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You be the judge...do I have a case?

Posted by: misszealot
Date: 7/15/2004 4:26:39 AM

I’m a single parent and a woman of color. I worked for a company for four years before resigning due to disparate treatment. Here’s a synopsis of the things that happened to me while I was there:

While working for a supervisor who had been with the company for only 11 months I endured increased scrutiny of my work (not actionable) as well as manipulative techniques used to sabotage my success-provided inconsistent and consistently recanted directives and my workload exponentially increased prior to evaluation cutoff (every quarter). During the last four months of my employment I was verbally berated for improper formatting of an email when no prior expectation had been expressed, improper diligence on an order that had been closed out of the system for more than 13 months, consistently questioned about the text used in the orders I placed and required to provide a ‘back up day care plan’ when my PTO balance was almost exhausted. This last point was a contentious issue for me because at the beginning of that year the company decided to implement a PTO balance program, of which due to my time with the company allotted me a pool of 20 days. I respectfully requested to take UNPAID PTO for my vacation that had been planned TWO MONTHS EARLIER to visit my father in Germany THREE MONTHS LATER, a net of 13 days out of this pool. I was verbally assured by my supervisor (a mistake I will never repeat) that I would not need to be concerned about this and that I would received unpaid time off if I needed it. I did however employ ‘contingencies’ in order to diffuse and discourage the discrimination I was suffering-I followed up every impromptu meeting with a ‘confirmation email’ regurgitating everything my supervisor instructed only to be told by the general manager that I could no longer do that since they didn’t play ‘those types of games’ there and to have her supported by I provided the ‘back up day care plan’ but queried my co-workers to determine if they had also been asked to provide this information. Upon my exit date I typed up an ‘exit interview’ detailing point for point why I was leaving the company along with a COVER SHEET FAX sent to the Human Resource person that would conduct my interview. I also took with me a copy of the EMPLOYEE MANUAL, the GUIDE FOR DIFFERENTIATING PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS AND MISCONDUCT, LEVELS OF THE CORRECTIVE ACTION PROCESS as well as copies of the email that outlined the requested ‘back up day care plan’ and the subsequent emails to co-workers to determine if they had been asked for the same type of information. THREE EMPLOYEES, all white, have contacted me to let me know that (1) They saw a written document from my former supervisor shortly after I left that stated that I ‘was not a good fit’ for the company (2) That they felt I was discriminated against (3) That the company’s procedure was to maintain ALL WRITTEN DOCUMENTS provided during the individual’s employment. I bring up the last issue because a year later I requested a copy of my employee file. My assertion at this point is that since the company alleges that everything they did was ‘legal’ why isn’t the EXIT INTERVIEW that I submitted and typed up in my employee file?

Since I have all these documents including several of the emails that I sent to present to a jury do YOU as an individual, not a LAWYER, feel that I was singled out and that based on the information provided have enough evidence to prove my former employer’s activities were ‘actionable’?

I’m all ears.

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