I was very disappointed to hear that you plan to cut my hours and hire
two new people. Consider this email to be giving you notice that I believe that
is unlawful discrimination, which I am formally protesting.
I believe you may have some concern about my ability to negotiate with
your vendors. I will let you know that I was once world-ranked in a game called
Diplomacy, a game of pure negotiation. For the two years that I seriously played
the game, I was ranked in the top thirty in the world, of thousands of
players.
Diplomacy is said to be, “The iron fist in a velvet glove.” Sometimes you
keep the glove on, sometimes you take it off. But you keep your deals, and don't
hold grudges. I'm gonna take my glove off for a minute here, but I assure you, I
would prefer to keep the glove on in the future, after we reach an
agreement.
I understand that you have had difficulty with disloyal employees in the
past. I believe that loyalty is a two-way street. People are loyal to each other. Perhaps you
cultivated disloyalty in your previous employees, by failing to treat them with
fairness and respect. Perhaps you turned their loyalty, by failing to
reciprocate.
I have worked very hard for you. I worked two holidays, and didn't ask
for holiday-pay like nearly everybody in America gets for working Thanksgiving
or New Years. When asked to give up my one holiday off, on short notice, because
of another employee's disloyalty, I worked. When I found your ice machine
malfunctioning, I could have turned a blind eye and went home, let you find a
flood in the morning; instead of moving 2000 pounds of ice, as fast as I could,
to your benefit; and avoided a whole lot of sore muscles. When I found a carton
of cigarettes in the garbage by mistake, I could have not noticed them, tossed
them in the garbage, and retrieved them later.
Your store is cleaner than it has probably ever been, because of my hard
work. The store reeked from how filthy the cooler had become, and that mildewed
mop spreading stink all over the store every time the floor was mopped. Now your
cooler is crystal clean, organized like a library, and can be restocked in half
the time it used to take. The organization of the cooler can even facilitate
more efficient purchasing of stock. I even organized that rat's nest storage
area in the front of the store and unclogged your toilet.
And my reward for all this is what? Suspicion that I'm stealing? Cutting
my hours? Giving me no consideration for Robert's job, the job that should have
been mine in the first place, and was offered to me before you knew I was
transgender?
I took this job as opportunity to prove myself to be the best employee
you ever had, and I think I have done so.
I have earned your trust, and I have earned your loyalty. I have been
very good for your business. Young doesn't want to be there; you think your
customers don't sense that? Your customers appreciate that I treat them as
individuals, take an interest in them, make them laugh, try to speak Spanish....
Americans don't like being greeted with a fake smile, and an insincere, “How are
you?” They want people to compliment their appearance, notice their team colors,
joke around. Black people particularly like me showing an appreciation of their
music by playing it. Every hour that Young is on that cash register, instead of
me, costs you business. She's doing her best, but she is just worn out. But
people know that I am happy to be there, and it makes them happy to be
there.
I can't even begin to calculate how much money that cokehead Robert cost
you with his illogical ordering. I firmly believe that he was getting kickbacks
from the drivers for taking stuff off their hands that nobody else would buy,
especially his last purchase. I can do alot better.
I implore you not to create a situation that causes me to file a Civil
Rights complaint. I have won other cases, and my case against you, going back
all the way to the beginning, would be a slam-dunk. But I don't want that
hassle, if it can be avoided. I believe it's likely that you and Young
would prefer having less hassle to having more, as well.
I am not the kind of person that holds a grudge against another Christian
who has made a mistake, if they are genuinely sorry and make amends. All I want
is a normal job and a shot at a normal life. If you help me with that, I'm going
to continue to be grateful and loyal.
But if you don't give me fair consideration for Robert's job, or if you
take hours away from me and give them to somebody else; I will file a complaint
with CCRD, and I guarantee you that CCRD will order you to pay me the difference
between my actual earnings and what my earnings would have been for the original
30 hours a week, going back to Day One, continuing until the case is settled,
and for another year thereafter. I assure you, that if you employ someone else
to work hours that are now mine, you will be paying double wages. You can pay
somebody else to do my job, but in the end, CCRD will force you to pay me for
all those hours as well. Moreover, I am sure I am sure that I can organize a
protest that will cut your sales by at least 50%, especially since I made
friends with so many of your customers. I am all-in, you think I'm
bluffing, then call my bet.
You may be thinking at this point that you would be justified in firing
me, just for talking to you like this. But I assure you that such action
would be another violation of the anti-discrimination law, specifically what the
law calls "retaliation against lawful protest."
I would prefer to make a deal around a job, and I assure you that I will
keep my end of it, without rancor, should that be the result. I trust you would
keep your end of a deal, because it would be in your self-interest. I really
hope we can put this behind us, and go forward. I am sure that I can, and
believe that you and Young would also be able to do so. However, if you force us
into an adversarial relationship, I am sure that we will all regret
it.
THE REPLY
FOLLOWS:
You
need to understand the situation here and use correct words. This isn't
"Unlawful discrimination" nor are you protesting it. You were only working
temporarily while Mr. Lee was gone. My wife also told you that. If we decide to
hire a new employee you can work the same hours as before.
I
have no interest in your personal life. Nor do I care about Diplomacy. I want to
only judge you based on how you work.
We
have not had much problems with past employees than you imply. Like you said the
relationship between a employee and a employer is a two way street.
We
thank you and appreciate you for working hard in our store. But in my memory, I
believe other employees did just the same amount of hard work if not more.
We
thank you again for your keeping the store clean, but isn't that what employees
are supposed to do? We like to hire employees who keep the store clean; if they
didn't clean, we would fire them. Also, past and other employees have
cleaned before too.
Your
reward is the money that we paid for your hard work. Why do you think that we
suspect you for stealing? Did you steal? "Cutting" is not the right word. We
never "cut" your hours, you worked temporally more than usual, and now you are
returning to your usual hours. I understand how you would want Robert's
job, but who gets that job is not for you to decide.
Its
nice to hear that you are getting along well with the customers and how they
like you, but that is your opinion. Customers might think differently than what
you claim. No one can be liked by everyone they meet.
Do
not judge other employees that we hired. Their problem is irrelevant to
you.
The
person that "creates a situation" is nor me. It is you.
We
have no reason to be sorry or make amends. Our relationship is just another
employee and an employer's. As far as I know, we already helped you. We hired
you to work at our store when the economy was bad. We asked you to work
Lee's hours for temporary when he left suddenly because we thought you are good.
But You are breaking our relationship with this kind of black mailing. So we
were realized that you are not as much as we thought.
Like
I said before, I hope you choose the correct words. We never took your hours.
You were only working temporally, we are hiring another employee to give you
back your original time.
You
can file a complaint, it's your choice. You can make our lives harder. It's also
your choice. However remember that every thing you do has its own
consequences.
You
always assume things. Whether we fire you or not is our decision. There is
nothing more to it than that. Whatever happens and whatever you would like to do
is your choice.
There
is no "deal" to make. We made one long ago when we hired you: for us to pay you
and for you to work assiduously. We will make decisions rationally and with
reason. We see this as a form of black mailing. This kind of message to make
someone give you what you want is unethical. This kind of message can in fact
work against you in the future.
So
it is very sorry to say that you are requested to stop working in our store from
today.
Sang