Currently awaiting a “peer mediation” process after whistleblowing racism, retaliation, and fraud to my company’s HR.
I also just realized my boss (who in my personal experience facilitated a culture of racism and retaliation against me) also hired/promoted a finance head who embezzled almost a million dollars from the company 🤯.
I have a follow-up meeting with HR next week which will be a peer mediation session with them and my boss. It's been a few weeks since my initial report to Hr (11/16/22) and I was being ghosted by my boss since I snitched on him and his VP pals.
I was off for a few days this week due to covid and No Surprise! On my first day back my boss asked me (via email) where I was bc he didn’t see me in the office and then told me (via email) that I can’t work from home anymore and I should come into the office 5 days a week from now on. I asked for an explanation but my boss told me that he would elaborate during our mediation session next week. Btw in this company, everyone gets 1 WFH day per week, I’m also in the exec mgmt team and allowed to make my hybrid schedule which is typical for everyone in my company at this level & my boss told me this many times and it has never been an issue before as I often work on the weekends or after hours if completing a large project. So The retaliation is so blatant at this point I find it almost comical.
Some background: I was hired to replace a VP of data and compliance and told I could hire a data manager but after complaining TO MY BOSS about some racists co-workers my boss told me not to go to HR about it and continued to block me from being able to hire a data manager forcing me to do two jobs while also managing 4 people. My boss convinced me he was speaking with the VPs advocating on my behalf for months but things only got worse over time.
Mind you I am the only black person in the executive leadership team, I’m 31, and my salary is in the low 6-figure range. My boss used to be president of the company when it was a small nonprofit but became executive VP after the company merged with a large healthcare company. The leadership structure is CEO (some guy)->executive VP (my boss)-> Me and 3 Assoc. VPs. Since my complaints to my boss started my middle-aged white VP co-workers have done it all to ruin my reputation here by making up lies about me missing meetings to my boss (when I proved to my boss they were lying via zoom and Microsoft teams documentation he told me “don't take it personally, people make mistakes”), lying about me not filing reports with the government, instructing my staff to stay home behind my back because the office was closed ( the office wasn't closed lol), disrespectfully complaining to me about the “quality of the company” post-merger in emails with my whole team copied on them (imagine being cc’d on an email where white department heads on the same level as your old boss berate your new young black boss for things like the “quality of the company”…lol that’s what my team witnessed). It’s all documented during my time over 9 months or so and now I’m just going thru the HR process hoping for the best.
My HR said their investigation is still pending, they haven’t given me anything in writing about the status of the pending investigation but insist on me having this peer mediation session with them and my boss at their main location 45 mins from my normal work location next week 🤔
In the meantime, I’ve been reaching out to employment lawyers and I have had some promising conversations :0) I’ve never been in this situation before so I’m staying strong and trying to stay positive.
It's a funny feeling making the most money you've ever made, but also experiencing the most racism you've ever experienced in your life. Talk about a catch-22! Haha
If anyone has any advice, similar experiences, or general words of encouragement for someone in my situation please feel free to share.