cch_basic_employment_law_manual_for_managers_and_supervisor_8th_ed_2012_Part9.pdf

Supervisor Statements as Evidence SUPERVISORS' STATEMENTS BECOME EVIDENCE IN COURT Statements made by supervisors or managers often become key parts of a court case alleging that an employee was unlawfully fired. The statements are used by employees to show that a company had unlawful motive for a f...

Supervisor Statements as Evidence SUPERVISORS' STATEMENTS BECOME EVIDENCE IN COURT Statements made by supervisors or managers often become key parts of a court case alleging that an employee was unlawfully fired. The statements are used by employees to show that a company had unlawful motive for a firing or that a situation existed that unfairly forced the employee to resign. Here are some examples of statements made by supervisors that wound up being used as evidence to show that a termination was improper: • Calling female employees "girls" while referring to male employees as "men" was evidence of both race and sex discrimination. The term "girl" could refer to a repulsive historical image in the minds of black employees and could also imply historical attitudes of female inferiority. • A supervisor's religious preaching at the workplace showed that an employer failed to provide a workplace free of religious intimidation. Employees could believe that job security would be affected by their reaction to the supervisor's statements of religious belief. • A manager's statement at a business dinner to a female coworker that he had heard that she had been seen engaging in sexual activity with another woman was sexual harassment. • Remarks by supervisors referring to a Chinese worker as a "Chink" and as "tight eye" were the main pieces of evidence used by a court to find that a racially hostile work environment existed that unlawfully forced the worker to resign. • Statements made by a supervisor at the social setting of a holiday dinner were used to show that an employee was not fired for poor performance. The supervisor praised the employee's work, indicated that she was an excellent employee, and requested at least five years' notice if the employee ever planned to leave the company. The employee claimed she was fired due to her age, and she used the statements to rebut the company's claim that poor performance was the reason for the termination. • A supervisor's frequent remarks about black employees that included such language as "nig**rs" and "Swahilis" were used by a court to find a racially hostile workplace. • A remark by a supervisor that "the lousy liberal Jews are ruining the company and the United States," along with the supervisor's expression of anger that a Jewish employee, in observance of his religion, left work early on Fridays to arrive home before sundown, could be used in court to show that the employee was forced to resign because of his religion. • Remarks that college recruits had "very high" energy levels and were "very open to learning new techniques" were sufficient evidence to allow a jury award to a man who claimed he was fired due to age bias. 22 • A manager's use of the phrase "old dogs don't know how to hunt" could indirectly suggest that a 63 year-old employee was not fired because of declining performance. • Statements that an employee would need to have "vision," embrace "new technology" and be "state of the art" raised an issue as to whether a company's reasons for replacing the 54 year-old employee were a cover-up for age discrimination. • Performance evaluation statements that described a female accountant as "macho," advised her to "take a course in charm school" and suggested that she "overcompensated for being a woman" showed that the employer improperly engaged in stereotyping that amounted to sexual discrimination against the woman. • A supervisor's comment that a transsexual would lack credibility when testifying before Congress because everyone would know that she had transitioned from male to female as only a man would have such military experiences showed the decision not to hire was based on discrimination due to sex stereotyping. • Comments by a supervisor that included the words "bitch" and "whore" helped create a hostile work place environment, despite the fact that the words were not directed at any particular individual, because the words are offensive to women based on their gender. • In response to an employee informing her supervisor that she was pregnant, the supervisor told her to look around to see how many pregnant women worked there. When the employee noted that there were none, the supervisor stated, "We plan on keeping it that way." After she complained to her supervisor that she felt that she was the subject of discrimination due to her pregnancy, he appeared to confirm her suspicion, stating that even if the employer had to pay for her maternity leave, she would not have a job when she came back. These statements supported the employee's claim that her subsequent termination was due to her pregnancy, rather than performance issues. • Repeated and continuous use of Nazi symbols and racial and ethnic slurs in the presence of a Jewish employee gave rise to an inference that the decision to discharge him would not have been made but for the supervisor's discriminatory animus • A remark allegedly made by a supervisor to a plaintiff that "you will never be promoted because of your complaints" was direct evidence linking her nonpromotion to her complaints about a lewd play written by the supervisor. • A supervisor's statement that he found an employee's prior EEOC complaint "morally repugnant," supported the employee's claim that he was the target of that supervisor's retaliatory behavior. • Comments by a supervisor that another employee "got promoted because she was white" suggested that an employer committed racial discrimination. • A supervisor's constant racist statements — including frequently called African-Americans "nig**r," referring to African-Americans as only being good for drug dealers, stating that he was "tired of working with you people," and saying things like "you people are 23