❤️‍🩹How to Document Discrimination at Work

Are you in a hostile workplace and need help getting out or simply navigating how to handle it discreetly? Here's how to document discrimination at work. Follow the steps outlined below to best equip yourself with workplace self defense.

Step 1 - 📖Review the Employee Handbook

📖Read your employee handbook to learn about protections provided by your employer (sometimes beyond state and federal law) and necessary steps to protect yourself.

Step 2 - Print Hardcopies, Just in Case

🗂️Retain a copy of your employee handbook and documentation of hostile treatment at home, in case your computer access is lost.

Step 3 - How to Document the Discrimination at Work

🗒️Keep a detailed record of abusive treatment. Jacquie Abram’s book “Hush Money: How One Woman Proved Systemic Racism in Her Workplace and Kept Her Job,” describes how to effectively document abuse.

Abuse Patterns to Recognize

Protect your mental health by learning about workplace abuse patterns and injury to avoid internalizing the abuse as a personal failing! Racial abuse - Check out work by J. Luke Wood, PhD and Dr. Frank Harris III on Racelighting (https://lnkd.in/gBbuh-4H) and Racial Battle Fatigue by Dr. William Smith (https://lnkd.in/gUeAaRmH) Weathering - learn how systemic racism, poverty, and other types of oppression cause accelerated aging and illness by Dr. Arline Geronimus (https://lnkd.in/ga6vs2Vg). ⚖️Attorney Mahir S. Nisar’s Workplace Justice podcast includes great information about employee rights (https://lnkd.in/gfYRD7se).

Step 4 - Don't Trust HR

👀Be strategic in complaints to Human Resources, as described in S. Anne Marie A.’s “Hostile Work Environment Escape Strategy” training series (https://lnkd.in/gSAZfrD5). 📃When filing an HR complaint, be prepared for institutional betrayal described by Jennifer Freyd’s acronym DARVO (i.e., company defends itself by denying wrongdoing and attacks, claiming you are the abuser and defaming your character or work). See how DARVO plays out with a workplace discrimination complaint at https://lnkd.in/g6wsH54C.

Step 5 - Assess if the Bully Stays

If you want to keep your job and be protected from a bully, use the Workplace Bullying Institue Calculator by Gary Namie, PhD to estimate the cost of the company retaining your bully (https://lnkd.in/eef4yrkg). Do not expect the HR report to resolve the issue. It is a key part of your documentation for later negotiations. Clearly state in writing to HR, which law was violated and which protected class or classes you belong to (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy, disability).

Step 6 - Get Support for Your Mental Health!

Kimani Norrington-Sands, Ph.D. Hosts a podcast for Black Women in Toxic Jobs Access therapy with a BIPOC and/or LGBTQ clinician: LatinxTherapy https://latinxtherapy.com Therapy for Black Girls https://lnkd.in/gBMkpeij Therapy for Black Men https://lnkd.in/gdpe7-BA Asian Mental Health Collective https://www.asianmhc.org National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network https://nqttcn.com/en/ Melanin and Mental Health https://lnkd.in/g-p5pJ2S There are also peer support groups by profession like Physicians Anonymous https://lnkd.in/gPSUbe5F