Workplace discrimination question

[originalsocal]

Do you like the job? If not, go hunting for something else. Sounds like the corporate culture is oppressive and you won't ever fit in there, regardless of how successful an HR claim and/or lawsuit may be. I don't want to discount the value of those things, they can be incredibly beneficial to a workplace environment. But often the main beneficiaries are those who come afterward while costing the complainer advancement opportunities as well as significant emotional and/or financial distress.

Life is too short to deal with that kind of nonsense. Vote with your feet.

Respectfully, I don't completely agree with your sentiment. Voting with your feet is not enough, imho. Laying out the negative of what "could" happen is a classic way of remaining complicit. You see what is happening right now with all of the sexual harassment issues cropping up? Things are changing because people are doing the hard thing and speaking up. I know...easy for me to say, but one of the biggest regrets I have in my professional life it NOT speaking up when I should have. I can tell you that remaining silent can also cost you "advancement opportunities as well as significant emotional and/or financial distress."

[Eddie]

I would think that having a company of 700+ employees really helps your case here. The larger the company, the more likely they are to have someone who actually knows HR and labor laws and who would be likely to tell the moron exec to shut up.

There is definitely risk/reward to talking to HR at this point.

Risk is that it might be difficult to get promotions in the future as long as that guy is there. There is some risk that you get labeled as someone who causes problems or creates issues - but I would think if you've never taken up an issue with HR in the past and you've been there for 16 years, as you stay, that you've got a pretty good track record.

Potential rewards are that they pay attention to what gets said. If the exec honestly thinks he needs to focus on promoting active LDS folks, then you aren't going to change his mind. I tend to think that talking to HR protects you from him taking any action if he were to decide that you're not active enough in church. As GM says - in some ways it can make you untouchable as far as firing you for anything less than some very obvious failure to perform issues. In At Will work states, you can be let go for any (or no) reason - simply saying your personality doesn't fit, for instance. However, you still cannot be discriminated against for religion. So if you were to report it would become more difficult for them to let you go - simply because if there is potential threat of a retaliation lawsuit they may not want to have to prove that it wasn't for religious reasons.

For me it would come down to how worried I really am. If you like your job, want to stay there, and feel like this is just an idiot saying idiotic things - I'd probably document it as you have and leave it be for now. If you want to stay, like your job, but feel like this is a guy who is likely to take some action against you - then I'd probably lean towards reporting something. But that's just me.

[originalsocal]

I would think that having a company of 700+ employees really helps your case here. The larger the company, the more likely they are to have someone who actually knows HR and labor laws and who would be likely to tell the moron exec to shut up.

There is definitely risk/reward to talking to HR at this point.

Risk is that it might be difficult to get promotions in the future as long as that guy is there. There is some risk that you get labeled as someone who causes problems or creates issues - but I would think if you've never taken up an issue with HR in the past and you've been there for 16 years, as you stay, that you've got a pretty good track record.

Potential rewards are that they pay attention to what gets said. If the exec honestly thinks he needs to focus on promoting active LDS folks, then you aren't going to change his mind. I tend to think that talking to HR protects you from him taking any action if he were to decide that you're not active enough in church. As GM says - in some ways it can make you untouchable as far as firing you for anything less than some very obvious failure to perform issues. In At Will work states, you can be let go for any (or no) reason - simply saying your personality doesn't fit, for instance. However, you still cannot be discriminated against for religion. So if you were to report it would become more difficult for them to let you go - simply because if there is potential threat of a retaliation lawsuit they may not want to have to prove that it wasn't for religious reasons.

For me it would come down to how worried I really am. If you like your job, want to stay there, and feel like this is just an idiot saying idiotic things - I'd probably document it as you have and leave it be for now. If you want to stay, like your job, but feel like this is a guy who is likely to take some action against you - then I'd probably lean towards reporting something. But that's just me.

Well stated. This is not any easy issue, but important.