Are you a victim of Workplace Discrimination

How can you tell if you are the victim of illegal workplace discrimination. Restating the question - Can my employer do that? Isn’t that Discrimination?

The circumstances relating to discrimination are always different, but the burning question remains the same. Can my employer do that and get away with doing [this, that or other thing], and isn’t that discrimination. This is the central question that prompts an employee to visit a plaintiff’s employment lawyer.

To best answer to this burning question requires some knowledge about how plaintiff’s attorneys prove a case of unlawful discrimination. The best evidence of discrimination is direct evidence of treating a person differently because of their membership in a protected class (i.e. race, color, national origin, age, gender, religion, disability, and in some states sexual orientation). An example of direct evidence are memorandums from management level supervisors stating they will never allow a women or a person of color to be promoted because they take took much time off from work taking care of family matters. Unfortunately, direct evidence is rarely uncovered because discriminators are savvy enough to obscure true motives in employment related matters.

The next best thing is circumstantial evidence which comes from the comparison of you with an employee that is in a similarly situated position to the work that you do. Plaintiff’s employment attorneys are equally savvy in finding and using circumstantial evidence. Therefore, if you earned outstanding (greater than average and above expectations) ratings in job performance reviews three years in a row and over the last ten years every male or non person of color who held your position and earned three consecutive outstanding performance reviews received a promotion, then the question becomes does the company have a legitimate reason that you are turned down for the promotion. How the company answers or will answer this question is critical because having no explanation when asked or actually providing a provable false reason turns the circumstantial evidence into a strong inference that the employer actions are tainted by illegal discrimination.

In a nutshell – how can you tell if you are a victim of illegal workplace discrimination? Start by comparing your specific circumstances to that of a similar situated co-worker who is not in your protected class status (i.e. not of same race, color, national origin, age, gender, religion, disability, and sexual orientation). If you find the treatment of co-worker different from your workplace experience run to an experienced plaintiff’s employment lawyer because you have a limited time period to file a claim before you completely lose your rights to redress any harm caused by the illegal discrimination.

Document acts of workplace discrimination

Fight back against Unlawful Discrimination

Are you concerned that your treatment at work might be unlawful discrimination? Generally speaking most employees are employees at-will. What does it mean to be an employee at-will? You can be fired for no reason, a good reason or a bad reason. You might think that does not sound very employee-friendly. The "at-will doctorine" merely gives the same right to an employer that it gives to an employee to end the work relationship. The "at-will doctrine" protects employees from employers when the employee wants to quit, otherwise, an employer could sue for damages.
What is unlawful is when the employer's decision to terminate an employee (an adverse action) includes characteristics about a person that are unchangable, which are clearly defined as protected classes in discrimination law. Protected classes include: age (over 40 years), sex (includes harassment based on sex), race or color, national origin, disability, religion and in some states sexaul orientation.
What can you do if you believe your treatment at work is unlawful discrimination? Advice I often give a person who believes he or she is a victim of discrimination is Documentation, Documentation and more Documentation. Buy a notebook and pen (avoid using employer property) and take your own notes about what is happening. As soon after the event as possibile write down what happenned, who was present, what was said or done and where and when the event(s) took place. Because people in the workplace who discriminate will never admit to their animus, you can take steps to uncover their hidden animous. Your notes taken close in time to a discriminatory event can be valuable pieces of evidence. Take notes on co-workers (outside your protected class) who receive perferential treatment -- a comparison of treatment is an effective means of uncovering discrimination.
Feel free to post specific questions about your employment situation or you can email me at attyosbn@gmail.com