Long time lurker, first time poster. Throwaway account, as my main account has identifying details and I don’t want this linked back to me.
Some background: 1. I am a woman. 2. I work for a generally small company (100-200 employees). We are mostly based in my state with a lot of our higher ups in another state.
Onto the grievance: I got pulled into an HR meeting yesterday because someone complained about me. The complaints included that I was telling everyone I’m a satanist (so far from incorrect), that I hate all people of a specific and very common religion in our area (also couldn’t be farther from the truth), and that I was being accused of sexual harassment for saying someone at work was cute. Regarding the convo I was having with 3 close friends that are also coworkers (we all have similar lifestyles and religious beliefs, and often hang out outside of work): we were talking about piercings and tattoos, and I mentioned that if one of them was concerned she could join the satanic temple as it becomes religious discrimination if they try to fire her for piercings or tattoos. I said I had not actually done this, and If I did join I would probably be excommunicated from the religion (I am an ex member of said church, but have not had the time nor the energy to remove my records). The person who complained (it was very obvious who it was) was not the person that I had mentioned was cute but apparently took it upon herself to report me (I’d like to mention this was not anything overly sexual, that I had just mentioned he is an attractive man, and it was to a close coworker, apparently within earshot of the complainant, and not anywhere near the person I said was attractive.) The actual meeting with HR was a nightmare. I was not asked what happened, I was TOLD. Everytime I tried to explain what happened, I was bulldozed and talked over. It was the most dehumanizing, humiliating experience ever. My job was threatened. I did not get the chance to defend myself, and at the end I was just nodding and saying “I understand” because if I said anything else, they wouldn’t let me speak. They pulled all of the people involved into separate meetings, and the same thing happened to all of us. Me and another girl ended up just sitting there crying, another girl was berated so bad she had a seizure. Do I have any leg to stand on if I decide to pursue any type of harassment claims against them?