discrimination/retaliation/harassment

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carley

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I have been with this large corp. for over 6 years. My work record has been very good. I have the most awards in the store, including an award for customer service from the CEO of our company and also awards from our district manager and I lead the store in credit cards 4 to 1 with any other associate. I am 63 years old. My last review was excellent and was given to me by my supervisor. A week later my supervisor was put on a pip (improve or be fired). Management told supervisors to get the work done or deligate it. We have freight that comes to the floor at 4pm. on this particular day , my shift ended at 4pm but I was written up for not completing this task. This write up went in my permanent file and cannot be changed. I went to the store manager, assistant manager, district human resource manager and the corp. aware line. After I went to management the retaliation started. My supervisor got in my face and said "so you went to management-did you think I wouldn't find out". I turned into management 9 pages of harassment notes documenting what was said and the dates. My work assignments were checked daily and I was quizzed on things in the department repetitively one thing right after another, told that I wasn't doing my job and that I was slow and that management was watching me. On one occasion I was told to get that pouty face off because this is the way things are going to be. I have a witness who turned in a statement that she heard my supervisor yell at me "you're really pissing me off-when I tell you to do something, you do it!" Nobody else in my dept. has been able to always finish their tasks-including freight and nobody else has been written up or been talked to like this. I am the oldest in my dept. I have everyone in my dept. that will testify to not always getting their work done. This was called a hostile work environment by the district human resource manager who has talked to corporate and the store manager about this situation. Nobody has ever gotten back to me about my documented complaints, but when I've called Corp. they say they have turned it all over to the store manager to investigate. Now, 7 months after working in this stressful situation, two more write ups(proof that these are false and discriminatory in nature)and a bad review(loss of money),I finally got transferred to another dept. where I've lost my speciality and have to start all over again. Do you find this to be age discrimination since I have been singled out in my department? Retaliation since I went to management? Harassment due to the continued verbal abuse. Thank you
 
You have not posted anything to suggest that your age was the reason you were singled out.
 
I was told I was slow. Plus, I am the oldest and my dept. head does not want to do physical work. The rest of the workers are younger and their work is not complete yet they have not been written up.
 
carley said:
I was told I was slow. Plus, I am the oldest and my dept. head does not want to do physical work. The rest of the workers are younger and their work is not complete yet they have not been written up.
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Proving an age discrimination claim is almost impossible.

That said, it was my first lawsuit.

I filed it as a 3rd year law student for my dad.

I had the financial and staff support of a large labor relations law firm.

It took 8 years before he collected his judgment.

That was several decades ago, it wasn't easy then, its harder today.
 
It's not illegal to tell you that you are slow. That may be your "supervisor's" actual opinion & a reason to write you up.

However; if you believe you are being discriminated against due to your age & have proof, you can file a complaint with the federal EEOC or the Az. Civil Rights Division & let them investigate. (Since you work for a large corp., I'm sure your employer meets the minimum employee requirement to file a complaint with these agencies.)

You can file a lawsuit for age discrimination but first you must file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC & get a "right to sue" letter.
 
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There was another female employee, aged 66 who wanted to work this department and the supervisor said no, he didn't have time to train her. This supervisor has never trained any employee in this dept., nor has any dept. head ever turned down a worker put in their dept. by management, however the guys that have been assigned to the dept. untrained are fine. Also, there was another girl in her early 50's who had a lot of experience in this field for our dept. and she questioned the supervisor on some of his discrepancies in the dept. and her hours got cut to 6 and 8 hrs. a week till she quit.
 
I can't say that these things happened due to age or gender - if you believe there is discrimination, file a complaint. It doesn't cost anything to file a complaint with the EEOC or the state equivalent & let them investigate.
 
It is sounding more like your supervisor is getting flack from above and doesn't appreciate you then going over his head. The law doesn't protect you on the basis of an internal complaint and not many supervisors appreciate it when an employee goes over their head on something to half the company. I suggest trying to work it out with your direct supervisor though if you have already sent 9 pages of complaints up the chain without talking to your supervisor first, and have started throwing around the "harassment" word without any proof beyond your age and speculation, that bridge may already be burned to a crisp.

Telling you that you are slow is not the same as treating you differently because of your age. Not taking on someone because you do not have time to train them for a new job is also not in any way evidence of age discrimination. It seems pretty clear that the poor treatment started after going to management, which while it may be an issue to address inside the company, is not in any way illegal and does not create an ADEA claim just because you happen to be over 40 when it happened.
 
I understand what you are saying about showing proof of age or gender discrimination is most difficult. Don't you feel that he has abused his authority by giving me 3 false write-ups? I have documents and witnesses to disprove what he has written me up for. My not finishing a task had nothing to do with being slow, it had to do with customer service. My dept is swamped and we are understaffed as are a lot of companies are. If we could not finish a task, due to customers, we would finish it the next day. Since I have left the dept. work is done the next day-it was just me he had special rules for. Don't you at least think this is retaliation?
 
Your supervisor may have been/"probably was" treating you differently because of going over his head to management but it is not illegal to treat you differently for this reason. It may have had nothing to do with your age or gender. It is not illegal discrimination unless you are discriminated against due to a reason prohibited by law (ie age, religion, gender...) & we can't say that was the case here.

If it was retaliation for going over his head that doesn't mean it was illegal retaliation.
 
Our company policy states that it is immediate termination for retaliation. What is illegal retaliation? We also have an open door policy to discuss concerning issues. I have gone in to talk about some of these concerns and behaviors and when I do this he starts stalking me and then comes another write up. Bye the way, thank you for your input, it is greatly appreciated.
 
Illegal retaliation means that the adverse treatment is BECAUSE you implemented a right protected by law. Going over your manager's head is not a right protected by law. Therefore, EVEN IF everything you've posted is retaliation for your doing so, it isn't illegal retaliation.

BTW, the term, hostile work environment has a very specific meaning in employment law. What you have described does not meet the definition.
 
You're welcome for the input.

I posted a link in one of my posts re hostile work environment.

As cbg noted, retaliation/discrimination/being treated differently would only be illegal if it was due to a reason protected/prohibited by law. Age & gender are protected categories but we don't see where that is probably the case here. It seems it was for going over your supervisor's head which is not a protected category.

If your company has a policy against any type of retaliation, then your only recourse is through your employer.
 
Carley, My suggestion to you is to move on! Seek other employment. You are digging yourself a hole that is bound to result in your termination.
 
If you do seek other employment, do not quit this job until you have another. You don't (except in "rare" circumstances) get unemployment ins. benefits if you quit.
 
The reason I came to this forum was to understand my circumstance. Your comments are truly helpful. I went to a site for workers rights. According to Federal law, if you make a complaint of discrimination or harassment either internal or to the EEOC, even if you are proved wrong, as long as you made this complaint in good faith, you are protected against retaliation. If that retaliation negatively affects your job - such as it did with me - a bad review ,more false write ups on my record, less of a raise potential, since I had to start all over again in a new dept. Also, now I can't transfer to another store. I did complain about being discriminated and being harassed from the very beginning so shouldn't I have been protected according to this law?
 
But your retaliation wasn't because you implemented a right protected by law. Going over your supervisor's head is not a right protected by law. That seemed to be the reason for the retaliation.
 
carley said:
The reason I came to this forum was to understand my circumstance. Your comments are truly helpful. I went to a site for workers rights. According to Federal law, if you make a complaint of discrimination or harassment either internal or to the EEOC, even if you are proved wrong, as long as you made this complaint in good faith, you are protected against retaliation. If that retaliation negatively affects your job - such as it did with me - a bad review ,more false write ups on my record, less of a raise potential, since I had to start all over again in a new dept. Also, now I can't transfer to another store. I did complain about being discriminated and being harassed from the very beginning so shouldn't I have been protected according to this law?
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Don't put too much stock in any government's ability to do anything well, except to steal the fruits of your labor. That said, it's possible everything you say happened according to your deduction. In fact, I'll stipulate to it.

The problem is in the proof. It's extremely difficult to prove the things you know, not just feel, but know. That's the frustration you're feeling.

I suggest you speak with a couple lawyers. If you can't find one interested in your situation to take your case, you don't have a case.

We could feed you lies, blow smoke, and stroke your ego; but eventually you'd see through our lies. The truth may not be the sweetest song you've ever heard, but that doesn't change the song.


Sent from my iPad3 using Tapatalk HD
 
That would be my only suggestion also if you insist on pursuing this - talk to a lawyer(s) & see if they believe you "might" have a case before you do anything further & then go from there.
 
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