Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Depends on the culture at your workplace: I would try to persuade HR that this was not a racist incident. I would also remove student 3 from any hiring consideration, and not give them a good reference (diplomatically, of course). We need fewer idiots in the workplace.

This is a classic racist incident and a way to disenfranchise employees in the workplace. The fact that a senior leader laughs is troublesome.

No. Student 3 is acting like a snowflake. They're not even the same race as Student 2, who made the joke about their own race. This is well below the bar for "hostile work environment", and HR will see it as such if the manager explains what happened. The laughing is excusable, given the context.

I am shocked at the posters who support and enable such frivolous complaints. I am a woman who is not white. This is NOT what constitutes workplace hostility. If you start taking all the stupid seriously, you are less likely to recognize and deal with the truly egregious situations!

In other words - stop crying wolf.

#gaslighting

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say a senior leader ran a research group that took in college students for training. The students are paid a stipend.

On the end of the program, senior leader takes everyone out for a simple lunch at a nearby restaurant.

During the conversation while seated, Student 1 (say 1 is a federally recognized race) tells the story of a former faculty who really made life hell for her in almost abusive conditions as an assistant. Student 2 (2 is another federally recognized race) remarks "I dont want to be racist but I bet that faculty is race 2" then laughs and everyone laughs. Senior leader laughed with them to be polite.

Weeks pass, and apparently Student 3 from a different race then 1 or 2, reports the group to HR for hostile work environment. Note that Student 2 made fun of own race, not student 1 or 3's race.

If senior leader agrees to dei training, will this all just go away?! Any way to fight this?

Love to hear what the actual topic of the research group was.

Sounds like everyone may have been female too, and the story's protagonist, so you're pushing up on gender tropes too at the lunch.

FYI - Student 1 b!t(hing about a former employee person is very unprofessional and easy to look up.

Racist Gossip City at that lunch. The manager must have set quite the tone for those kind of convos. THat or she had a bunch of loose lips at lunch.

Those are massive assumptions. Is that how you lead your life, jumping to conclusions?

OP can answer.

I've been to 25+ years of business, company and recruiting dinners. It ain't the college boys complaining all time or saying, "I don't want to racist, but was your bad boss XYZ race?!" It's catty females, making themselves look bad.

Yikes, I've been in business 20+ years too, and in my profession, I have seen everything. But, leading with personal biases is a really unhealthy way to view the world and potentially discriminatory to others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Depends on the culture at your workplace: I would try to persuade HR that this was not a racist incident. I would also remove student 3 from any hiring consideration, and not give them a good reference (diplomatically, of course). We need fewer idiots in the workplace.

This is a classic racist incident and a way to disenfranchise employees in the workplace. The fact that a senior leader laughs is troublesome.

No. Student 3 is acting like a snowflake. They're not even the same race as Student 2, who made the joke about their own race. This is well below the bar for "hostile work environment", and HR will see it as such if the manager explains what happened. The laughing is excusable, given the context.

I am shocked at the posters who support and enable such frivolous complaints. I am a woman who is not white. This is NOT what constitutes workplace hostility. If you start taking all the stupid seriously, you are less likely to recognize and deal with the truly egregious situations!

In other words - stop crying wolf.

How would OP know their race, just based on their skin color? Maybe they are biracial, maybe they are adopted, or maybe they are just a decent human being who don't want to be in such a racist offensive work environment.

Student 1 (say 1 is a federally recognized race) tells the story of a former faculty who really made life hell for her in almost abusive conditions as an assistant

“Wow, it sounds like you had difficulties working together and that’s unfortunate, but it’s best in work settings not to discuss issues you may have had with previous professors or employers or even other coworkers. You never know in life who is listening and how your words might come back to you later. What if Alberto at the end of the table happens to be Professor’s nephew and in 10 years is also the hiring manager for a company you’re interested in. Do you think when you walk in for the interview they won’t remember how you trash talked their aunt to a group of coworkers 10 years ago? In the Future if you have legitimate concerns you should discuss directly and privately with that person or go up the chain of command.”

I’d apologize to HR for not shutting down inappropriate work conversations but I would not play into their race baiting. You should have ended the conversation the minute person 1 started complaining about someone not in the room. If you had done that the person 2 would never have made assumptions about their behavior based on race and person 3 wouldn’t have a leg to stand on but person 1, 2, and 3 might have learned a lesson about how to be a better employee.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Depends on the culture at your workplace: I would try to persuade HR that this was not a racist incident. I would also remove student 3 from any hiring consideration, and not give them a good reference (diplomatically, of course). We need fewer idiots in the workplace.

This is a classic racist incident and a way to disenfranchise employees in the workplace. The fact that a senior leader laughs is troublesome.

No. Student 3 is acting like a snowflake. They're not even the same race as Student 2, who made the joke about their own race. This is well below the bar for "hostile work environment", and HR will see it as such if the manager explains what happened. The laughing is excusable, given the context.

I am shocked at the posters who support and enable such frivolous complaints. I am a woman who is not white. This is NOT what constitutes workplace hostility. If you start taking all the stupid seriously, you are less likely to recognize and deal with the truly egregious situations!

In other words - stop crying wolf.

Anonymous wrote:Say a senior leader ran a research group that took in college students for training. The students are paid a stipend. On the end of the program, senior leader takes everyone out for a simple lunch at a nearby restaurant. During the conversation while seated, Student 1 (say 1 is a federally recognized race) tells the story of a former faculty who really made life hell for her in almost abusive conditions as an assistant. Student 2 (2 is another federally recognized race) remarks "I dont want to be racist but I bet that faculty is race 2" then laughs and everyone laughs. [b]Senior leader laughed with them to be polite.

Weeks pass, and apparently Student 3 from a different race then 1 or 2, reports the group to HR for hostile work environment. Note that Student 2 made fun of own race, not student 1 or 3's race.

If senior leader agrees to dei training, will this all just go away?! Any way to fight this?

Yuck. Seriously?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Senior leader should be a, you know, leader and not laugh at students' racist jokes.

Oh please. Isnt it like a black person calling someone the n-word isnt racist?

We don't know anyone's race, including the senior leader.

I like the post.

Could have been a black kid complaining about demanding white boss, could have been a white kid complaining about a demanding black boss.

Either way the lunch was MIS-HANDLED and shouldn't have steered clear of this garbage. You don't talk down your former jobs or bosses; it makes YOU look bad too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say a senior leader ran a research group that took in college students for training. The students are paid a stipend.

On the end of the program, senior leader takes everyone out for a simple lunch at a nearby restaurant.

During the conversation while seated, Student 1 (say 1 is a federally recognized race) tells the story of a former faculty who really made life hell for her in almost abusive conditions as an assistant. Student 2 (2 is another federally recognized race) remarks "I dont want to be racist but I bet that faculty is race 2" then laughs and everyone laughs. Senior leader laughed with them to be polite.

Weeks pass, and apparently Student 3 from a different race then 1 or 2, reports the group to HR for hostile work environment. Note that Student 2 made fun of own race, not student 1 or 3's race.

If senior leader agrees to dei training, will this all just go away?! Any way to fight this?

Love to hear what the actual topic of the research group was.

Sounds like everyone may have been female too, and the story's protagonist, so you're pushing up on gender tropes too at the lunch.

FYI - Student 1 b!t(hing about a former employee person is very unprofessional and easy to look up.

Racist Gossip City at that lunch. The manager must have set quite the tone for those kind of convos. THat or she had a bunch of loose lips at lunch.

Those are massive assumptions. Is that how you lead your life, jumping to conclusions?

Anonymous wrote:Say a senior leader ran a research group that took in college students for training. The students are paid a stipend.

On the end of the program, senior leader takes everyone out for a simple lunch at a nearby restaurant.

During the conversation while seated, Student 1 (say 1 is a federally recognized race) tells the story of a former faculty who really made life hell for her in almost abusive conditions as an assistant. Student 2 (2 is another federally recognized race) remarks "I dont want to be racist but I bet that faculty is race 2" then laughs and everyone laughs. Senior leader laughed with them to be polite.

Weeks pass, and apparently Student 3 from a different race then 1 or 2, reports the group to HR for hostile work environment. Note that Student 2 made fun of own race, not student 1 or 3's race.

If senior leader agrees to dei training, will this all just go away?! Any way to fight this?

Love to hear what the actual topic of the research group was.

Sounds like everyone may have been female too, and the story's protagonist, so you're pushing up on gender tropes too at the lunch.

FYI - Student 1 b!t(hing about a former employee person is very unprofessional and easy to look up.

Racist Gossip City at that lunch. The manager must have set quite the tone for those kind of convos. THat or she had a bunch of loose lips at lunch.

Anonymous wrote:
Depends on the culture at your workplace: I would try to persuade HR that this was not a racist incident. I would also remove student 3 from any hiring consideration, and not give them a good reference (diplomatically, of course). We need fewer idiots in the workplace.

This is a classic racist incident and a way to disenfranchise employees in the workplace. The fact that a senior leader laughs is troublesome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Senior leader should be a, you know, leader and not laugh at students' racist jokes.

Oh please. Isnt it like a black person calling someone the n-word isnt racist?

We don't know anyone's race, including the senior leader.

I'm a little lost on all the 'federally recognized race' stuff. If race ever comes up in a business setting, like a corporate function or meal outside of premises, the best thing a leader can do is respond to it and reset the tone. 'while I'm glad everyone is comfortable enough to share personal stories, let's maintain a respectful approach regarding race, ethnicity or any other potentially sensitive topic. Can someone pass the butter and who's going to the game this weekend?'

It sounds like this leader was caught off guard, so HR will chat with him about it. But it does not constitute workplace harassment in isolation.

Anonymous wrote:Yes do the training. You shouldn't have laughed. In my supervisory training, we are told over and over again to never engage in baiting like this. We are also told we need to absolutely shut down and report conversations like this. Did you report it?

This.

Anonymous wrote:Say a senior leader ran a research group that took in college students for training. The students are paid a stipend. On the end of the program, senior leader takes everyone out for a simple lunch at a nearby restaurant. During the conversation while seated, Student 1 (say 1 is a federally recognized race) tells the story of a former faculty who really made life hell for her in almost abusive conditions as an assistant. Student 2 (2 is another federally recognized race) remarks "I dont want to be racist but I bet that faculty is race 2" then laughs and everyone laughs. Senior leader laughed with them to be polite.

Weeks pass, and apparently Student 3 from a different race then 1 or 2, reports the group to HR for hostile work environment. Note that Student 2 made fun of own race, not student 1 or 3's race.

If senior leader agrees to dei training, will this all just go away?! Any way to fight this?

Fight what? You failed at your job. Fighting merely signals a deep bias.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Depends on the culture at your workplace: I would try to persuade HR that this was not a racist incident. I would also remove student 3 from any hiring consideration, and not give them a good reference (diplomatically, of course). We need fewer idiots in the workplace.

Please do not give advice, ever. You just encouraged OP to retaliate against student 3 for making a discrimination claim. This is a clear violation of antidiscrimination laws. Someone making a discrimination claim, regardless of whether the claim is well founded, is protected against retaliation for making the claim. This is really basic shit.

No. Most people do this in such a way that there is absolutely no reason to suspect discrimination, PP. Managers and team leads are expected to support good employees and prevent the elevation of poor employees. Student 3 is young and made a mistake. This is entirely forgivable, but the senior manager shouldn't go out of their way to help out that student either, unless they made such excellent contributions that the good outweighs the bad!

And you need to stop being ridiculous. We should not enable petty, frivolous complaints like the one made by Student 3. There's enough stress in the workplace already. You're saying, anytime someone makes a complaint, everyone should fall over themselves to not give the appearance of retaliation? Snort.

Thx for your personal opinion and attack on Student 3. Your biases are noted.