Am I being discriminated against?

[tetesgirl]

What is the name of your state? California

Hi,

I had an issue at work today. I work for a huge networking company. I have been working there for a year and I'm the top performer for my team. Last week I met up with my project manager for my one year anniversary and she told me my performace was stellar and she gave me a raise based on my performance. She said only top performers get raises and she gave me the maximum raise possible. She told me she was happy with my performance and she didn't have anything bad to say about me. She told me I was amazing, blah blah.

So then after we talked about that I told her I'm pregnant. I'm 3 months pregnant but it's starting to show so I gave her the heads up and she was cool about it. She said she would work with me about maternity leave etc.

Today, my supervisor opened a chat/meeting for my whole team and basically he said we were not doing good and that the other team that works with us located in another state was taking more escalations and cases than us. We take cases and escalations from a common chat we have, first level agents post their cases and me and the other escalation agents take their cases. Well, my supervisor told us we were not doing our job and how there were gonna be changes in the next 2 weeks and basically he told us we were all gonna loose our jobs because the other team in the other state was doing better than us.

I pay really close attention to my job and what I do and what my team does. So while I was working I took the time to go through the chat and scan every post and escalation. I counted how many my team (California) took and how many the other team (North Carolina) took. All my team members were upset about this and we were all talking about it. Since I'm really good at multitasking I was in charge of putting the data together. When I was done with the report it showed that California took 98 cases while North Carolina only took 69. So I talked to my team and we decided to send an email asking for an explanation and an apology from management. I'm the only person in my team who voices my opinion, people always come to me when they have an issue. My supervisor asked me several times to talk to my team and ask them to give feedback. I have chats and e-mails that document this.

So I did what I was told, when you see an issue send an email to management. So I did. Well turns out that I made my supervisor look stupid and proved what everybody knows that he's an awful supervisor. So he sent me a message asking me why I sent the e-mail. He said I should have talked to him instead of sending the e-mail. But he is the one who asks me to send e-mails when I see an issue with the team and he doesn´t mind when I write about other people. But he sure had a problem with it when the e-mail was about him.
During our chat he made comments such as I only care about compensation blah blah and that was totally out of the topic. After our conversation I talked to someone in the management team and told him what happened. He agreed with me completely and told me he would look into it and talk to other management members. I totally trust this guy and I know he's fair.

Then like 30 minutes later my project manager, same one I met with a week ago and I was so amazing... called me for a meeting. When I got to the meeting my supervisor was there. Basically, they gave me a write up and told me what I did was wrong. So why they always tell me to send emails and when i send one about him then that's wrong. I'm not going for that. According to them the write up is not about what happened today they said I've been having a negative attitude at work and they just happened to bring it up today. So why didnt they bring it up a week ago when I had my performance review? All this is happening now that number 1 I'm pregnant and I told them I am...and number 2 after I sent an e-mail about my supervisor being wrong. To me this is bs and I dont know if I'm just mad and frustrated but I think this is unfair treatment and I want to do something about it. At first I didnt want to do much because I'm pregnant and I need my job but at the same time out of principle I have to say something.

Do I have a solid case? Has anyone experienced something like this before?

[cbg]

Are you seriously trying to tell me that after essentially calling the supervisor a liar, you think you can prove you're being written up because you're pregnant?

I've got news for you. Publically humiliating your supervisor is not a protected activity.

[mitousmom]

Do they know that you are pregnant? Did they know you were pregnant a week ago when you had your review? Have you ever done anything exhibiting such bad judgment before they were aware that you were pregnant and they did nothing?

If you disagreed with your supervisor's statistics, you should have discussed it with him first. He is a part of management. Going over his head and demanding an apology was unprofessional. What you need to do is apologize to your supervisor for your intemperate behavior and try to put this behind you.

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by tetesgirl

...
Do I have a solid case?
....

I can't believe this; even someone in California would not think you had a case!

[eerelations]

In my experience, many people think that becoming pregnant = job for life, no matter what else happens.

As an example, one of my previous companies closed its Montreal office and laid off all the employees there - a total of about 30 people, at all levels. We gave each employee a very generous severance package - cash and full benefits about 2x what was legally required + outplacement services + a $5,000 PC purchase allowance.

It turned out one employee was about three weeks' pregnant at the time she was laid off. While she hadn't told anyone at the company she was pregnant (she admitted later that she hadn't in fact told ANYONE IN THE WORLD that she was pregnant, mainly because she'd only figured it out herself a few days previously) she was somehow utterly convinced that she was laid off because she was pregnant, and for no other reason.

So she filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission and I had to attend a hearing. Interestingly enough, the presiding Human Rights Officer was herself VASTLY pregnant at the time, but despite that, she dismissed the claim, for these reasons:

• even if we HAD let this employee go because she was pregnant, we gave her 'way more than the Officer would have ordered us to pay
• the employee admitted she hadn't told anyone at the company about her pregnancy
• at the time of the hearing (about four months after the office closure), the pregnant ex-employee STILL wasn't "showing" (she was one of those real skinny girls that doesn't "show" until about five minutes before delivery) and the Officer seemed to have a hard time believing that she was indeed pregnant (probably comparing the girl's tiny waist to her own giant stomach)

Needless to say, the employee didn't win her case.

I have other stories like this but won't bore y'all anymore with them. (Unless of course some masochist out there asks to hear 'em! )

[tetesgirl]

I didn't go over him. When we see something wrong we are always told to send an e-mail to a mailing list supervisors have set up. When my supervisor had the meeting with us I told him I was sure he was wrong and he told I was assigned to do something else that day so it didn't concern me, but it does because I took some of those cases too when I had free time plus that's my team. So I tried talking to him and he ignored me. So I sent the e-mail and the whole team knew about it. Now, according to him I didnt get the write up for sending the e-mail. According to him I got it for negative attitude and complaints from my co-workers which is a lie because I'm friends with everybody in there and people always come to me when they have an issue because they know I'm easy to talk to. And he mentioned before how he wishes they would go to him and not me. He asked me several times to tell my co-workers to talk to him about their issues but they won't because he thinks he's like a higher power or something and when he talks to people he treats them like they are garbage if they are below him. Not to mention he has no faith in his team. All my other previous supervisors were the opposite. They're really easy to talk to and nice, but this guy thinks he's really something and he doesn't even have a college degree so I don't see where he gets it from.

Anyway, he took this as a personal attack and that's why I got the write up and everybody at work agrees. I asked him to tell me about the complaints to make sure if there's really an issue I work on it and he wouldn't tell me. He won't give me any facts. So I know he's lying. Yeah there are 2 guys on my team who don't talk to anybody and we are like 16 or so. They are totally isolated and nobody likes them because they are just like my supervisor. They think they're some kind of God or something and it turns out out of the whole team they are the less productive and the ones who know the least. I know those 2 guys want to get promoted and before this incident according to everybody in management I was the next candidate for a management position. If those 2 said something about me it was totally out of jealousy. I don't even talk to them or interact with them so I don't see how they can complain about someone they don't even know, not to mention, and not trying to be ****y I'm the best performer in my team. Every month I'm chosen as the top performer and I get a certificate from my company saying I was the top performer. Since management started doing that recognition program I've got all of them.

My annual review was 6 days ago and according to my project manager I'm the best. They had me interview new people because they want me to select competent people and they know I'm selective and take my job very seriously. I'm asked to work on special projects all the time. All this while I perform my regular duties. I'm a great multitasker and I'm very fast. I work as much as 3 of my teammates together.
I got offers from other departments to work for them. I'm really good at what I do and that's a fact. Everybody knows that. They canceled the award program they had because I won everytime and basically I wasn't giving any other employees any chance to shine.

So I was perfect, amazing, the best employee 6 days ago... now I have such a bad attitude, I'm bringing the team down, I'm bad for my team. You should have seen my co-workers today. Happier than ever and everybody thanking me for standing up for them. So I think this is a jeolousy issue. Some supervisors can't stand to have some on their team who is a better performer than them and I didn't see any issues until I mentioned I was pregnant.

I'm not saying they're doing this because I'm pregnant but I think it's a bit suspicious that all these issues came up within the last 5 days. Not only that but today I met up with my supervisor and he told me if in 45 days he sees improvement he will remove the write up, why? because he feels guilty. He's not the type of person who would do that, he's known to get people fired and get back at them. But he knows he messed with the wrong person. Because I'm not gonna sit there and take it.

He's not competent and he doesn't know how to manage people so instead of picking on me he needs to work on his issues or maybe learn or go to school or something.

[tetesgirl]

Originally Posted by mitousmom

Do they know that you are pregnant? Did they know you were pregnant a week ago when you had your review? Have you ever done anything exhibiting such bad judgment before they were aware that you were pregnant and they did nothing?

If you disagreed with your supervisor's statistics, you should have discussed it with him first. He is a part of management. Going over his head and demanding an apology was unprofessional. What you need to do is apologize to your supervisor for your intemperate behavior and try to put this behind you.

Yes, they know I'm pregnant. Right after my annual review meeting I told them I was pregnant. Before my review they didn't know.

I never had any issues at work, like I said I'm the top performer. I'm always used as an example for other employees and I'm always awarded for my hard work and amazing performance. I even get paid time off sometimes as a reward for my performance. We have a huge LCD screen where we work that shows the name of the top performer of the month and my name is always there.

When I started at this company a year ago I didn't know anything about networking. On my first week I enrolled in school to take a few networking classes just to learn about my company and what they do. Although my job is not really technical. So I really didn't have to do all that but I always want to be on top of things and be the best at what I do. And it paid off because even my supervisors and trainers ask me questions about procedures and policies, I know all of them and I never make mistakes. So that's why I think my pregnancy might be an issue. Because based on performance I'm untouchable and everybody knows that. So they had to come up with something else.

[mitousmom]

Let me give you a bit of unsolicited advice based on my more than 30 years working, and 20 years of that in management.

You need an attitude adjustment and a dose of humility. My father told me a long time ago that you can be the best at what you do, but if those you work for don't like you and you don't fit in, you won't succeed. I didn't believe him then, but after years of seeing how the world works, I do now.

Maybe your boss is jealous of you, but if he is, that's your problem. As you can see from this incident, he can get those above him to side with him. Having an arrogant super achiever can be a morale buster and I've seen organizations let that one person go, to improve the morale and performance of the rest of the group.

You may be the best performer, whatever that means, but you don't fit my description of the best employee. And, as this incident shows, you do make mistakes.

[belladonna05]

Sounds to me like a classic case. Your supervisor made the mistake and didn't want it exposed. I guess being an overachiever is frowned upon now. Good luck in your endeavors because so few people today have the integrity to stand up and say what needs to be said.