Q: I believe my Supervisor is showing signs of discrimination towards me. If I am fired for this reason do I have a case?
I work for a medium to large WFH company I started a few months ago for training but as of last week I have graduated to production. Last week something happened with my phone number and I had to change it, I forgot the password to the personal email that I used to receive a code that is necessary to access the company desktop server. If you don't input that code then it is impossible to work. On the first day of production I emailed the supervisor that I was having issues and needed her help I got zero response I also contacted the company's IT department and they informed me that I need to contact my supervisor for such requests. The next day I CC'd my training manager as well as the production manager ( I believe the training manager contacted the prod manager to respond back to me) she finally responds back and 2 or 3 times with vague questions and zero resolution. It's now Sunday and I am still facing the same issue. after tomorrow I will have enough occurrences to be terminated.
A:
Your inquiry does not give any facts that would form a basis for asserting that you are the victim of unlawful discrimination. Discrimination, in the employment law context, means that you are being treated differently than co-employee(s) who perform the same or similar job functions, and at the same level, as you, and the reason you are being treated differently is because you are in a different "protected class" category than the co-employee(s) - for example, you are of a different race, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, or sexual orientation than the co-employee(s) who are being treated better than you are. Furthermore, for that different treatment to be actionable (meaning you can make a clam for it), there must be an adverse employment action (such as termination).
Many lay people think "discrimination" simply means being mistreated or harassed by a nasty or moronic boss, or being mistreated or harassed by a co-employee with the boss turning a blind eye. NONE of that is actionable discrimination unless it ALSO comes under the description of unlawful discrimination that I gave above. Mistreatment could also come under the category of unlawful retaliation in instances of an adverse employment action being taken due to complaining about unlawful discrimination or due to taking other legal actions such as taking sick leave or filing a workers comp claim.
If you are NOT the victim of either unlawful discrimination or unlawful retaliation, unfortunately, the employer, in most situations (in Fla.) is not legally required to have a valid reason for termination, and in those situations, the issue is whether you qualify for Reemployment Assistance (unemployment comp) after terminatoin, which depends on how long you've worked for the company. In any event, continue your efforts, with a writing trail, to show that you are making best efforts to perform your duties, only to be thwarted by others.
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