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How do you fight Revenge when someone claims you've harassed them with HR?
My co-worker claims I racially harassed him, by listening to a joke that another co-worker told "How do you tell a Portuguese from a Portagee? The Portuguese explored the world on a boat. The Portagee swam." I said “Oh… Stupid?”.
This co-worker was doing a really poor job in his new position. He thinks his managers were out to get him fired. Then he was assigned to me and I was the project leader. I reviewed his work and made him make over 20 revisions to the 6 documents. He was overdue in his work and on the day we were to have been completed I participated in the casual conversation above and he over heard it. The co-worker was Portuguese. The other guys tells these types of jokes periodically. I was then called to HR where he sited me for slander and racial comments. Can this stick?
Both parts are the same. The top is what I know happened. The bottom is how the co-worker interpreted it.
4 Answers
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
Well, it's not a good work environment if your co-worker is telling the damn joke with this guy standing there to hear it, that shows some poor judgement at best. And since it's happening "periodically", which to me means again no one in a supervisory position is telling him to stop, your workplace has issues.
Take your joke telling co-worker into HR with you, have him pick up the disciplinary action, and then start acting more professional all the way around. Even in criminal acts, someone watching or passively participating is considered part of the crime. Next time your dumbass co-worker starts another dumbass joke WALK AWAY!
- nothingLv 61 decade ago
The first paragraph of your scenario description suggests something different than the second paragraph. It makes it impossible to even guess an reply.
The upper part tells of the joke someone told and your very basic two word response, which is quite tame.
The lower part uses words like slander and racial comments that HR is attributing (apparently) to you.
So you will probably need arbitration or outside assistance in resolving the matter. Both sides seem very far apart in how they look at what happened.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Whatever you do, don't consult a LIBERAL. Those politically-correct, overly-sensitive morons will twist around anything you say to make it even worse!
