commentator
Senior Member
Most people labor under the delusion that they have a whole lot more rights and protections under our country's labor laws than they do. And it is rather difficult to have a clear cut cast of illegal discrimination. A lot, in your circumstance, will depend upon the size of the company and whether or not you've dealt with things proactively. The first thing to figure out is exactly what rights and protections you have under the law. The supervisor does not have to be nice to you, fair to you, like you or treat you respectfully. They are legally obligated to pay you for the hours you work, and not to require you to work in unsafe conditions. That's about it.
If you can show that you are being treated differently or worse specifically because of your gender, that might be something he's doing which is illegal. Now, your next step is to determine who is in the company that you could discuss the situation with who might be able to fix it. Get your information together, as far as what he has done to discriminate against you specifically for your sex, not anything related to your politics, unless religion is being brought in, and yours is unpopular with him.
Your recourse if you are being illegally discriminated against because of your gender is the EEOC. You'd file a complaint, they'd investigate, and in a really, really long time, you'd hear whether they think you have a valid case, in which case they'd issue you a "right to sue" letter. And then you can sue the company. It is a drawn out process, it's hard to show a pervasive pattern of illegal discrimination in any workplace. That said, most of them don't want to be sued for this sort of thing, and are not really excited about hearing there's a supervisor who is causing these kinds of problems. So
If it were to come to that, and if you were to file a complaint with the EEOC the first thing they would do is check with the company to try to determine if a problem exists, and if you had not taken the issue up with anyone in the company to try to fix it before filing such a complaint, they would only have to say, "Gee, sorry, we didn't know there was a problem, now that we know, we'll fix it!" and you are back to square one.
And if you do go to HR, and the company begins some sort of corrective action, they'll call in the supervisor and he'll probably say, "Hey, I had no idea she didn't like what I was saying to her or doing to her! She never told me anything!" Your first step is to let him know, in simple sentences, in a professional, not angry way, that you do not want to discuss politics, that you feel you are being treated differently because you are the only woman, and that he needs to stop. However this goes. Keep up with when you told him this, what was said, who witnessed it.
Florida is a southeastern state, and is spectacularly employer friendly. If this is a small operation, and he has all the power, he may not do anything. He may be furious if he is approached by his supervisors about the situation. As we said, you need to be job hunting, getting ready to move on. It is, in my experience, virtually impossible to fix a bad workplace. Moving on and doing better is generally the best approach.
But there is nothing, ever, to be gained by verbally trashing this workplace in the future, in other interviews, complaining about them on line, telling anybody and everybody about your horrible experience with them. And as it has been pointed out, you might find yourself on the wrong side of a suit, they probably have deeper pockets and better attorneys than you do right now.
If you can show that you are being treated differently or worse specifically because of your gender, that might be something he's doing which is illegal. Now, your next step is to determine who is in the company that you could discuss the situation with who might be able to fix it. Get your information together, as far as what he has done to discriminate against you specifically for your sex, not anything related to your politics, unless religion is being brought in, and yours is unpopular with him.
Your recourse if you are being illegally discriminated against because of your gender is the EEOC. You'd file a complaint, they'd investigate, and in a really, really long time, you'd hear whether they think you have a valid case, in which case they'd issue you a "right to sue" letter. And then you can sue the company. It is a drawn out process, it's hard to show a pervasive pattern of illegal discrimination in any workplace. That said, most of them don't want to be sued for this sort of thing, and are not really excited about hearing there's a supervisor who is causing these kinds of problems. So
If it were to come to that, and if you were to file a complaint with the EEOC the first thing they would do is check with the company to try to determine if a problem exists, and if you had not taken the issue up with anyone in the company to try to fix it before filing such a complaint, they would only have to say, "Gee, sorry, we didn't know there was a problem, now that we know, we'll fix it!" and you are back to square one.
And if you do go to HR, and the company begins some sort of corrective action, they'll call in the supervisor and he'll probably say, "Hey, I had no idea she didn't like what I was saying to her or doing to her! She never told me anything!" Your first step is to let him know, in simple sentences, in a professional, not angry way, that you do not want to discuss politics, that you feel you are being treated differently because you are the only woman, and that he needs to stop. However this goes. Keep up with when you told him this, what was said, who witnessed it.
Florida is a southeastern state, and is spectacularly employer friendly. If this is a small operation, and he has all the power, he may not do anything. He may be furious if he is approached by his supervisors about the situation. As we said, you need to be job hunting, getting ready to move on. It is, in my experience, virtually impossible to fix a bad workplace. Moving on and doing better is generally the best approach.
But there is nothing, ever, to be gained by verbally trashing this workplace in the future, in other interviews, complaining about them on line, telling anybody and everybody about your horrible experience with them. And as it has been pointed out, you might find yourself on the wrong side of a suit, they probably have deeper pockets and better attorneys than you do right now.