I presume you didn't intend to lock your post.
Harrassment, discrimination or neither?
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What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado
I am trying to figure out if what I am experiencing at work is harrassment, discrimination or neither.
Certain company policies are applied to me but not to others...or a certain policy does not apply to me but it does to others. In other words there is a double standard and the company uses these policies unfairly.
Examples 1
I was told that I could not apply for any positions in the company because my daughter worked at the same company and that we both could not work under the same Senior VP...even though they chose to hire me under the same VP. Okay, so they make the rules. However, during this same time period, other employees that wer closely related did have promotions and transfers under the same VP!
Example 2
I was also told that employees could only be promoted straight up the line within the department and that there would be no promotions across departments. I wanted to apply for a position but did not because of the rule. Then a co-worker got the job and was transfered across departments. HR rationalized because it was a "lateral" transfer. NO such explination of lateral or non lateral transfers was given to me when I originally asked. So then I waited for the job posting announcing the newly vacated position (created when the person that got the lateral transfer) because it was a straight up line promotion. The job was never posted and another co-worker was immediately promoted across from an other department! So they essentially blocked me from two potential promotions by moving employees across departments against company policy. I tried to play by the rules and got screwed!
Example 3
I was told that I could not send or open personal e-mails on the company computer. I have complied even though co-workers send me non-work related e-mails which I must delete without opening. No other employee has this type of restrictions.
Example 4
I had been working a lot of overtime at odd hours. I am a night owl and do my best work at night. No restrictions had been placed on my hours so I often worked at night. For some reason HR thought I was steeling from the company so they started spying on me. Security reported when I entered and left the building. IT monitored my computer activity. I was called into HR and they explained what they had done. Did they find any steeling? NO.
Did they find me doing anything other that working on my work assignments during the times I was in the building? NO. Did they find me doing anything wrong or illegal or against company policy? NO. Not guilty on all acounts. But they put special restriction on me anyway. I must arrive at work no sooner than 1 minute before start time and no later than 1 minute after start time. I must leave work plus or minus 1 minute. NO other employee has this type of restriction. When I do sign up to work overtime I must report the exact time I will be in the building. All other employees simply report how many hours of over time with out reporting the exact times.
Another form of unfair treatment came when I responded to an e-mail from my supervisor encouraging us all to do what ever we could to improve our data analysis. I saw a repetative action that could be automated by writing a macro. So I wrote the macro. I was later brought into the office and repremanded for writing the macro (which was not in my job description) It should be noted, several things I do are not in the "job description" I was ordered to remove the macro which saved time and money! It gets worse. Several weeks later I was told to teach data coodinator how to write the macro that I had written!
These are just some of the incidents that come to mind.
I am wondering if this is an anti-semitism because, all this started about 3 years ago when I got re-hired after a lay-off and I started decorating my new cubicle. I had Israeli flags, pictures of Jerusalem, menorahs and other Jewish items among my personal affects. After a few months I was told to remove the flags and religious items. When I asked why I was told there had been a complaint and I should remove all personal items from my cubicle. I was informed that it was company policy. Everyone else (740 employees at my facility) have personal items in thier cubicles. I have complied with this order for fear of losing my job. I dont even have a picture of my wife and kids...nor a package of crakers in my drawer!
Decorating your cubicle with Israeli flags, pictures of Jersusalem, menorahs and so forth is WAY over the top and would be no matter what religion you belong to. All that is completely inappropriate for the workplace. I'd have had you remove those too. I presume by "personal effects" other coworkers have, you mean a family photo or two, a few decorative items, and so on and that nobody has their cubicle plastered with crucifixes and Jesus paintings. You have gone from one extreme to another and I seriously doubt your employer would object to your having a picture of your wife and a package of crackers in your desk to nibble on.
I don't see any religious discrimination - chances are your employer knew you were Jewish during your first term of employment with them and before they rehired you from layoff. If that had been an issue, they wouldn't have rehired you.
As to the rest, yours is not the first employer to make up the rules as they go along or make exceptions as they feel it suits the business.
Harrassment, discrimination or neither?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado
I am trying to figure out if what I am experiencing at work is harrassment, discrimination or neither.
Certain company policies are applied to me but not to others...or a certain policy does not apply to me but it does to others. In other words there is a double standard and the company uses these policies unfairly.
Examples 1
I was told that I could not apply for any positions in the company because my daughter worked at the same company and that we both could not work under the same Senior VP...even though they chose to hire me under the same VP. Okay, so they make the rules. However, during this same time period, other employees that wer closely related did have promotions and transfers under the same VP!
Example 2
I was also told that employees could only be promoted straight up the line within the department and that there would be no promotions across departments. I wanted to apply for a position but did not because of the rule. Then a co-worker got the job and was transfered across departments. HR rationalized because it was a "lateral" transfer. NO such explination of lateral or non lateral transfers was given to me when I originally asked. So then I waited for the job posting announcing the newly vacated position (created when the person that got the lateral transfer) because it was a straight up line promotion. The job was never posted and another co-worker was immediately promoted across from an other department! So they essentially blocked me from two potential promotions by moving employees across departments against company policy. I tried to play by the rules and got screwed!
Example 3
I was told that I could not send or open personal e-mails on the company computer. I have complied even though co-workers send me non-work related e-mails which I must delete without opening. No other employee has this type of restrictions.
Example 4
I had been working a lot of overtime at odd hours. I am a night owl and do my best work at night. No restrictions had been placed on my hours so I often worked at night. For some reason HR thought I was steeling from the company so they started spying on me. Security reported when I entered and left the building. IT monitored my computer activity. I was called into HR and they explained what they had done. Did they find any steeling? NO.
Did they find me doing anything other that working on my work assignments during the times I was in the building? NO. Did they find me doing anything wrong or illegal or against company policy? NO. Not guilty on all acounts. But they put special restriction on me anyway. I must arrive at work no sooner than 1 minute before start time and no later than 1 minute after start time. I must leave work plus or minus 1 minute. NO other employee has this type of restriction. When I do sign up to work overtime I must report the exact time I will be in the building. All other employees simply report how many hours of over time with out reporting the exact times.
Another form of unfair treatment came when I responded to an e-mail from my supervisor encouraging us all to do what ever we could to improve our data analysis. I saw a repetative action that could be automated by writing a macro. So I wrote the macro. I was later brought into the office and repremanded for writing the macro (which was not in my job description) It should be noted, several things I do are not in the "job description" I was ordered to remove the macro which saved time and money! It gets worse. Several weeks later I was told to teach data coodinator how to write the macro that I had written!
These are just some of the incidents that come to mind.
I am wondering if this is an anti-semitism because, all this started about 3 years ago when I got re-hired after a lay-off and I started decorating my new cubicle. I had Israeli flags, pictures of Jerusalem, menorahs and other Jewish items among my personal affects. After a few months I was told to remove the flags and religious items. When I asked why I was told there had been a complaint and I should remove all personal items from my cubicle. I was informed that it was company policy. Everyone else (740 employees at my facility) have personal items in thier cubicles. I have complied with this order for fear of losing my job. I dont even have a picture of my wife and kids...nor a package of crakers in my drawer!
Decorating your cubicle with Israeli flags, pictures of Jersusalem, menorahs and so forth is WAY over the top and would be no matter what religion you belong to. All that is completely inappropriate for the workplace. I'd have had you remove those too. I presume by "personal effects" other coworkers have, you mean a family photo or two, a few decorative items, and so on and that nobody has their cubicle plastered with crucifixes and Jesus paintings. You have gone from one extreme to another and I seriously doubt your employer would object to your having a picture of your wife and a package of crackers in your desk to nibble on.
I don't see any religious discrimination - chances are your employer knew you were Jewish during your first term of employment with them and before they rehired you from layoff. If that had been an issue, they wouldn't have rehired you.
As to the rest, yours is not the first employer to make up the rules as they go along or make exceptions as they feel it suits the business.