About 2 months ago, I posted to Daily Kos regarding a workplace issue I was having. I got such great responses and such helpful advice, that I decided to follow up as things at my employer began to unravel.
A couple months back, my employer instituted a new automated hiring system that assisted in processing new hire paperwork from the application to the point of hire. One of the final steps in the process was to identify the race of an applicant. We, as managers, were told that we would be required to enter the race of the applicant if the applicant "neglected" or refused to enter their race themselves. However, we were told that we should not inform the applicant that we were doing this.
I took issue with this and immediately contacted my boss and our HR department to let them know that I was not comfortable with this. After about two weeks of back and forth, I was told that I would not be required to do this. However, as near as I can tell, the computer program has not been changed. I have not yet, come across an applicant who has not self selected race.
The interesting part, however, is that since then my work environment has become quite uncomfortable. It came to a head today with my boss and a regional HR person providing me with a formal AND final warning for job performance on the same day in the same sitting. I have been told that this is a violation of California labor law, but I am not sure this is true.
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In the interim, I had scheduled tasks moved forward, lost three key manager and was subjected to working seven day work weeks for three weeks to make up for staffing issues.
I can't help but feel that I am being retaliated against for speaking out, but I have no idea where to turn to to see if I am being treated fairly.
Any thoughts you KOS folks have or any advice you can offer, would be greatly appreciated.