Work Relationships
 

Being self employed most of my life and also being the boss I have had little experience as an employee with peers. It has been almost a year working in the same department with the same 5 people.

The other day one of these people told me I was racist. I was insulted and it hurt my feelings. This person and I have been on very friendly terms never a cross word.

Background: 2 days before as a reward for no reportable OSHA incidents the company draws 6 names for a $250 bonus, from a bucket out of all shifts. My name was drawn. The day before that this person and I had a lovely conversation about how we both grew up and we have always [seemed to me] been on the same page as far as work etc.

This comment to me came about as I was trying to figure out why this person was not supervising the person they were training. I know they do not enjoy training new people and they mostly ignore them. This person and the person they were training are both black and at this time we were packing candy. It does get warm in the area but under no circumstance are we to have any fan pointing in the direction of the candy. New person is not going to know this and since no one else made the effort to explain to them I did and I also said maybe our supervisor could answer any questions they have.

Not 15 minutes later the fan was on again. This time it was in the path of the forklift traffic. So I made the comment to the person training that their trainee sure seems to like the fan. The words that came out of their mouth and I quote" You are really racist". I was taken aback and said what are you taking about. No response.

My job that day was relief so I was making sure no one on the line got behind and it is also my job to make sure the line runs smoothly plus I do the other person's job when they are on break.

I have to say I dunno what to do about this and is doing nothing the correct response? I am not racist. No one has ever said that to me in my entire life.

I presume cunt punting is out of the question?

Either they're the type of person who manufactures offense out of thin air, in which case bringing it up again won't be helpful to you, or they are a normal person who was just having a bad day, misunderstood you, etc., in which case they already know they were wrong and bringing it up would only embarrass them.

If you think this person might develop a grudge or be vindictive, it might be a good idea to have a private and quiet conversation with someone in HR, just to let them know what happened. That way, if something does come up in the future, you will already have your side of the story heard by those who need to hear it.

What CF said. In spades.

:bolt:

Racist.

Thank you CF I was thinking along those same lines. What I want to know, is a conversation with HR ever quiet and private? I don't want to call someone on the carpet but I feel very much like cma.

I had an incident 2 months prior with another gal who is part time and resents it greatly they have not hired her for full time and she is the kind that imagines slights and she told a supervisor while we were packing candy opposite each other that I would not let her touch me. WTF? The line is fast paced so each side grabs bags to pack, Some go for the same bag and end in a tug of war, my packing style is to wait til the other has a bag in hand and then I will grab for one. She has made the same type of complaints against other people and no one even talked to me about it except the supervisor who told me the former info and not to worry about her.

I have finally developed a better relationship with my supervisor [background: she realized another team member was really a shit stirrer and the stuff happening to her had to do with her not me] she now understands she can delegate to me because I am there to help her. She is like me, a toucher and a hugger She is black. I would so hate to go back in time because this other person might poison her mind.

Working is so much drama :thepain:

Mention it without identifying who said it. Stress you are bringing it up off the record - that it is probably nothing but you want her aware just in case.

Good idea I just wish I could get this idea out of my head " HR's role is to protect the institution from liability rather than to support the target", as though these two interests are mutually exclusive.:rolleyes:

If someone calls me racist they had better be prepared for a fucking shitstorm. Right down their throat. Immediately. No supervisors, just me, and them, and words and spittle that they will understand.

HR's unofficial organisational role - true. But HR is made up of individual people - and most individual people want to do a decent job - and every HR person will have been told that a key part of their job is ensuring good working relations amongst staff. Protecting the institution from liability is important - but so is protecting the institution from the deleterious effects of bad people management and feuds - up to and including the loss of good workers.

Since the circumstance was that the trainee was improperly using the fan and the trainer was not correcting it, the way you phrased your comment on the situation could have been taken as a sarcastic inference that the infraction was ignored because they're both black.

In the workplace, avoid saying that someone seems this; or, seems that. Stereotypes are seemingly. Say that someone did this; or, did that and there's a pattern (e.g. of using the fan a lot). This helps attribute all parties behaviors to individual discretion rather than shared backgrounds.

That said, next time cunt punt her by retorting: "That's religious discrimination!" When she asks you to explain, demand that she explain her remark and work it out. Until then, let it go. If there's a subsequent problem with the same person, take it to your supervisor. Doing an end run around your black supervisor by going to HR after a single untoward remark only reinforces your cow-orkers allegation of racism when the odds are that she just didn't want the inferred criticism and knows you well enough to say what will rock you back. That you won a bonus and she didn't is a red herring.
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Just kidding, I made it all up. She's obviously incensed because the money went to whitey!

(COVER THEIR ASS)

(COVER THE COMPANY'S ASS)

Thanks Sexobon I do think most of the problem is the part time gal who is trying to cause IMO racial divisiveness within the entire shift by claiming others are racist when her own job performance is questioned.

Watching how I phrase things is good advice.

UT cow orker is male and bigger than me ;)

Is there any way they could have been trying to joke with you and you just didn't realize because you were caught up in the responsibility of your job?

No Monster this was an angry response.

Free play. You can do whatever you like.

So weird. Yes, I'd think mention it to HR somehow if you're comfortable doing so.

I'm a little behind on American racist themes (like the watermelon thing Ionly learned after a couple of years here), but I'm assuming fans isn't a known racist topic :/

I think you have the liability thing backwards. An employee who shouts racism at the drop of a hat is just as likely to sue the company for made-up slights as well. There's no actual evidence of wrongdoing on your part, so you're not a liability, she is.

You didn't know that fans can be used to peel watermelons?

Yep, Classic's got it. As someone who actually works for companies with HR departments I can say that this is it, in a nutshell. Sure, HR sounds all humany and resourcy. But don't be fooled.

Anyway, I would say to him "Hey, what is your favorite kind of candy to package, because you look to me like you prefer packing fudge."

That should totally take his mind off the whole racist thing.

Christ you are funny as hell. Thanks for the mood lift.

Lots of good points made here Nirvana. I especially agree with the position that the primary role of HR is to manage the resources of the company that are of the human type. Any benefit to the individual is a coincidence.

As for the comment by a coworker... that sounds hurtful. Sorry to hear that. But work history not withstanding, I'm sure you've had the experience of people saying shit about you that was untrue, irrelevant, slanderous, or otherwise fucked up. Having it happen in the workplace is much the same, only you can add unprofessional to that list. The ways you've dealt with that bullshit outside the workplace would work inside the workplace too.

It's the same people after all, but just in a different context.

[Devil's Advocate] A lot of people black people, for obvious reasons, have been on edge the last couple months.
You and the company may be clear on the duties of "relief", but the trainee never heard of it. You said yourself she wasn't being trained well. So to the trainee you're not her trainer or boss, just some pushy white girl ragging on her.

She's smart enough to know that as a trainee she better go along to get along for now. But she does comment to her sister/trainer she thinks you've singled her out to pick on. Trainer feels trainee has done an acceptable job, by her standards(maybe why she's still part-time), finds it expedient to explain your actions as racist.

That satisfies the trainee, and bolsters the trainer's earlier impression. That thought was on her mind and slipped off the tongue when you spoke to her. [/Devil's...]

Keep in mind I am not black, female, employed, or especially bright. :blush:

I still don't see how commenting about fans can be seen as racist. Is there some theme there I'm not familiar with?

Anyway, I probably would have asked the coworker straight up why they'd think that. I'm usually a get to the bottom of it quick sort of person though. Nip it in the bud and all that.

It's not about the fan specifically, it's that it was a slightly snide comment in general. The snideness was meant both for the trainee who disobeyed the rules immediately after being corrected, as well as for the trainer who was failing to keep the trainee in line. But the trainer apparently believes there would be no disapproval of this same behavior if they were white.

Oh right, so what she said wasn't racist. Just that she said anything.

Fuck that shit. If it's her job then it's her job. Report it. Move on.

I can't tell you how many times I worked construction with black people complaining about the cold and claiming that because I was white, I was immune to it, whereas because they were black and ancestrally from the southern US or Africa, it affected them more severely.

Umm, OK.

Maybe Nirvana left out the part after "Your trainee sure seems to like the fan" where she then said, "I thought black people liked the heat."

I am human and really I feel bad for laughing at any of this stuff. :blush: love this place!! :biggrin:

That being said I think CF nailed the problem. While cow orker's comment to me was inappropriate After our interactions at work yesterday I think they realized it was and they were embarrassed and relieved that I did not hold their feet to the fire. If you work with someone for almost a year and they have never acted that way to you it's hard to understand. I really think the other gal was shit stirring and she is the one that is out of line.
Thanks for all the insight , brilliant as usual. :)

The next time she says something - anything - to you, tell her she's a racist in the same way she told you. That'll confuse her as much as it has you. :D

Just curious...

Why can't the fan blow on the candy? Is it freshly-made? Unpackaged bulk candy? Gourmet, never-been-fanned candy?

I want candy.

wow wow one hit wonder

She was only 13 when she joined that band and was 15 when they did that video.

Wow! fascinating story about her and the band and the connections and influences they had.

She's Burmese. (now Myanmar)

So...

Just how many felonies have I committed while watching that video?

Mmm...candeh.

Re: The Candy Fan...:notworthy








Also: I really am wondering why the fan can't blow on the candy, btw.:(

I'm guessing that the candy is still drying/sticky, and you wouldn't want any extra dust or other particles being blown onto the surface.

Sorry to be tardy WSS /\

Or maybe it's just too costly to change the ingredients label. :p:

Nah, as long as it's less than 2% of the whole, they don't legally have to include it on the ingredients list. That's why you often see "contains less than 2% of" on labels: they're letting you know what a good company they are by disclosing even the stuff they don't have to. Just another in a long line of bullshit food laws.

If they put it on the labels, they can spin it into a marketing strategy of their product having terrior (e.g. wine, coffee, chocolate ... etc.): :D

Oh no, that's a feature, Ma'am.