Coworker sent me a racist text message, still has a job

A seemingly innocent text message sent to a personal phone turned into a workplace nightmare. Discover how a coworker’s actions led to an unbelievable office cover-up and a shocking decision that left one employee questioning everything.

Sometime back in February, I got a text message sent on my personal phone by a co-worker. It was in response to a conversation which was terse at my office.

I did report the text message. I said that I felt threatened. End result of a week of conversation was effectively they moved the offender to another floor and forbade any of my coworkers to talk about it. They made it seem it was more of a management issue rather than what exactly happened.

And the fact that we were ‘friends’ beforehand, which wasn’t really accurate.

I ended up leaving. I got another email from an ‘anonymous’ source but it was similar language to what was said before. I again reported it.

A) Why does this guy still have a job?

B) Why did they respond the way that they did? Sure he was moved but he was still employed and actively working on my projects. It was painful to deal with.

C) If the answer was that the organization wasn’t liable because it wasn’t on work time or work property then what do I do next time faced with this?

Here’s how people reacted:

dcdarcy

Something also to keep in mind… just because the only corrective action you saw was them moving him doesn’t mean that’s all they did. They could have put him on a final warning (one more fuck-up and he’s gone) because he was accepted what he did as inappropriate and was apologetic for his actions… they could be giving him a poor performance rating as a result which could have financial and promotion impacts. HR usually doesn’t disclose outcomes of investigations to the compliant.

For future reference- you did exactly what you’re supposed to do. Your employer then gets to respond in the manner they deem appropriate for the situation and that might not always mirror what you’d want. You have to decide if you want to work for an employer that would tolerate 1 racist comment with some corrective action or if you would prefer to work for an employer where racist comments are a fireable offense. The best way to determine this is to look at how much they value diversity and inclusion. Is it part of their communicated core values? Are leadership teams diverse or filled with a bunch of white men? What do they do to educate their managers on inclusion and unconscious bias? I personally wouldn’t work for a firm that would tolerate any racism so my personal standards for my employer are very high.

ChokSokTe

Where are you located? Many states have commissions that deal with discrimination in the workplace (either within the dept of labor or standalone) that may intervene on your behalf to ensure the compliance of your company with state law.

meanblanket

HR exists to protect the company. If they moved him instead of firing him, its because it was in the best interest of the company. HR does not have the interests of the worker in mind.

Hrgooglefu

It is the employer’s responsibility to get the employee to stop the bad behavior. By moving him, they did that. They dont’ have to terminate his employment. It is possible they didn’t see as large a threat as you did. Even if you eventually left, they can prove they did something to stop it.

block the ‘anonymous’ source, change your email or do other things to protect yourself– up to calling local law enforcement if it continues. Your employer may not do anything else if you are no longer an employee since this is now his behavior outside of work. Or if they do something, you may never know.

Conclusion

The story concludes with a baffling management decision that failed to address the root cause, leaving many to wonder about workplace safety and accountability. What happens when reporting a threat results in more questions than answers?