worried about being fired but might have some leverage

June 18, 2009 7:22 PM

I am worried about getting fired. What can I do?

My company recently let someone go. Apparently it just had to be done. I am worried that if it came down to it, I might be next. I'm good at my job, but have made some mistakes (that I fixed and learned from). My boss hired me alongside another person who has the same job title that I do. He, from the beginning, has always preferred her. He has even given her credit for things that I have accomplished (and that he has no reason to think it was her). There is some reason to believe that he preferered her initially because she is attractive and he is gross like that.

He has somewhat of an inappropriate sense of humor. He has said a racial slur in front of me about people of my ethnicity (I don't think he knew what I was at the time, as my appearance makes my ethnicity kind of ambiguous).

He has a reputation for making sexist and racist jokes.

Can I use any of this as leverage? I would rather not have it come down it that, and I have been working my ass off lately to try to do everything in my power to prevent it from coming to it. But if my hand was forced, is any of this kind of thing useful? Should I be doing anything regarding the things I wrote about above beforehand as some sort of preventive measure? I don't want to screw anyone over, but this is an especially stressful time to be worried about your job security.

posted by anonymous to work & money (10 comments total)

If you didn't document it, or discuss it at the time, I don't think there's anything you can do at this point, unless these things happened relatively recently.

I don't mean to imply that even if you were able to officially document these things, you could use them as leverage, because I have absolutely no HR or legal background. I was just commenting on whether or not it would be realistic to address those issues now.
posted by necessitas at 7:29 PM on June 18

i don't think you can use those things to your benefit now as they weren't taken care of appropriately as the instances happened. bringing them up now would be a good way to make sure you're on the next list of layoffs.

i know the economy is hard - but why stay at a place where you have a racist, sexist, "gross" boss. life is too short to sell you time to assholes.
posted by nadawi at 7:33 PM on June 18 [1 favorite]

The fact that someone got fired and it had it coming to them does not mean you are in the firing line, but hedge your bets.

Sit tight, start looking for another job. Better to find a job from a job. Also- nadawi is right, life is too short to spend time with people you don't like.
posted by mattoxic at 7:42 PM on June 18

Agree with the notion that you should start looking for a new job now, not after you get pink-slipped.

And you really don't have any juice when it comes to your boss' grossness. For something like that to work, you need to build up and document (with HR) a pattern of behavior over time. It would be too easy for him to just deny everything and claim you're making it up out of bitterness on your way out the door. The truth is immaterial, it's the appearance that matters, and it wouldn't put you in a good light.

If the guy is really obnoxious you could start documenting racially insensitive or sexist things he does with HR starting now, but make absolutely certain that they'll keep your complaints confidential. (If it's a small company I wouldn't believe that, even if it's the official policy.) However, at least in my personal experience, very little gets done about boorish behavior in profitable employees, unless there's a real uproar and complaints from multiple, unconnected people. Obviously it depends on the company and the corporate culture, though.

Personally, I'd start polishing my resume and not do anything that would screw up my use of the job (and even the boorish manager) as a reference in the future. Even assholes come in handy sometimes, and the economic climate is not one in which I'd want to burn a lot of bridges.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:08 PM on June 18

I was a participant in a termination today. The person who was terminated had documented and made complaints about her boss (not me!)to HR. In the end, this person was terminated for two reasons in spite of actual apparently (I am not in HR and was not privy to any investigation) legitimate complaints about a boss who said and did inappropriate things. One, the person used company resources to send out 100% inappropriate emails of photos taken on a company Blackberry and two, sales production was sub par. The photos appeared in a routine random regulatory review. No matter what this person had on the boss, it mattered not in that the person had violated company policy and was not performing.

My point is you have little to no leverage; you should keep your nose clean and work hard as you have been doing. After that, if they want to terminate you, they will find a reason or a way. There is nothing you can do about it. Everyone, EVERYONE eventually makes a mistake or errs out of omission. If they want you out, as soon as you do, BOOM, they will pounce like a starving cat at a mouse convention.

So, your two choices are either to just not worry about it and work hard, or two worry about it and work hard. Either way, be prepared with a game plan if you are terminated.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:11 PM on June 18

anonymous: He has even given her credit for things that I have accomplished (and that he has no reason to think it was her). There is some reason to believe that he preferered her initially because she is attractive and he is gross like that…He has somewhat of an inappropriate sense of humor. He has said a racial slur in front of me about people of my ethnicity (I don't think he knew what I was at the time, as my appearance makes my ethnicity kind of ambiguous)…He has a reputation for making sexist and racist jokes.

Can I use any of this as leverage?

There are two senses in which a person would ordinarily ask this question: first, a person might ask whether they can practically use these facts as leverage—whether it is indeed possible and feasible. Second, a person might ask whether they can ethically or morally use these facts as leverage.

If you ask this question in the second sense—if you're asking whether it might be moral to use unfortunate and harmful facts about your boss as leverage to keep your job—then the answer is a resounding no. It is wrong to use someone else's failings or shortcomings to your own benefit; if he is sexist, racist, and otherwise sleazy, even so you know well that it's not your place to punish people who are those things but rather to make sure they are considered and punished justly; this requires careful thoughtfulness from an unbiased third party, and you are not that third party. Your HR department—or, beyond that, a court of law—is the proper environment for a consideration of wrongdoing and assignment of punishment. If you rationalize that you are “punishing” him by harming him to your own benefit, you are doing just that—rationalizing—since a true and decent authority in the matter would make the decision with nothing to lose or gain, but merely on the basis of merit. As such, using him to keep your job—exposing him, accusing him of bias merely because you think it'll be plausible and not because he is guilty in your case, harming his place in your business in order to advance your own—would be morally equivalent to doing the same thing to an innocent; you're not a judge, so his sins are nothing to you, and you may as well have harmed the most perfect person in the world.

As for the first sense of the question—if you're asking if it's possible practically to use his unfortunate shortcomings for your own job security—well, it's a funny thing. I generally am surprised at how often I discover that the most ethical thing to do turns out to be the most practical, as well. For instance: if other people at your place of work discovered that you used your race and your boss' faults to secure your employment, what would they think of you? Would that be a practical outcome?
posted by koeselitz at 9:24 PM on June 18 [1 favorite]

Also, I've found that the best thing to do in situations where I'm worried about losing my job is to go to my boss and say: “how am I doing? Do you think I'm doing a good job here? Tell me: is my work bad, okay, good, or great? And what do you think I need to do to improve?” This accomplishes two good things: first, bosses love hearing this—it tells them that you're thinking about the job and trying to improve, which is always a plus—and second, you will know instantly from your boss' reaction where you stand on the whole firing issue. It can be a little frightening to ask that question, since you're leaving it open for him to criticize you mercilessly if he so chooses, but keep in mind that, if you're really headed for the firing line, you'll hear all that and worse; if you get him to tell you now, you have a chance to save your job. And, what's more (and in your case in particular) it's pretty damned tough to fire a guy if you've just told him, “nah, don't worry, you're doing a great job!” So if you get that answer, you can be somewhat relieved.
posted by koeselitz at 9:31 PM on June 18 [1 favorite]

Start looking for a new job. DON'T QUIT unless you've found a better job. and most importantly, chill.

This reminds me of an old boss I had. He used to make nasty gay jokes at me and I ripped on his momma. Insults were just his way of connecting with some people. Onlookers were often shocked at the stuff we said to eachother. Perhaps, in the spirit of interpersonal relations, you should try familliarizing yourself with jokes about your own ethnicity and try making fun of your boss for being white (he is white? right?).
posted by Pseudology at 12:38 AM on June 19

Absolutely understand your anxiety about losing a job.

However, you are in a job which, not only is not appropriately rewarding you, but where your immediate superior appears biased against you. I would suggest that your situation is not going to get any better in the long term. Better to smile and leave with dignity intact than to end up taking on all the baggage of being fired.
posted by BadMiker at 5:32 AM on June 19

Wanted to second koeselitz's sentiments, and to point out that you can use that meeting as an opportunity to make your boss aware of the accomplishments he didn't know were yours. If he takes your question seriously and gives a good answer, it wouldn't seem weird to slip in something like "One of my favorite accomplishments here was the Finstminster project; I really felt like I got to utilize my [positive quality A] and [positive quality B]. Do you think I should stick to more projects like that [or use that approach on more projects, or whatever is appropriate to your company's workflow], or should I be looking to try new kinds of projects[/approaches/whatever]?" Knowing your company's specifics, I'm sure you could do something like that more subtly than I did just there, but that's the gist.
posted by troywestfield at 12:04 PM on June 19