Where are the Gorillas?

Landa Park in the mist 

What a Great Job?!

Here are some of the issues and events that happened during our time at my last full-time job.

1. Sexual Discrimination

- Following one installation, although at least four people tested positive to a drug test, only one person-a women-was fired.
- We were told on several occasions that women should not be in management positions because they get “bitchy” at least once a month.
- One woman feared physical violence from a vice-pres. They arranged a plan for one of the men to protect her if the v. p. came to her area to harass or frighten her.
- A crony regularly sexually harassed women.
- Two cronies began intimating that several man were homosexuals.
- A crony would commonly make sexually explicit comments about women. In one case he loudly proclaimed how he enjoyed choking women while he had sex with them.

2. Racial Discrimination

- A crony commonly used the word “nigger.”
- When management was told that one musuem wanted to include information about the African Americans in their community, I was sarcastically told, “There aren’t any African Americans there!"
- The Vice President made no secret that he opposed interracial dating and marriage although several employees violated his views.
- After a woman got a negative review and was denied a raise, the V.P. mentioned that he opposed her interracial dating. He also suggested that she should go off and have some children (sexual discrimination)
- An attitude against hiring or working with African Americans
- The men working in the back were called “vatos” and management made no secret that they were undocumented workers. The owner made it known that if there was any question, the company line was that their paperwork was in process. The new bookkeeper noted that some of the Social Security numbers were incorrect. It was common knowledge that one of the men had the same number as an 80 year old man.
- One man was told not to use his real first name because it was too ethnic.

3. “Whistleblowers” Terminated

- I was aware of the sexual discrimination and harassment issues and encouraged several women to bring the issue to the owner.
- We counseled a woman about the v. p.'s threats, and even went to upper management.
- Several people were all fired after the OSHA investigation and all has talked to OSHA during the investigation. It was commonly known who called OSHA in the first place.
- Although it was announced at a meeting, we both knew that after a Labor Department investigation that resulted in a fine because the company wasn’t paying the construction laborers overtime the owner told the staff that he was paying the men in cash
- A crony told us that the owner ordered him to doctor the time sheets not to reflect overtime.

4. People With Medical Needs Fired

- The people fired in the last round of terminations had medical conditions
- One had had sinus surgery and was taking regular medication
- One was pregnant and was the initial concern over the misuse of chemicals at work.
- Another had had recent cervical surgery.
- Another man had had intestinal problems.
- Another woman had recently taken several sick days and was concerned about her health because of the chemical smell in the office.
- When told the front entrance was not ADA compliant, one of the owner's cronies said, “I don’t know why we need to be compliant, we’re not going to hire any cripples.”

5. A Threatening Atmosphere Existed
-

Women believed that if they complained about sexual harassment they would lose their jobs.
- The owner's henchman would skulk around the office eavesdropping on conversations.
- Any criticism could result in termination. One man was fired after he told the previous owner that the reason components had not been ordered was that the request was sitting on the other owner's desk for approval. One man was fired for pointing out defects in design plans. Two employees were fired for bringing attention to misunderstandings about their pay.
- At various meetings the owner would announce that he did not want people to talk about work amongst themselves, if they had any problems they should come to him, and that really meant termination.
- He commonly fired people citing only “bad attitudes.”
- It was widely known that upper management only wanted “blue sky” reports. Negative reports could result in the charge of having a bad attitude.
- The V.P. usually tried to intimidate employees

I dunno! You think it was a bad place to work?