lrb111 wrote:
Did you mention in the United States you have the right to know your accuser? Did you ask if the person "with an obvious agenda to defame you" in the workplace has been investigated for lying?
edited for fat fingers
Shortly after 9/11 I got "called in" by my boss and an HR person to discuss a situation that was occurring at work. A call taker with a name very similar to "Usama bin Ladin" had filed a bunch of complaints against a variety of people alleging harassment, civil rights violations, and whatever else he could shotgun (my personal feeling is that he was a malingerer right from the start and was trying to avoid being fired for his performance problems, but that's a whole 'nother thing.)
Anyway, I was not directly accused or identified, I was just one of the same level and category of engineer as those he accused or so they said. The interview consisted of multiple questions about the HR part of the employee manual and whether I would participate in such nasty things as organized or ad hoc harassment of fellow employees based on their ethnic origin or anything else.
The HR 'broad', for the lack of a better 'B' word to call her, kept pounding at me, asking the same stuff over with different words, and I was getting pretty upset because they had told me there were no direct charges against me, so when she pointed out, once again, that doing this and that was a firing offense and a misdemeanor, I told her that I had a CHL and that being convicted of a misdemeanor would cost me that, and that I didn't consider him (the call taker) to be worth risking that loss for.
The HR person got this really shocked look on her face and started in on a diatribe about no guns being allowed, etc, etc, etc. I told her that I followed HR guidelines and didn't possess guns on the job, etc, etc, etc.
After the inquisition nothing further was said about it, but when layoffs came a couple of months later, I was on the chopping block and people junior to me stayed, and I think the fact that I had a CHL got me on the list. Never should have said anything.
BTW, two people who I know were involved in harassing that call taker were not laid off, although he was.
Also BTW, since I had been secretary of the company gun club it was pretty well understood that I had some involvement with guns, and there were several of us CHLs who were known to each other and others knew just because that's the way that kind of information gets out.