Discrimination

[Rubystars]

I've worked at a large company for two years now, and my reviews have been excellent. I've gotten many praises from management on my performance. I'm always friendly with the managers and I do provide good customer service.

I let the managers know I was interested in a promotion and I was encouraged to learn more skills for the job I was going for, which would be a supervisor over the cashiers. I'm a cashier now. A couple of months
ago though they seemed to be shutting me off from training except for
one direct supervisor who is trying to help me despite them.

There's another woman that works with me and that I helped to train as a cashier. I taught her a lot of what she knows about working there. A few months ago they suddenly began training her for the job I was supposed to have at a much quicker rate than I had been trained. I told them I didn't think it was right that they would put her training ahead of mine when I had been there so much longer. I was told at the time that she would not be promoted, and that they were still interested in me as being in that position. They just said that since I was working more in the mornings and she was working more at night, they just wanted to show her some things so they could have more help at night.

I'm an hourly employee so I told them that they could schedule me for
any time they needed help because I wanted to learn those things too.

Now, don't get me wrong, she's a nice person and she's even helped to
teach me some of the things that the management had decided not to
show me when I asked her to. I don't have anything against her. I just
didn't understand why this other person was suddenly pushed ahead of
me when she hadn't been there for nearly as long.

She does show up late to work often, (We're allowed to be 9 minutes
late before we get into trouble, and she likes to milk that), and
likes to take extra bathroom breaks so she can go talk on her cell
phone in the bathroom. I'm always there to work a little early and I
work when it's time to work.

The friendly supervisor told me that the word through the grapevine is that this other woman is going to get the promotion. The company is supposed to post these jobs publically and interview for them. So if they promote her without posting the open position, then they'll be breaking the company policy, but it looks like that's what they're trying to do. I don't know for sure yet but I'm upset about it.

I was at a total loss as to why they were training and pushing her toward a promotion and not me.

I read online that the company is committed to "diversity". They
apparently have to meet certain quotas for minorities in management
positions. I'm really upset. I wasn't even alive when all that
apartheid crap was going on and now I'm not being promoted because I'm
the wrong color. :( I'm not 'diverse' enough.

I'm not saying I'm perfect but if my reviews are any indicator then
I'm doing a good job, and I've been there for two years! This other
woman hasn't been there half as long!

This is really painful and I don't think there's anything I can do about it. I can't go to the EEOC because they'll laugh in my face. There are already two white supervisors, one black one, and one Hispanic one. Maybe they're thinking that if they promoted me, the team would be 'unbalanced' and not 'diverse' enough. I read something about that if my company's managers don't maintain diversity that they can lose up to 15% of their bonuses.

I want to ask them if this is why but I'm afraid that it's a taboo subject and maybe they wouldn't be allowed to tell me.

[AFPheonix]

And you're darned sure it's a race thing? Not possibly anything else?

[Rubystars]

I didn't want to believe it was. I asked if there were any perfomance issues and I was told there weren't any. They've yet to give me a good explanation for it.

It's frustrating because the first story I was told was that they just needed more help at night and I worked more in the mornings and she had more night shifts. Even though she generally only came in a few hours later than me and there's a big overlap in shifts.

I told them if they needed help at night they could schedule me then.

That didn't happen.

Later on I told a manager I was still interested in training for the job and he told me he was going to look into why she was placed first before me. I told him to let me know if he found out why. The only other thing I ever heard about it was that he was going to try to get all the cashiers trained.

I never was told why and I'm afraid to ask if it's race, although I can't understand what else it could be.

I don't want to be one of those people who assumes it's race when it's really not, but I've ruled out performance, appearance, and other things. She's about the same weight range I am, etc. I can't figure out how I got these good reviews and have been there for two years and I train her to be a cashier and she shows up late for work on a regular basis and takes extra bathroom breaks to chat on her cell phone, yet she's pushed ahead of me.

[Boozy]

Maybe she's sleeping with somebody... :p

[Rapscallion]

Poor bastard...

Rapscallion... what? what?

[Rubystars]

I don't think you'd like it much if someone you trained got pushed ahead of you Raps.

[Rapscallion]

Depends. At a normal company, sure - if they got there and didn't deserve it that would be bad.

At my place? We have a flat hierarchy. I worked out how to pick in the fridge properly shortly after arriving. I trained people to do it properly and became the first chilled pick coordinator. I've trained many people to do that same job, and I've worked as an ordinary picker in the fridge whilst they did that job. Yes, sometimes they have had to come to me for advice, but I made sure they knew the job.

Why? First, the work could not be done without people able to do it, and they took some of the work off my shoulders. Second - pride in my work means I train people to do it right, and others know that I've been involved in getting the job done right. I get respect from that. Third, it allows me to spread myself into more departments, thus meaning that I don't go fridge crazy. That place used to go to crap when I wasn't there for a few days. Now it can stand alone and my work has not been wasted.

Granted, mine is not a normal company in that there is no real 'ahead' for people to go. One day they'll be coordinating me, the other I will be coordinating them.

Normal working places are for wierdos :p

Rapscallion

[SongsOfDragons]

Diversity shmercity. you can't possibly represent the interests of *everyone* unless you've got *everyone* on the team...and that's what, every colour, nationality, religion, coffee preference, sleeping hours...impossible, so why bother?

At least that's my opinion with it. Damn shame when diversity is a higher priority than actually making the company work better...

[Rubystars]

Well Raps my main problem was that I have the seniority and I feel I do a better job than her, even though she is also a good employee. It was like a slap in the face for me to train someone to do well and then have all signs pointing to the management placing her over me as a supervisor.

Someone I trained and someone who came after me shouldn't be put over me unless my performance was a problem. They clearly said it wasn't.

That's why I got so frustrated with the whole thing to begin with and I asked about my performance, etc. There was never any reason given to me why she was pushed ahead of me, even though I did ask nicely more than once about why I wasn't being trained at least at the same rate. It's like they couldn't tell me why. It's like they weren't allowed to.

Thankfully I found out some good news today. Two of the supervisors went to the manager over the front end and told him that I deserved it. I didn't even know that one of them wanted me to be one. I didn't ask them to do this, they just knew what was going on wasn't right and they advocated for me. I knew one of them was on my side but not the other. I think that's awesome :)

They told the manager about my performance vs. hers, etc. and my seniority.

A (white) supervisor just moved into a different job in the store, so that opens up a slot for me to come into her job without shifting the diversity balance. She's also taking the job of a white person who's moving away (the company is really blatant about it, I wasn't just grasping at straws). Now that a "white slot" is open, then it's ok for them to promote me. If it won't hurt 'diversity' then they don't have a problem with promoting me, but a few months ago I could see how they would have been looking at her since there were already two white supervisors and two minority ones, they didn't want to get into trouble for making the diversity any less than it was.

Do they have anything like the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) in Britain? I've always been against affirmative action but it's never affected me personally before.

This has been a really painful few months. Hopefully it will have a good resolution now. The manager hinted at me today that I was going to get the job. I told him that I needed more practice at the service desk and he said pretty soon I'll be getting more practice than I want. :) The supervisors also told me that they heard that I was going to get it. I just am trying not to get my hopes up too high until I hear it officially.

I really need the money and the management experience to put on my resume.

After I get in I'll do what I can to help the other lady be a good candidate for it since she was helping me some of the time too.

[Rubystars]

Diversity shmercity. you can't possibly represent the interests of *everyone* unless you've got *everyone* on the team...and that's what, every colour, nationality, religion, coffee preference, sleeping hours...impossible, so why bother?

At least that's my opinion with it. Damn shame when diversity is a higher priority than actually making the company work better...

They're using one form of racism to justify another. Just because some mean white people denied blacks and others jobs and promotions based on race decades ago, now white people who were born after that who had nothing to do with it have to suffer for it. That's not right or fair.

Two wrongs do not make a right!

Everyone should be held to the same high standards. If you're good at what you do, you don't need to cheat!

[Rapscallion]

We do have a race-relations board and the like over here. They do the usual things - fine companies when it can be proven that they acted with racial motivations etc - though the hideous term of "institutional racism" has crept in with every guilty white liberal racing to use it next.

Affirmitive action is up to companies to come up with in the UK. The law over here states that you cannot deny someone employment due to their skin colour, but there is no mandate that I am aware of to say that a certain percentage of your workforce must be of any grouping. Of course, if a company is under the spotlight during a case, the ethnic ratio of employees would be a significant piece of evidence in any court case.

Rapscallion

[Rubystars]

Thanks for the info.

Companies are really bad about pushing 'diversity' here over qualifications. In the end, having a lesser qualified person in a job only hurts everyone involved, because they won't do the job as well if they just got it because they were the highest qualified black person rather than the highest qualified person period.

[Primer]

Rubystars, in Houston, whites ARE a minority! In Texas in general, in just a few short years whites will be a minority in the whole state. (I had to write a short paper about this for a grad class a few years ago.)

If they are going to try to enforce "affirmative action" and hire/promote "minorities" then they need to do their research and crunch the numbers.

White males actually are a minority in the US already, but are probably the group most discriminated against today.

As a white female, I have experienced this type of discrimination myself. I ended up training the "minority" woman who was hired instead of me for a certain position.

[Rubystars]

Thanks for showing the board here I'm not making it up, and I wish that hadn't happened to you but I'm glad that someone else here understands.

I fought hard enough to where I was going to be the one in the job, until her friends got together and went and complained to the manager and slandered me saying I said stuff that I never said and the boss, who is new to being boss over the front end, believed them.

I wrote him a letter and gave a copy to the store manager explaining that him believing the slander against me was disrespectful to me on a personal level and that when the truth comes out I request an apology.

At any rate the black girl got the promotion through her friends slandering me. I never expected her to play dirty like that and I was seriously sad and angry. I'm trying to move on from it now. Some people think she won't last long.

[Boozy]

White males actually are a minority in the US already, but are probably the group most discriminated against today.


Typo? You mean "aren't" the group most discriminated against today?

[rahmota]

Boozy: It depends a lot on the circumstances in many ways a white guy is discriminated against in America. Especially when going for a job that affirmative action is considered in. I know becaue I've not gotten a job or two in my life because of that.

Also if a white guy says somethign stupid like what Ius said recently there is an outcry to have his tongue stapled to the shuttle and launch him into orbit But if a black guy calls other black women hos or another black guy a nigga' (Notice with an a not an er) then its a cultural thing. (Either way it sounds incredibly stupid)


I'll just say tha like whats been said earlier a person should be considered for a job because they can do the job ot because of their grouping they fall into.

[Boozy]

I was genuinely asking for clarification on Primer's point, as opposed to making a point myself. The wording of the sentence seemed unusual, and I wasn't clear on what she was saying.
Just thought I should clarify that myself, because otherwise my "typo" response could sound sarcastic! :)

[rahmota]

Yes it could I will agree. My apologies but that was the way I took it. My apologies.

[Rubystars]

I'm really glad that so many people seem to understand. Anyway, I have been feeling better little by little, but it's still emotionally really hard on me. I'm still working on the forgiveness and anger part.

I'm just going to continue being me there and work toward a better future in other ways and hope the job comes back up again soon.

[iradney]

In South Africa, the government has been applying Affirmative Action for the past 13 years. The result? The rich black (I refuse to say African. I'm African too dangnabbit!) minority has gotten richer, and the poor black majority has gotten poorer. They didn't think to first educate everyone so that they can apply for the positions that allow them to earn more money and improve their quality of life!
And of course, sometimes an unqualified person is hired in a management position and completly FUBARs everything. Which results in them having a mad scrabble to hire someone that IS qualified to fix the mess. *sigh*

[MadMike]

I think the same thing happened at my job, years ago. They hired a black woman into a non-entry level position, and they had her working on training programs. If she was qualified for the job, why did they have her working on training programs?

The only reason I even found this out was because she was having trouble with the programs, and when I looked at what she had done so far, it was obvious that she had no clue what she was doing. There were some really stupid coding errors in it, and she had no idea what to even look for in fixing the problems. She ended up qutting at some point.

I agree with the others who say that this is just another form of discrimination, and it's just as wrong to discriminate against someone who is white as it was to discriminate against someone who is black.

Unfortunately, it happens. Minorities are sometimes given preferential treatment, and if white people were given the same treatment. Can you imagine what would happen if someone tried to start a United Caucasian College Fund, or a White Entertainment Television network? People would be screaming bloody murder over it.