason they were unsuccessful in getting away with this was that the complainant maintained a copy of all of her timesheets for that period and could show that new timesheets had suddenly “appeared” in her file (with completely different hours recorded and her signature scanned from another document). You may want to maintain a copy of your previous year’s timesheets as added insurance against manipulation by your employer.

□ A copy of your performance reviews. As I always say, your employers want to prove past bad acts on your part. To do this, they may scour your previous performance reviews for any information they can claim shows a pattern of repeat and negative performance or demonstrates that you have a bad attitude. Any comment, no matter how petty, can be twisted into a larger performance problem that you supposedly had. Fabrications can also be added to existing documents and they can be reprinted. Keep copies of your evaluations!

□ A copy of your official leave requests and any documentation that leave was denied, including the basis for denial. Your leave requests can demonstrate time taken due to stress-related ailments or for other medical reasons. Since employers may be likely to attack your time in and out of the office, because your use of leave is an easy target for those who have been abusing your rights, keep a copy of all of your leave requests.

□ A copy of instructions and procedures that relate to your case. If someone is accusing you of incorrectly performing your job or simply not knowing your job, copies of official instructions and procedures can help demonstrate your compliance with the requirements of your job.

□ Memos, emails, and other written correspondence that help prove your case. For instance, false accusations from managers, slanderous emails, being documented for problems caused by others, documentation that serves to show you in a pattern of negative behavior, being told one thing, but another action took place, racially or sexually offensive messages or comments, etc.

□ A copy of new additions to your personnel file. If you’re placed on probation or receive an oral or verbal warning, be sure to keep a copy of this documentation and include any response you prepare in defense of your work performance or character.

□ Promotion charts or announcements. If you are trying to demonstrate disparate treatment and discrimination in the workplace, having a copy of promotion charts or announcements will help illustrate who is receiving promotions at your company and who is being passed over. Many companies will email or post the list of promotions when announcing the good news to the rest of the workforce. Save the email or make a copy of the announcement. If the information is not included, write the grade/level, race, and previous title of each individual, if you have a way of identifying this information.

□ A copy of any “thank you” emails or cards sent to you by supervisors, managers, coworkers, and, more importantly, clients. These days, most people don’t take the time to say thank you. People prefer to complain. The great thing about thank you messages is that they often contain exact quotes about what you did well and, therefore, are not easily refuted by your employers. You should keep a record of any congratulatory messages because they will demonstrate that:

-- you were doing your job and doing it correctly;
-- you work well on a team;
-- you are seen as valuable by team leaders and managers;
-- you work to serve the best interest of your clients; and
-- you did some aspect of your job well enough for someone to take the time to applaud your efforts.

□ A copy of your company’s organizational chart. There may come a time when you need to show the hierarchy in your company as a way to demonstrate the reporting structure and the level of authorities that certain individuals have over supervisors, managers, and other staff.

□ A copy of any charts showing the demographics at your company. If you are attempting to prove racial bias, disparate treatment or discrimination, it would be helpful to have a chart that shows the statistical breakdown of employees. For instance, your company may disseminate a chart that shows each staff person, their grade level, their title, their hire date, etc. This chart can help prove how staff that began employment after you, and were serving in the same or a lower position, were promoted into positions of authority over you or were quickly promoted to the same level as you.

□ A copy of administrative forms that are relevant to your case. This is especially important for whistleblowers who are documenting the inappropriate and illegal behavior of their employers.

□ Voice mail messages. You should be able to discern when a voice message is important. If a voice mail is nasty and offensive, contains racial epithets, sexual innuendo or vulgarities, contradicts other information or correspondence, makes promises that weren’t followed through on, etc., you should keep a record of this voice mail message. Save the message on your work phone and write down, word-for-word, the content of the message (in case it is “accidentally” deleted). Include who the message is from and the date and time it was received. For the ultra-paranoid, tape record the message so you can prove the exact tone in which things were said and the exact content of the message. Play the voice mail message to get people, who can verify/testify that they heard the content of the message. This would not be hearsay because you didn't tell them about the message, they heard it themselves. If you listen to voicemail on the speaker setting, coworkers may overhear the content, especially if someone left a message that included screaming, name-calling, racial epithets and other egregious behavior. These people can confirm the offensive and hostile nature of what you've been forced to endure at the hands of a supervisor, coworker, etc.

Sabotage

The past two posts dealt with piling on or the phenomenon of getting jumped at work by all of your employer’s surrogates and agents. In addition to bombarding a targeted employee with attacks from coworkers, supervisors, and other members of authority, some employers will engage in acts of sabotage.

Usually, the sabotage will be connected to any false or exaggerated allegations already being made by a supervisor, manager, etc. For instance, a supervisor, who is falsely accusing a complaining employee of missing deadlines, may overwhelm the employee with assignments and may make a lot of changes to the work instructions in order to make it nearly impossible for the complaining employee to complete work in a timely fashion. Or, a supervisor, who is falsely accusing an employee of not being a team player, may ask the employee to do things which are unethical (knowing they will refuse) or may ask the employee to do the work of someone very junior to the targeted employee as a means of demeaning the targeted employee with menial work. Any refusal may be cast in the light of the targeted employee not supporting the team/coworkers.

Sometimes sabotage isn’t connected to preexisting false allegations, but only serves to create new problems for a complaining employee who has performed at an exemplary level. A supervisor or an employer may decide they need to create the justification to target this complaining employee. Since there is no history of problems for a high performer, problems must be created from scratch. Negative patterns of behavior must be established. Outright lies, committed to writing, are often joined with acts of sabotage. Every effort will often be made to make new allegations of problems appear to be historic in nature.

Dealing with sabotage isn’t easy because acts of sabotage may be part of a wider conspiracy. I worked with a manager, who was sabotaged and isolated by supervisors, managers, and directors working across our job site. The level of collusion against this manager was hard to believe, but was real enough. Agents of an employer will often do whatever is commanded.

So, to fight back against sabotage, you need to:

1) Stay on point with your work. Don’t give anyone ammunition to use against you;

2) DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. I can’t write this enough;

3) Maintain copies of all written instructions, so that if you are set up for failure, you can pull out the guidelines you were given to perform your work;

4) Get verbal instructions in writing. If someone asks you to do x, y, and z, drop that into an email to confirm these are the instructions. If you are not given clarification or changes to your understanding of the instructions (the email), then you have been given a green light to proceed with the work as you understand it;

5) Keep copies of all emails and memos, no matter how routine they seem. You never know when one line in an email or memo may be what you need to support a point you need to make later;

6) Keep logs and/or thorough notes regarding your assignments and meetings, so that you can recall the information at a later time (including who said what and when);

7) Keep logs and thorough notes about the coworkers, managers, etc. whom you believe are acting in concert against you;

8) Make sure you are not blamed for mistakes caused by other staff. It is not uncommon for a targeted employee to be blamed for the mistakes of others, such as typos in a document, items not getting to a client, etc.

9) Respond to false allegations about your work performance, attitude, etc.; and

10) Look out for the traps that may be set for you. If you know certain people are shady or out to get you, dissect every email and every word they say. Be on the lookout for signs you are being documented, such as a supervisor writing in an email the false allegation that you’ve “repeatedly” made some mistake or that numerous people have noticed something negative about your behavior.

Do not assume that the people you work with (even those you’ve grown to like) are above setting you up for failure via acts of sabotage. People are strange creatures. Most people look out for their best interest and not anyone else’s.

The More Things Change...

In the midst of dealing with my mom’s hospitalization, I also had to deal with starting a new job. Lo and behold, in the very first week, I was reminded that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s a cliché for a reason. It’s often true!

I went to training with 2 other new hires (Black and Hispanic). We have a White, male supervisor. It didn’t take three days of employment before he began spewing outright lies, repeatedly contradicted previous instructions and comments, and began to show that he is very manipulative. He did all of these things as he shot off one “joke” after another. In the midst of a corny joke was a lie or manipulation.

Now, I’m not saying he did these things because he’s White or male. Maybe the guy is just an a**hole. Maybe he’s bipolar. There could be a thousand maybe scenarios that could explain why he is behaving this way. All I know is…

He’s already being documented.

I have seen and heard enough from this person that there isn’t much he can say or do that I won’t commit to writing. The hairs have risen on the back of my neck. And, I have begun to maintain tracking sheets.

I am documenting the instructions and then the lies or manipulations about those instructions. I am documenting how he has manipulated reality in order to make a spontaneously false accusation. For instance, saying that the 3 new hires had “a whole week” to do something, when in fact we only had been working on the assignment for 3 days. At the time he made the “whole week” comment, it was the morning of the third day. So, it was not even 3 full days.

This is the type of stuff that makes me and should make you very cautious of this type of individual. When someone is willing to blatantly lie and they can do it with a straight face, you have to be very careful with this person.

Is he a racist? I don’t know enough to know. He might just be a bad supervisor. But, that’s not the point. I’ve learned many lessons with previous employers. The two main lessons:

1) Trust your instincts, when you suspect that someone has the potential to take your work relationship off the rails; and

2) (and I’ve written this a thousand times) DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

I don’t plan on waiting for things to get much worse before I commit pen to paper to document the type of supervisor I am dealing with. I want to have enough documentation to show a pattern of behavior that started from the very beginning.

I’m working on a project that has strict goals and deadlines. This supervisor has been short staffed. Maybe he’s stressed out and is acting strangely because of that stress. I just met him, so I don’t know if that is or isn’t the case.

All I know is that I’m responsible for myself and my actions. I am not going to allow someone to lie to my face and not document it. I've learned that lesson.

Hopefully, nothing will ever have to be done with my documentation because this behavior will prove to be atypical of how this supervisor normally conducts himself.

But, if it doesn’t improve and if it gets worse, I will be able to state my case, prove the instructions I received, and defend my reputation.

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING from the very beginning. Write things down, while your memory is fresh.

Start and Maintain an Employment Action Log

As soon as you feel you are the victim of a tangible employment action (e.g., malicious suspension, malicious demotion, baseless denial of a promotion, forced transfer to a menial job or hard to reach location, a pay cut under false pretenses, etc.), you should create and maintain an employment action log. An employment action log can help you keep track of every negative employment action that your employer executes against you and can help show that your employer is suddenly focusing a lot of negative energy on you.

An employment action log should contain detailed information about:

--The date of the employment action;

--The specific kind of employment action taken (e.g., details about a suspension);

--Your employer’s stated reason for the employment action;

--The name of the person who informed you of the action and anyone in attendance at the meeting;

--Why the action is unjustified or how it violates company policy;

--Your official response, if any, to the employment action (e.g., a memo against the action); and

--The next steps you need to take to deal with the action (e.g., contacting HR, filing an internal complaint, etc.).

An employment action log can be helpful in proving harassment and retaliation by showing that employment actions taken against you were unjust and meant to negatively impact your position and career, to intentionally cause you emotional distress by creating a hostile and offensive work environment, were designed to set you up for future employment actions (including termination), and/or were a method of punishing you for complaining of mistreatment, misconduct, etc.

An employment action log can also demonstrate that your employer is violating its own written policies and procedures. For instance, if you are placed on probation based on false allegations, you can go to your company’s personnel manual to see how your employer is supposed to handle management or personnel issues.

If the personnel manual says that an employee should be given 1) an oral warning; 2) a written warning; and 3) be placed on probation, your employer would have to answer why they jumped to step #3 of their own process to implement the employment action of placing you on probation, with termination potentially warranted at the end of a specified number of days/months. They have to justify why your behavior was allegedly so egregious that they violated their own policies.

Remember to faithfully update your log as events happen, so that you are documenting incidences that are fresh in your mind.

"Talking Back" vs. Protecting Your Interests

In the workplace, silence can kill you. Suffering in silence, while someone is bullying you, harassing you, retaliating against you or discriminating against you is a form of active participation in your mistreatment. Silence signals your explicit agreement. By not complaining, you’ve spoken. You’ve said that everything is okay.

Only you can decide if you prefer to remain quiet, rather than speak out against abuse. Just keep in mind that silence won’t change anything. A person, who is capable of violating Federal statutes (read: breaking the laws) prohibiting discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace, is probably not going to wake up one morning and decide that they’re wrong and should cease this behavior.

In fact, it’s more likely that they will escalate their behavior. If they’ve been getting away with potentially illegal behavior and their target hasn’t spoken out, they will have the impression that they can get away with anything. If this person has authority over you, it’s not that hard to imagine your illegal mistreatment continuing or escalating. So, instead of “just” never putting you up for a promotion, this person may decide to accuse you of fake performance deficiencies, demote you, suspend you, place you on probation, etc.

There is a huge risk in remaining silent!

Part of the issue is that many Blacks are afraid to speak up at work. Part of that is connected to our history in this country. After emancipation, Blacks still had no rights. We could be lynched for being in the wrong area, looking at a White person the wrong way, not stepping aside, when a White person was walking by, etc. We began to train ourselves to be deferential to White people because we could pay with our lives, if we were deemed to have offended a White person (truly or falsely). As a result, there are many Blacks who are still intimidated by Whites and who are afraid to be perceived as being contrary or difficult because they may become a target.

On top of that, Blacks have many stereotypes related to our so-called negative attitude. For instance, we are supposed to be angry, defensive, hostile, rude, unprofessional/ghetto, loud, and to have large chips on our shoulders. We’re never supposed to be able to take constructive criticism because someone with a bad attitude is incapable of having any kind of reasonable discussion.

All of this feeds into a fear of being perceived as talking back to White folks, if the need arises to make a complaint or challenge/confront any issue at work. Many of us feel that if we say anything, we are going to be bombarded with many of the criticisms I just mentioned. If you “talk back,” you will be called defensive and/or hostile. If you “talk back,” you will be called angry and/or rude. If you “talk back,” then you just can’t take constructive criticism.

For many Blacks, it seems easier to remain silent…to just suck things up. But, despite consistent pressure on Blacks to remain silent (even from other Blacks who consider speaking out against abuse to be tantamount to “troublemaking”), we have a right to be heard!

Instead of thinking of speaking up as “talking back,” start thinking about it as protecting your interests. For instance:

--Not allowing someone to falsely accuse you of missing deadlines or making costly errors on an assignments protects your interests because it makes it hard or impossible for false claims to appear in your performance evaluation, can prevent you from being written up or placed on probation, can prevent your termination, etc.

--Documenting and reporting harassment, including a hostile work environment, can protect your interests by providing the evidence you may later need to prove that you have been subjected to potentially illegal mistreatment at work;

--Documenting your verbal and written communications about being passed over for a promotion, while less qualified staff were promoted protects your interests because the documentation shows that there is a potential issue with equitable evaluation of skills, education, and tenure and that you voiced your concerns to management; and

--Documenting solutions you’ve offered to stop abuse and/or to rectify harm caused by abuse protects your interests because it shows that you aren’t simply a “whiner” or “cry baby” and that you offered a way to resolve problems in-house.

Remember, you are your first line of defense. Don’t be afraid to voice your concerns about issues. You have a right to protect your interests. As long as you are expressing concerns in a professional manner and you are making complaints in good faith, there shouldn’t be an issue.

If You're a Target, Buy a Tape Recorder!

If you’ve become a target at work, it may be worthwhile to purchase a tiny tape recorder. This will allow you to record any activity, which you may need as evidence that you are being abused, threatened, harassed or retaliated against at work.

I don’t care if a tape recording isn’t always admissible in court. You can use the tape recording within your organization, to prove to higher-ups or HR that you are being subjected to abuse. You can also play the recording(s) for an attorney, during a consultation session.

Whenever possible, you should be sure to record any interactions with a person that is routinely making threats, using racial epithets, being verbally abusive, etc. You should also use the speaker setting on your office phone to play and record any nasty voicemail messages you receive from this individual or other staff. By doing so, you will have a record of harassing or discriminatory behavior being committed in the workplace.

Again, this may be the proof you need for an in-house meeting or an external investigation--if things get to that level.

Unwelcome Conduct

Sometimes we join a work environment or our work environment changes into one where people think it’s okay to make racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. remarks or jokes. In some workplaces, this is how employees get down. Staff simply don’t think twice about cracking jokes that would have them getting their a**es kicked, if they made these “jokes” anywhere outside the workplace.

The problem with being in an environment like this (or being subjected to a rogue employee who behaves this way) is that some of us aren’t comfortable confronting or challenging someone who is being offensive. Even worse than remaining silent, some of us will actually laugh along with the racist because we are shocked, afraid to speak up or don‘t want to be looked at as a so-called race-baiter. The issue may be that we don’t know what else to do except laugh along with the person or we want to fit in with certain staff or the person making the so-called joke has authority over us. Regardless of the reason, there are sometimes factors that causes some of us to play along with a racist environment or situation.

If you are dealing with a person, who has no idea of self-censorship nor an understanding of what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the workplace or if you work in a work environment that tolerates or encourages this behavior, you need to make sure that there is an understanding that you find the behavior to be offensive and unwelcome.

According to the EEOC, unwelcome conduct is conduct where the alleged victim did not solicit or incite the conduct and regarded it as undesirable or offensive. When the conduct involves mistreatment or is racially derogatory in nature, unwelcomeness usually is not an issue, even when the alleged harasser and victim are of the same race. Sometimes employers argue that the conduct in question was not unwelcome because it was playful banter, and the alleged victim was an active participant. The facts in such cases require careful scrutiny to determine whether the alleged victim was, in fact, a willing participant.

In the case of Vaughn v. Pool Offshore Co., 683 F.2d 922, 924-25 (5th Cir. 1982), the court stated:

[The] trial court did not err in finding for employer where plaintiff used racial slurs along with his co-employees, other employees were subjected to the same obnoxious treatment as plaintiff, his co-workers expressed amicable feelings towards him, and plaintiff testified at trial that he did not believe that pranks against him were racially motivated or that he was singled out for abusive treatment.

The EEOC language and this legal decision show that there is a clear danger in playing along with a racist, when it comes to unwelcome conduct. Even out of fear, you should not get into the habit of laughing at any unwelcome comments or jokes or presenting yourself in any way that would make you appear to be a participant in what you may later call unwelcome conduct and conduct that made you feel like you were subjected to a hostile and offensive work environment.

I have seen people engage in race-based “play” at work. It only takes one comment to go a little bit too far before this “play” spirals dangerously out of control and presents some serious conflict or a potential legal issue in the workplace.

You shouldn’t engage in this behavior at work because it is unprofessional, above all else. Secondarily, if you should happen to go too far with a comment, you could end up written up, suspended, fired, etc. Finally, you don’t want to end up appearing to be complicit in the creation of a racially-charged work environment.

Do not be a participant in race-based joking. If you find any behavior that is offensive or unwelcome, let the person know you are offended, do not want to hear a repeat of their comments, and then document everything in writing.

If the problem or environment continues, report it. Make sure to present your log of incidences and a list of any witnesses, who can confirm that “joking” in the workplace has crossed all lines of professionalism, is offensive, and unwelcome.

Source: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/race-color.html#N_123_

Document All Threats and Abuse

When a person is targeted at work, it is often a traumatic and stressful situation. The impact of being targeted isn’t simply felt because a person is sensitive or hypersensitive, but because a big part of being a target at work involves being on the receiving end of all manner of threats and abuses.

In the initial phases of being a target, many of us go through denial. We try to talk ourselves out of realizing the severity of our situation by downplaying what is going on. After all, denial is one of the easiest ways to ensure self-preservation. If there’s no problem, there’s no issue, right?

But, there’s usually a point of no return for many targets. This is the point where a target realizes that they may have their career permanently derailed, they may lose their reputation, they may lose their workplace friends and allies, and they might even lose their job. The point of no return signals either the fight or flight response in many people.

Fighting involves speaking up about the mistreatment (to a supervisor, HR, etc.), documenting the issues/incidents of abuse, filing for an internal/external investigation, etc.

Flight involves anything from remaining silent about potentially illegal abuse (that has stopped), continuing to be abused and suffering in silence, denying the reality of abuse by pretending nothing is wrong, allowing yourself to continually be denied a promotion without basis, leaving the job and not pursuing vindication for any abuses, etc.

Regardless of the response to abuse, one thing is certain. You must document all incidents and threats—from the beginning. You must document everything even if you don’t think you will ever file a complaint. You can’t possibly know what you may or may not do in the future because circumstances could dramatically change your viewpoint. In order to keep all of your options open, you must make sure that you will have everything you would need in the future, should you file an internal or external complaint with HR, EEOC or a lawyer.

It’s important that you document all types of abuse, such as incidents that serve to threaten your job security and to intimidate you, incidents of physical or verbal violence, etc. All of these would fall under the overall heading of harassment, which creates a hostile and offensive work environment. They could also be evidence of retaliation based on the fact that you complained of abuse, if that is the case.

Keep a list of incidences. It could look something like this:

Threats to my Job Security/Intimidation

11) On 2/1/08 at 4:20 pm, the director of HR stopped me in the hallway and said, “You’d better be careful. We are starting to get the feeling that you are playing the race-card because you intend to file a civil suit. We’re not just going to sit around and watch you set us up with your race-baiting. We will not tolerate that!” My coworker, Debbie, was standing nearby and heard what she said.

2) On 2/4/08 at 11:30 am, my supervisor told me, “You’d better watch your back. Some of us don’t think you like having your job. It doesn’t look like you want to work here anymore. We can make that happen.”

3) On 2/10/08 at 3:15 pm, the director of my department told me that the department was restructuring and that all staff would have to keep a log of our work for an entire month in order to justify our positions. But, when I asked around, I found out that no one else in my department or in my group was asked to keep a log. I have been singled out to justify my employment.

Physical and Verbal Abuse

1) On 2/2/08 at 9:41 am, my supervisor called me a “Black b*tch!” because I declined to analyze research data in a manner which violates research protocol and is unethical.

2) On 2/5/08 at 11:00 am, my supervisor bumped into me in the hallway. I didn’t think anything of it, but it has now happened 4 times today. She will go out of her way to bang into me and the contact is becoming harder each time she does it.

You get the picture. It’s critical that you keep a log of everything, no matter how small you think the incident is—at the time. You may need the dates and nature of these incidents at a later time. Don’t play yourself by not having what you need, when you need it.

Document everything. Log incidents by category, if that helps. Keep a list of witnesses. Record the time of the incident, as well.

Have You Been Stripped of Your Assignments?

If you’ve become a target at work and/or if you’ve complained of any sort of race-based mistreatment, you may notice that your employers have begun to “circle the wagons around you,” as higher-ups at my former place of employment used to joke.

Often, when a supervisor or a company, as a whole, want to rid themselves of a nuisance employee they will find legitimate means to accomplish the task. The legitimate reason must come across as not having any connection to race or retaliation (e.g., for complaining of mistreatment or inequities in the workplace). They need a pretext without racial overtones.

One of the best excuses, which would appear to be a legitimate issue, is for an employer to accuse a worker of not having enough work to support their position. This lack of work can be the justification for getting rid of the worker through outright firing of the worker, calling the action a “lay-off,” or calling the action a “reduction in force (RIF).” This action presents a good cover story to an external investigator or lawyer. It’s like, “No, we didn’t target her or retaliate against her. We just didn’t have anything for her to do!”

Yeah, right!

The other benefit of targeting an employee with a hostile environment, such as giving them menial tasks and stripping them of their work, is that the employee could feel completely defeated, find another job (or not), and resign. This, along with other factors, could qualify as constructive termination, where any reasonable person would feel the need to leave a job in which their mistreatment became unbearable.

I’ve had a coworker who was stripped of her work and I’ve been targeted in this fashion myself. In fact, after my sudden lack of work, I had a supervisor tell me she was scared for me because “you know how they do with lay-offs.”

Here are some tips for anyone who suddenly finds they have nothing to do and an employer breathing down their neck about their lack of work:

1) Document your sudden lack of work! Send your supervisor and the director of your department/unit regular emails documenting that you are looking for work. Yes, your employer could use the email to support their false contention that you had nothing to do and they were forced to get rid of you. But, for your sake, and for evidence to provide to an outside agency (e.g., EEOC, OHR, etc.) or a lawyer, you will need documentation that shows that you suddenly had a lack of work and that you notified your management about the issue.

2) Document your previous workload! Collect your timesheets, staff work schedules, etc. that will show that you had a steady work load prior to being targeted or filing a complaint. This will present evidence supporting your argument that after being targeted, you were punished/retaliated against by having your assignments taken away. Collect timesheets for the past couple of years, if you can. You want to show a long-term history of having work to do.

3)Document the work load of other staff! This includes documenting the work load of your supervisor’s other subordinates and documenting the work load of other staff throughout the company, who are in the same or similar jobs to the position you hold. Ask around. See if anyone else is out of work. If everyone else is working and you aren’t, it supports your case that you are being isolated and targeted for abuse.

4) Take extensive notes at departmental meetings! Many employees must attend weekly staff meetings. Work assignments are often discussed, everyone takes a turn talking about what they are doing, new or anticipated projects are described, etc. Take note of how much work is available in your department and contrast that with the fact that you are being told there’s nothing for you to work on. Take notes about what other staff say they are currently working on.

5) Request assignments at these weekly meetings to create a group of witnesses to substantiate your claims that you were actively seeking work! If you don’t have weekly meetings, ask your supervisor for work in the presence of other staff. Create a list of who was present, when you’ve requested work, and present this witness list as evidence.

6) Find your own work and document your efforts to do so! Contact managers/staff in other departments to see if they have assignments you can work on. If your supervisor, HR or anyone else with authority in the company takes you off these new assignments, you will have more evidence that there is an orchestrated effort to keep you from having work. Finding your own assignments also shows that your supervisor, etc. could have found you work…if they really wanted to do so!

If you are coming across a lot of people who have a full work load and can share work with you, that can be evidence of a wider campaign to isolate you and run you out of your job. This is especially true if these people are of the same level/classification as you.

If you are running across a network of managers claiming they don’t have any extra work in their departments, you may also be able to use this as an example of how you are being shut down on a company-wide level.

One of my coworkers could not get a single higher-up or manager at our company to respond to her requests for work because the word had been spread by HR and management that she wasn’t to receive any assistance from anywhere in the company. This lack of response was used as evidence against our employer, who was later found guilty of retaliating against her by the Office of Human Rights.

I will have more tips in tomorrow's post!

Some Final Things To Think About

Here are a few more things to think about, if you decide to make a race-based complaint at work. We’re up to #7:

7) Give serious consideration to your choice of words because your words can come back to haunt you. Any common expression in the English language can be manipulated into some other warped translation that can be used against you. If you know you are going to attend a meeting about a race-based issue, prepare a list of talking points as if you were preparing for a press conference and fielding questions from a skeptical media. Write down the issues you want to hit on and the specific points you want to make. Don’t leave this to chance…think about what you want to say and the best way to say it!

8) Think about being “Dr. Phil’ed.” If you’re making a race-based complaint, don’t be surprised if you’re treated like you’re on a shrink’s couch. Be prepared to hear critical analysis of your psyche and inner most thoughts as if the strangers you work with know you better than you know yourself. Be prepared to hear claims that “We know you’re very…” and “Everyone thinks you are…” that are not supported by any facts—just alleged perceptions. Speaking of perceptions, remember that perceptions ARE NOT reality—no matter how much everyone pretends they are! Reality is reality.

9) Think about how you will cope with possibly becoming a pariah at work. If you rock the boat, some of your coworkers—even other Black workers—may decide they want to toss you overboard. You may find your lunch buddies ignoring you. Everyone may be in a meeting or going to a meeting, when you approach their cubicle or office. Coworkers may take the stairs, instead of sharing the elevator with you. You get the picture. Make sure you have a strong network of friends outside of your job because your work friends may be fair-weather friends. You can email these outside of work friends from your Internet account. Keep in mind, your employer may be recording your computer keystrokes. If you call your outside friends, do it from your cell phone and not the office phone. Keep the calls quick and discreet--even if that means stepping outside for a few minutes.

Fight Supervisor and Employer Traps

Unfortunately, instead of providing a remedy to correct race-based misconduct (by firing or demoting the offender) some employers will escalate attacks against the victim of the harassment. If you’re being subjected to harassing behavior and a hostile work environment at work, beware of the traps that are often laid by supervisors and/or employers.

When a supervisor or a company decides to go into protection mode, they will sometimes try to create a rock-solid case against the complaining employee. The stronger the case against the employee—even a fraudulent case—the more secure the supervisor or employer will feel about deflecting any allegations that an employee or group of employees has engaged in illegal misconduct.

It’s a bait and switch. The employee goes from complaining about mistreatment to being lured into a position of defending themselves against baseless attacks, which often have nothing to do with the instigating incident. For instance, a Black employee may complain about a White manager using racial epithets and end up in a meeting defending allegations that they (the Black employee) has been habitually tardy to work—an accusation that was never made before they complained. Having been subjected to supervisor and employer traps, I can provide some tips:

1. Keep track of all the false allegations being made against you and guard against the attack by keeping all documentation that proves the allegations are false. For instance, to justify a malicious performance evaluation rating given to me (the lowest offered at our company) my former employer accused me of being unavailable to work on specific projects and they named those projects. They said that the task leaders never knew when I could work or what I was doing.

Unfortunately, for my employer, I had emails from the tasks leaders of those projects stating that our work was put on hold by government contracting officers or that the projects were canceled. The emails even stated that no one on the team should bill any hours to those projects because they were inactive. Therefore, how could I be unavailable for work that was nonexistent? An outside investigating agency now has the claim from my employer that I was not pulling my weight on these projects. But, this agency also has my written evidence that there was no work to be done because work had been suspended or permanently stopped.

Luckily, I saved those emails because those types of emails are important to keep and because my employer was already hinting that they were going to attack my time and work effort on a number of projects. My supervisor was suddenly fond of saying that EVERYONE was “watching my hours” and every “wonders what you do.” She telegraphed the company’s blows (attempted knock-out punches) and I was keeping all documentation related to where I knew the punches would come from.

2. Keep track of false allegations and show how your supervisor or employer is engaging in behavior that would lead you toward engaging in the negative behavior. For instance, a supervisor or employer will sometimes bog a targeted employee down with a lot of extra work. This is done to make it hard for the person to meet deadlines, to encourage mistakes, and to stress out the employee. If you find yourself in this type of trap, you should document all of your assignments prior to the point where you were a target and show how your assignments significantly increased after you became a victim of abuse. You could show how the workload wasn’t spread throughout your department—just to you.

Another example of this would be a supervisor or employer falsely criticizing an employee for not asking important questions, but leaving out the part about how they wouldn’t respond to the employee’s emails or voicemails and refused to have face-to-face meeting to discuss the assignment. In this example, the employee could show documentation of attempts at getting answers to questions that were rebuffed.

The point is...you want to show that your employer is not documenting performance problems; your employer is creating and manufacturing performance problems.

3. For a moment, pretend any false allegations are true. So, look at the personnel manual and see how your employer should be handling their false complaints and management of you on the issues. You want to play the devil’s advocate to see if you can trap your employer with their own written policies and procedures. This is a tactic that can help your case. For instance, your employer may lay a trap for you with the end goal of demoting you. But, your employer may move more quickly than is justified by their own policy. The policy might say that you should only receive an oral warning for a first violation—real or not. You can use this to back your employer into a corner by asking why they are jumping the gun and violating their own policy. And, you could question why they are alleging your behavior is so egregious it warrants ignoring their own written policy.

All of the answers to these questions will go towards building your case against your employer. It can also force your employer to back off or commit to more lies—if that is the direction they wish to take things. But, if they do, they are already in a bad position, if they’ve ignored their own policies and procedures. If so, they are showing evidence of harassing or retaliatory behavior (if you’ve already made complaints).

4. Make the employer prove the allegations/traps. If they want to lie about you, make them fully own the lies. Instead of falling into the trap, ask for historical documentation of your alleged performance deficiencies and bog your employer down with questions that they can only answer by removing their complaint about you or by lying and getting themselves into more legal hot water. For instance, if your employer lays traps about false performance deficiencies, you can ask:

a. When did you first notice this problem?
b. Why didn’t anyone bring the alleged problem to my attention before now?
c. Can I see your evidence of this problem?
(e.g., if you’re accused of making critical errors that you’ve never heard about, ask to see the work and have the errors pointed out to you.)
d. Why am I being written up, instead of offered guidance, mentoring or training?
e. Other questions related to specifics of your individual circumstances.

I know it’s easy to get frustrated by fraudulent performance allegations and traps. But, try to see through the frustration and look at these things as your employer helping you to prove a case against them. If they want to break the law and continue to harass you, create a hostile work environment for you and/or by retaliating against you for complaining, document everything and ask lots of questions. Get the answers in writing. An internal and/or external investigation or a lawyer will do the rest—depending on how you choose to pursue the issue.

Tips for Refuting False Written Statements

Before I write anything else, let me start by saying that sometimes an employee—of any race—deserves and needs to be written up for unprofessional conduct, missed deadlines, performance issues, chronic lateness or any number of other issues in the workplace.

But, having said that, let me tell you, I’ve seen my fair share of false and malicious workplace statements--especially false statements from coworkers. For instance, I’ve read statements written by members of management that were signed by the coworkers of a person being targeted for harassment or retaliation by an employer. The collusion being engaged in by management and the employees would always end up being far reaching—with all parties willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that the statements were true and were provided without any amount of pressure from the company.

Yet, behind the scenes, money often changed hands. I’m not talking about hundred dollar bills literally being passed from hand to hand under a conference room table. But, I am talking about special increases, unprecedented and unjustified bonuses, significant and unjustified yearly salary increases, awards, and promotions/title changes. You’d be surprised how many coworkers are willing to put themselves in the middle of illegal corporate misconduct in order to assist an employer in taking down an innocent employee. I guess that’s one way to show loyalty to the boss and one way to get your hands on money you haven’t earned through your work performance.

In addition to false statements by coworkers, I’ve also read false statements written by employers about an employee. In some cases the false statements were written about my Black coworkers and in other cases the false statements were written about me. I’ve noticed many similarities, when White employers decide to falsely target Black employees. Much of what is written about Black employees, when it comes to false documentation, falls into stereotyping the employee, character assassination and personality attacks, and an overreliance on blanket statements that have no supporting documentation or other evidence to back up the claims. For instance:

-- A Black employee may be labeled as a behavior problem that falls into stereotypes of African Americans (e.g., being angry, defensive or unprofessional);
-- A Black employee may be labeled as having communication issues (e.g. being rude, negative, argumentative, hypersensitive, etc.);
-- A Black employee may be labeled as insubordinate;
-- A Black employee may be labeled as being disliked by a number of people or many people in their office, department, team, at the company, etc.; and/or
-- A Black employee may be accused of problems they didn’t directly cause or of performance deficiencies that do not exist.

Like I said in the beginning of this post, sometimes people need to be written up and sometimes it’s just a load of bullsh*t! When it comes to race and racism in the workplace, many Black employees may find themselves falsely documented for any variety of reasons. Regardless of the reason for being documented by a supervisor, manager, coworker or the company—as a whole—I’d like to provide you with these tips. When it comes to reading and addressing a false written statements:

1. Always be as anal as you possibly can, when reading the statement. Analyze every word that is written. If you have been provided with a false statement, you should remember that great care has gone into preparing the document. Each word was chosen for a reason—on a conscious or subconscious level.

2. Analyze the wording in the documentation and attack, wherever you see an opening. For example, if someone writes that you “appeared” to be angry or you were “perceived” to be argumentative, demand clarification. How exactly did you appear to be angry? The perception of anger is subjective, could be seen differently on a cultural level, etc. Similarly, you should find out what made the person label you as argumentative. How did the individual define that? The person writing the documentation should specifically outline how you supposedly manifested your anger or what specific behavior demonstrated that you were being argumentative or difficult.

3. Always use direct quotes from the false statement in your response and follow the direct quotes with a hard-hitting response that shows the quote to be false. You want to attack the credibility of the person writing the statement. One of the best ways to do that is to attack their basic believability by showing their words can’t be trusted, that they are careless with their words and judgments, and that they will commit things to writing that can’t be substantiated in fact.

4. Do not allow blank statements to go without response! Ask for specifics about questionable or vague accusations—in writing. Make the individual commit to details. Always keep in mind that asking questions often forces people (even very educated people) to commit to telling even more lies. The more lies they tell, the harder it is to continue to keep the story straight. Therefore, it could become easier to refute their claims about you because they’ve strayed from their initial talking points and lies.

5. Provide written evidence that contradicts the false claims in the statement. For instance, if you’re accused of being disliked by coworkers, produce emails from coworkers thanking you for being pleasant to work with and a great team player. If you are being falsely blamed for problems on a project, even though you followed the instructions you were given, provide a copy of the instructions and show how you adhered to those procedures.

6. Point out anyone referenced in the statement, who has an axe to grind or is in some other way falsely accusing you of performance issues. Provide specifics that refute what this person is saying about you.

7. Prepare a response that refutes the false statement against you line-by-line. It is much more powerful to attack your attacker following their warped logic and lies. This also allows a third party to essentially hold the two pieces of documentation (the false statement and your response) side-by-by and to make a judgment on the credibility of the arguments.

8. If you haven’t already done so, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING from the moment you realize you’ve become a target. If someone is willing to put lies to paper and to place an employer at risk, by engaging in illegal behavior, they will likely not let up until they succeed at their goal (forcing you to resign, getting you fired or demoted, etc.) Once it’s been established that you are a target, start thinking of covering your butt and saving all the evidence you need to seek an internal or external remedy to your problems.

Leave and Workplace Harassment

If you are filing a grievance against your employer (and just as a general rule of thumb) you should always maintain copies of your timesheets. Even if you record your hours on an electronic timesheet, you should print your timesheets and place them in a file folder for safe keeping. If you have filed a grievance, you definitely want to keep a copy of your timesheets for the period of time covered in your complaint.

I’ve worked for an employer that falsified and manufactured timesheets to try to disprove a case against them that was being investigated by a state government agency. The reason this employer was unsuccessful in getting away with their submission of falsified documents was because the employee maintained a copy of all of her timesheets for that period and could show that new timesheets had suddenly “appeared” in her file (with completely different hours recorded). It would have been beyond her capacity to doctor an exact copy of the corporate timesheets, but much easier for her employers to do so. Keep this example in mind, when it comes to your own timesheets.

Keeping your timesheets will prove the amount of leave you used, if any, as a result of stress-related ailments due to harassment, discrimination or other illegal activities committed by your employer. You can use these timesheets to request a restoration of your sick leave used while you were being harassed and tormented at work. Timesheets will also show your general sick and vacation leave used, in case there is some later dispute about your attendance at work.

Keep in mind, when employers are being investigated or questioned, they want to show negative past behavior on your part. Leave is one area for employer’s to attack and is often one of the first targets they will hit. If you are being targeted at work, the torment is designed to cause you to lose your focus, make errors, force you to resign, and to cause any other side effects that will play into your employer's hands. Your employer wants to drive you to drinking and to the verge of a nervous breakdown, but will question your sick leave during these attacks. Your employer will also attack legitimate reasons for being out of the office.

In my case, on the first day of an attack by my supervisor, my supervisor falsely stated that everyone questioned my hours in and out of the office and everyone wondered where I was. She told me, “We want you to come to work.” And, she said it as if I had been out of the office on a routine basis. The only absences I had from the office were pre-approved and involved work-related travel (out of state) and client meetings that took place off site. Yet, my supervisor was declaring that no one knew where I was, what I was working on, and wondered when I got anything done—because I was supposedly chronically out the office.

I have a copy of all my timesheets to prove that this statement was an obvious and intentional lie. But, it didn’t change the fact that my employer gave it the good old fashioned college try in order to justify their unjustified attacks against me. That’s why I am passing this warning on to you. Don’t let your employer have the only copy of your timesheets. It could come back to haunt you.

Finally, you may want to maintain a copy of your previous year’s timesheets as added insurance against manipulation by your employer. If your employer feels the need to create long-term problems with your employment, they may go well into the past to show so-called performance/attendance issues on your part.

Remember, even your legitimate use of sick leave and vacation leave may come under attack from your employer. When requesting advance leave, make sure your time off is approved, forms are signed by the proper authority, coworkers are notified of your schedule, your assignments are covered during your time out of the office, and that you have a copy of your signed and approved leave form in your personal file.

Final thought: If you’re under attack at work, always get a note from your doctor, if you’re out sick.

Disparate Impact

Disparate impact occurs when members of a protected class are substantially underrepresented as a result of employment decisions that work to their disadvantage.

Even where an employer is not motivated by discriminatory intent, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits an employer from using a seemingly neutral employment practice that has an unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class. Practices that have the appearance of being fair may actually be discriminatory in form.

Employees would have to use statistical information to show a negative/disparate impact on a protected class (e.g., Blacks, women, the disabled, etc.). Of course, the employer would probably argue fuzzy math as a defense against the statistical evidence or the employer could cite a business necessity (mentioned in a previous post) for the practice.

If the employer says it has a business necessity that justifies a seemingly discriminatory practice, the employee could argue that there were alternative practices available that would not have disenfranchised the protected class of employees, but was not used by the employer.

Examples of practices that may be subject to a disparate impact challenge include written tests, height and weight requirements, educational requirements, and subjective procedures, such as interviews.

Source: http://www.hr-guide.com/data/G702.htm

Disparate Treatment

Disparate treatment occurs when members of a protected class are treated differently from similarly situated employees. The question examined is whether the employer's actions were motivated by discriminatory intent. Most employers won’t admit to treating an employee differently because of race, but it does occasionally happen. That rare case would be an example of direct evidence.

Most employees will have to use circumstantial evidence to show disparate treatment. To do so, an employee must point out how the actions of an employer infer racial discrimination in the workplace. The employer would then have to provide a reason, a non-discriminatory reason, for why they took the actions being disputed. Many employers will provide a reason that is nothing more than a pretext (something I’ve mentioned in previous posts) to hide their real motivation—discrimination. So, they will come up with a race-neutral reason to justify their actions.

An employee probably won’t be successful in proving disparate treatment, unless they prove that the reason provided by the employer is a pretext (a lie/cover story). Therefore, it’s important to document every meeting you participate in regarding your issue, to file away key pieces of evidence (e.g., memos and emails), and to maintain a list of witnesses, who can corroborate your position.

Employees must attack their employer’s stated and written positions/defense, line by line. Don’t leave out any relevant points or fail to point out any inconsistencies, no matter how minor the issue may seem. You must build a strong circumstantial case, if you don’t have direct evidence of disparate or unequal treatment at work.

FYI: An example of disparate treatment would be asking Black applicants to take and pass a special test, but Whites don't have to take this test at all.

Source: http://www.hr-guide.com/data/G701.htm

Resignation Letters: Resist the Urge for Melodrama!

Mary J. Blige sang it best, when she blurted out…No More Drama! So, try not to be highly emotional, when you’re writing your resignation letter! This is especially true for those of us that are forced to resign because of race-based misconduct at work.

Yes, you may be justified in being upset or angry, etc. However, those legitimate emotions can be twisted by your employer and can be used against you in the future. Remember, your official resignation is in writing. Therefore, it can come back to haunt you. So, choose your words carefully. Here are some tips:

--don’t forget to include the effective date of your resignation;

--give 2 weeks notice—unless there are extenuating circumstances;

--write professionally--stick with the facts;

--spell-check and grammar check your resignation letter;

--don’t use profanity;

--don’t make threats of physical violence;

--don’t make threats of legal action—let your employer be surprised;

--don’t attach any old or new evidence that will be used in your complaint;

--don’t make any new accusations—at this point, save all issues for your complaint;

-- explain why you are ending your employment. If you are resigning for cause, briefly state the cause (harassment, falsely accused of performance deficiencies or insubordination, retaliation, etc.);

--don’t write about what your employer should have done—although you can briefly state that your employer failed to prevent or correct misconduct, etc;

--don’t write a 100 page resignation letter—keep it as short as possible;

--CC: HR and the Director of your department/unit (assuming your resignation is sent to your immediate supervisor); and

--inquire about the date for your exit interview (and plan to be truthful at the meeting with HR).

Remember: If you are resigning due to race-based misconduct, don’t let fear cause you to write a resignation letter that sounds like a glowing thank you letter (e.g., I appreciate the opportunities provided to me by the company.) If you were forced to resign, you should not portray yourself as a happy camper on the way out the door. Your employer will gladly show your smiley face resignation letter to any investigator or jury and will state that it is proof that you weren’t subjected to an offensive or hostile work environment.

So, don’t play yourself worrying about burning bridges as you exit the company. If you were dealing with race-based issues, they won’t be hiring you back anyway! Focus on preserving the integrity of your complaint.