malfeasance in the workplace

[self biased]

Main Entry: mal·fea·sance
Pronunciation: "mal-'fE-z&n(t)s
Function: noun
Etymology: mal- + obsolete feasance doing, execution
: wrongdoing or misconduct especially by a public official

i don't often make threads like this. hell. i don't often make threads. there is, however, a certain affectation i can manage at my workplace that might be construed as devious and underhanded. i will try to give the facts with as little bias as i can.

the particulars concern Albert. Albert is of puerto rican descent, and dates one of the daytime supervisor (Francesca)'s daughters. he works overnights in my department, and not in hers, so there's little actual conflict of intrest going on in that respect, though Albert likely would have been let go months ago were it not for the influence of Francesca.

a few other perceived facts about albert: he behaves in a superior manner, as if he were honestly a better person than i, or any other person in the department. he also wears not one, but two rosaries as necklaces. i was raised catholic. my grandmother beat the dogsh!t out of me the one time i decided to wear my rosary as a necklace. it was a cursory glance compared to the tanning my father gave my hide. a rosary is an artifact, something holy. it is not a piece of jewlery. the lack of respect for his own faith is offensive enough as it is. i've even challenged him on it and all he did was shrug as if i had no f*cking idea what i was talking about.

so now we get to the nuts and bolts of the root of the problem: i was within earshot of a conversation between Albert and another coworker Sven. Albert told Sven that Sven was not a 'Real Man' because Sven did not cheat on his wife. he went on to brag about how he cheated on his ex wife and signficant others.

ever since i made such a commitment, i've been fiercely committed to my wife. for anyone to suggest my being faithful to my wife, or a husband being faithful to his wife, as being a flaw, i find offensive at a basic level. should this conversation had happened with me as the subject, i may very well have hauled off and decked him and then kicked him in his bad kidney. how dare anyone who does not intimately know myself and my wife impune our honor.

i was flabbergasted. i later asked Sven if Albert was joking. i can accept just about anything were it a joke in some capacity. apparently, it wasn't. Albert was wholly serious in his statement. this makes my blood boil. he might have well said "god damn, i hate N!ggers."

where things begin to get sticky, is that should i see fit to press the matter, i have the capacity to go to human resources with a greivance. i could, in turn, ask that he be written up for harassment (technically sexual, given the explicitness of the discussion on his behalf). it gets stickier by the fact that if he gets written up, he cannot be considered for the shift leader position that he's applied for, and was all but promised.

it should be stated that there is not a soul amongst the grunts in our department, nor our current shift leader, that think Albert is an acceptable choice for a replacement. it could be seen as an underhanded and technical way for me to prevent him from getting the shift leader position. honestly, this is only a fringe benefit.

i don't do well with other people who consider themselves erroneously superior to me. especially, those people who base their superiority on their own wholesale lack of integrity and character. not to mention it would get back to Francesca just why her precious not-quite-son-in-law was written up. if i were to go through this, the filing of a grievance with Human Resources, it could likely ruin Albert's entire life. he's a bastard, i'll give him that, but does he deserve this? i'm offended to my core concerning his misogynistic statement of fact. but i can at least play connect the dots and see where this could possibly lead.


i have a conundrum. please help me solve it.

[Japher]

step 1: Get into the confidence of Albert. If he is going to be promoted despite being the way he is the he obviously knows something (or maybe has dirt on someone). Thus, become his friend.

step 2: Joke about how your wife knows nothing about your girlfriend.

step 3: Tell him that the name of one your girlfriends is Francesca and that she works at the company in whatchamacallit department

step 4: Let him hit you

... tada!

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Japher
step 1: Get into the confidence of Albert. If he is going to be promoted despite being the way he is the he obviously knows something (or maybe has dirt on someone). Thus, become his friend.

step 2: Joke about how your wife knows nothing about your girlfriend.

step 3: Tell him that the name of one your girlfriends is Francesca and that she works at the company in whatchamacallit department

step 4: Let him hit you

... tada!

absolutely brilliant!

[snoopy369]

Honestly self, I don't think you should do anything. I don't think anything happened here that is wrong, legally speaking.

It depends partially on the conversation itself, and whether it was intended to be private and not overheard; and exactly how explicit it was. Sexual harassment here would be a fairly hard thing to push (well, in the US anyway) since he wasn't talking to you and presumably didn't intend for you to hear his comments; unless they were extremely explicit (say, graphically describing sexual acts) then I would generally expect that nothing would come as a result of it other than a reprimand to not discuss such things at the workplace (unless Canadian law treats this very differently than US).

What is your relationship to him? Are you a coworker or a supervisor? I couldn't really tell. Do you have input on his promotion?

To me it sounds like the only relevant thing is that he is a misogynist, which is not something you probably should bring up. Not that it's not relevant, but unless you're someone with input on the hiring or promotion decisions, I don't think this is a big enough deal to justify speaking up. He's an ass, but there are a lot of asses out there, and you'd be surprised how often the bosses are well aware of these details. Particularly if you're at the same level as he is, and could be seen as going for the same promotion (even if you're not), you would look somewhat like someone just trying to sabotage a coworker; which never looks good. Unless he's done something a bit worse than this, I don't think it would be good for your career to complain.

It also sounds to me that some of your complaint is coming from cultural differences. The rosary thing is cultural; you are canadian, if I understand correctly, while he is puerto rican. It is a common thing in certain parts of the latin american world to wear a rosary as a necklace, to show your devotion to the Virgin Mary. Or at least I saw it quite frequently, when I lived in New Mexico, so I'd guess it's fairly common.

That said, I don't care about cultural bias when it comes to treating women properly; but it is not relevant to the workplace whether he considers it correct or not to cheat on his wife. Unless he has that same conversation with you, and you fulfill the other elements of flagrant sexual harassment (ie, ask him to stop talking about it, and he doesn't), I don't think it is relevant to the workplace.

[SlowwHand]

Albert is a ****forbrains.

[self biased]

i'm american, and have been born and raised in New York, snoopy. i am a coworker in relation to him, and the only way i can influence his promotion is by having him written up. cultural differences aside, he's catholic, and on a rudimentary level, so am i.

a rosary is not a f*cking necklace, period, end of story. he could wear ten thousand crucifixes and whatever else have you. were he muslim he could cry "ALLAH O AKBAR!" every hour on the hour and i would defend him. what smites me is his lack of respect and integrity to his own faith. the bottom line is that doing such a thing, as wearing a rosary as a necklace/jewelry is blasphemic and disrespectful to put it mildly, how can he have proper respect and consideration to people who would be under him?

i've considered cultural differences and found them a moot point. he's been here long enough to know better; he just doesn't give a damn. i honestly don't care what opinions he holds outside of work. it's rightly his business. i feel that it is wholly inapropriate that he express the previously stated opinions in the workplace.

i don't take kindly to being made to seem a lesser person for putting the wife on the pedestal that she deserves.

[C0ckney]

i think self should just accept he's not a real man and move on.

[SlowwHand]

For a price, Albert will fall down the stairs.

[snoopy369]

Ah, SB, don't know why I thought you were canadian.

The usage of the rosary is a cultural thing. He is of a dramatically different culture than you. Therefore assuming you understand the significance or meaning of wearing the rosary to him is making a massive leap of naïvete. Perhaps to him wearing it means he can pray on it at a moment's notice. I don't know why two - but again I assume that I don't know anything about others' cultures before I state that they are plain wrong, unless it is something that damages another person. You're getting worked up over a plastic necklace, for God's sake. Get over it.

You absolutely are right for respecting women, and are undoubtedly a better person than he is at least in this respect. But that does not mean anything in the workplace, where from a legal perspective I don't think he has done anything wrong. Sure he's an ass. Absolutely. But as long as he doesn't do anything to harm women while at work, it is not relevant to the employer, except as a "character" reference.

If it is important enough to you, give said character reference. What he did I do not believe is nearly enough to get written up for, beyond being told not to express his opinions on the matter at work. It really sounds to me like you just don't like this guy, and you want to find a way to get him written up... which is fine of course, but find something better