Last week HR and my manager pulled a few of my team members into her office, one by one, to ask if we had been hearing any offensive remarks from other team members.
I’ve had a co worker say multiple homophobic remarks, and a couple of racial slurs well. We’ll call her C.
The slurs were an Asian slur and a Native American slur, the context isn’t original, you can guess what C was saying.
C once called my coworker friend, K, a bitch. C immediately got scared, went and lied to our manager that K called her the N slur. Another coworker and myself heard C call K a bitch, they have cameras showing that we were present. Instead they don’t question anyone and fire my friend for being called a bitch.
Our manager fired K for being CALLED a bitch.
How does that make any sense.
The homophobic remarks started with C stating that being gay is a choice and you aren’t born that way. As a queer person, I took offense and tried explaining that what they were saying is incorrect and offensive , to me personally and to anyone else that’s queer, and to not say that anymore. (HR agreed I handled this properly.)
C has also gone on to explain how disgusted she was by little boys having their fingers nails painted, saying that she teaches her son ‘right from wrong’ and would ‘tear him up’ for doing anything ‘feminine’.
Another time C was saying that she got a ‘lesbian vibe’ (saying with disgust) from one of the new girls, and that if she found out the new girl was gay, she would start treating her negatively and different from the straight people, explaining she didn’t want the new girl to ‘get any wrong ideas’.
I told HR all of this, and I know my teammates complained about C’s inappropriate remarks as well.
Well a new weeks starts, me and my 3 teammates all get a call on Tuesday evening saying that we’re fired.
As far as we know, C still has a job there.
The company is ILF Inc, short for Interactive Life Forms, for anyone wondering.
This company profits from the queer community, but when it comes time to stand up against bigotry within their own walls, they fire 2 openly queer people, and keep the openly homophobic one working there.
I have endless examples of blatant nepotism, sexism, homophobia, and just plain bullying; things they claim to have ‘zero tolerance policy’ for.
Yet time and time again they advocate for the bully, and punish the victim for not just staying quite.
Our manager has refused to tell us why we are being let go.
She has only told us that it’s in the handbook that she doesn’t have to give us a reason for termination..
I’m upset to have lost a job suddenly, at a not great time in my life, but it was also one of the most toxic work environments I’ve been in and I’m honestly a little relieved to not have to go back..