Racism in the work place?

[DaniArizona]

A girl at work has made multiple racist remarks and has been complained on multiple times for it and no action has been taken. Today I asked a question to coworkers in Florida involving the hurricane (due to the fact that my boyfriend's phone is broken and his family in Florida have no way of getting ahold of him) in a group chat. I simply said I was asking the people who were actually there... come to find out tomorrow I will be getting called into HR for that comment... why is her blatant racism ok and defended but my slightly off comment is being punished?

[mustlovedogs]

What was your comment that was the issue?

[happyfrank]

Seems like information is missing. HR doesn't get upset regarding asking for information.

[Snny]

You need to keep documentation of those kind of comments. Anytime it happens, you document it. Date, time, place of where it was said, and if there were any witnesses who might of heard the comments. Then you take it up to your supervisor and show them the documentation. If your supervisor refuses to take action, go their next supervisor (HR). You can file lawsuit if employers do nothing about it.

 

Bringing it up now is not going to support your case because it will look like a smokescreen attack. "Oh, what I said wasn't so bad! Why aren't you going after the other person?!" You had an opportunity to say something when it first started. Saying it now AFTER you got in trouble... nope. Start logging things and keep your mouth shut around co-workers. In general, you should always avoid socializing at work. People take things out of context and can turn it against you. You only talk about work-related stuff. Save any personal conversations -- with trusted people only -- at the end of your shift.

 

I had to deal with this last year at my workplace of someone making inappropriate, racial comments toward me and someone else. Person who made multiple comments ended up facing job suspension because I had a two page log and witnesses who confirmed the things that were said. It is taken very seriously.

[abitbroken]

This is not a titfor tat. Just because you said something you should not have or used company resources to group chat people and you were reprimanded does not mean that the person actually made a racist comment. You have two different and very separate issues here.

[Batya33]

If you're not allowed to use work resources for personal reasons they'll probably want to talk to you about that. Maybe they're worried about too many people using it to chat about non work related matters. Probably not a big deal unless what you wrote was also inappropriate in some way. At my workplace we're not allowed to use the internet for personal reasons. Your workplace is entitled to have rules about its property and internet. The racists comments are completely separate and I'm sorry that happened to you.