You are correct that you cannot fire someone in protected class just for being in that protected class. But no, not really that complicated.
My son was fired from a camp counselor job many years ago because the bus driver on a camp outing thought she heard him make a racist comment and complained. No due process - her word over his denial. No other witnesses to support her accusation. No investigation by HR. I threatened legal action - and pointed out the absurdity that the bus driver heard anything she could attribute to one person - over the din of a bus filled with children, windows open, radio on, etc. He was reinstated. But the experience left a bitter taste in my mouth for sure.
I’ve heard the similar phrase, “not my baby, not my problem” used in the same way.
@rockvillemom glad you stood up for your son with his camp counselor job!
People can use mentors when there are weird things going on. Outside help when necessary. Glad you held their feet to the fire, and the reversed their poor decision.
It’s a small company. Owner is president, his wife is VP of HR. My friend feels they wanted to let the person go anyway,so jumped on this as a “reason”. It’s a “right to work” state, non-union situation. My understanding is that the saying is an old Polish saying and doesn’t even remotely refer to anything that was ever nastily implied or said about any black person.
I remember years back when Omarosa on Celebrity Apprentice accused someone of being racist for saying “that’s the pot calling the kettle black”. I use that phrase all the time, for example when I chide folks for working too many hours (and I’m one of the main offenders). Back in the day of all cast iron, all pots and kettles were black. Nothing to do with race.
According to DH’s coworker, whose wife is Polish, this is a traditional Polish saying (and I’d love to know how it evolved!)_
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/60/15/78/601578dbdbec0b3439f68ff3f0742e42.jpg
I never heard this phrase but it does show me how difficult it is to learn a new language. I’m trying to relearn a language I could never quite get the idioms and slang. I don’t even get it as an English speaker.
Except for an illegal reason (which someone suing for wrongful termination would allege)?
Black Friday is racist!
It is employment at will. People can be dismissed for whatever reason, as long as it is not due to race, sex, age, etc (protected class). Some firms would fire someone because he/she is too much of a liability.
Many employees are filing allegations against their managers for hostile working environment. I have personally been accused, my friend, my good friend’s husband…the list goes on for many senior managers. I think managers are open target now because once the allegation is made, accuser can’t be fired or it would be viewed a retaliation. Meanwhile the accused has to prove he/she is innocent.
This happened to someone very close to me. She was over 40, a minority and a female. Someone at her company accused her of creating a hostile working environment by being a racist. The accuser heard my friend saying to a black female about her son applying to colleges, “Will he get a basketball scholarship?” The accuser said my friend was being a racist because she assumed every black student played basketball. As it turned out, my friend was speaking to her secretary who took time off frequently to see her son play basketball, and my friend also helped her son with the college application, so she knew the son would be eligible to get a scholarship. The case was dismissed, but my friend had to live through few weeks of investigation.
I also had a few people file against my company and managers as well. One was for perceived disability. I didn’t even understand that. The woman had foot surgery and needed to wear special shoes. No one cared or said anything. I asked her how her surgery went.
Another was a racist charge when an employee needed to call a patient with a really unusual and difficult name to pronounce, it was a Slavic name with several consonants in a row. She went to a coworker and asked her how to pronounce it and there was a little giggling as they tried to sound it out. The accusing woman told them her children were biracial and it was insulting. Her children weren’t by the way.
People can file at the eeoc over anything.
We are very flaky in my house and my D’s tongue frequently gets ahead of her brain, so we all say “I have no dog in that pony” and people look at us strangely, but we know what we mean.
My niece says “not my circus, not my clowns” which I find hilarious.
We actually had a kerfluffle in my office very recently over something similar to eyeamom’s situation. We have an employee who is deaf, but wears hearing aids and has a speech impediment as a result. Maybe one of the best employees in the company. She was recently moved to report to someone with a very long, complicated name involving many letters, few vowels and combinations that aren’t familiar. She can not speak this name. It is just not possible, leaving her in tears and deeply upset, with the new boss angry and resentful. Not a good look and I’m curious how it will play out.
<<< Black Friday is racist! >>>
White Christmas is too!!
I do employment law for a major retail company. I see it all.
I have a name that people find very difficult to pronounce. But because I am not a minority–unless Finns count 
--it is not assumed to be racism when people stumble over it, mispronounce it, comment on how difficult it is, announce that they aren’t even going to try, and so on, all of which I have experienced on a regular basis since childhood. Yet a Latina I know wrote a column in the Portland Press Herald a number of years ago about how racist it was when someone couldn’t pronounce her last name and wondered how the children in school would do so.
Her name and mine are both pronounced exactly as spelled, only hers is quite common, ironically, and with the exception of this one person who apparently had little or no experience with Latin names, being a native Mainer of narrow experience, I’m willing to bet any sum that I get the “weird name” reaction 100 times more than she does.
But it’s racist when it happens to her.
There was a thread that started with circus monkeys:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1733892-proverbs-to-get-you-through-the-day.html
Reminds me of that hilarious passage in 'Sophie’s Choice" when immigrant Sophie compliments Stingo on his seersucker suit-- except “seer” wasn’t the word she used.
"It’s a small company. Owner is president, his wife is VP of HR. My friend feels they wanted to let the person go anyway,so jumped on this as a “reason”.
Yeah, that would make sense, then, in the context of that they might very well use that as an excuse for an employee they want to get rid of. Employment law is complex, and as others pointed out it also depends on the kind of company as well, a small, family owned business for example is going to be very different than a big company. One of the reasons companies are scared of it is because in court, it often comes down to them being guilty until proven innocent, the burden is on them, and it can be very difficult to disprove the allegations, not to mention that even if a court rules in their favor, it also can give the company a bad reputation (it is why cases like this are often settled out of court, just not worth litigating). It depends on the court systems, too, in a more conservative, business friendly state the courts likely would favor the company, whereas other places would favor the plaintiff. In many cases, because it is a small company, the person who feels they were discriminated against, outside maybe filing a complaint with the local or state government, won’t bother, because lawyers won’t take the case, knowing that the potential payoff would be small so their cut even smaller, and it just isn’t worth it as some have pointed out.