Two MORE Trapdoors to Avoid in Your

Hope you all had a safe & Happy 4th!

Last week, we covered several trapdoors to avoid during your EEOC investigation. This week, I have just two, but they're big ones.

Trapdoor 5: Being unreasonable.
Besides the emotional benefits, being reasonable also helps your case. A lot of decisions at EEOC are based around the reasonable person standard. It doesn’t apply to every decision, but it applies to a lot of them.

You can also bolster your credibility at EEOC by demonstrating that YOU are a reasonable person.

One of the hardest times for me to keep my cool was when I saw NASA’s pretext for the first time. Your employer’s pretext is going to say you’re to blame for what happened to you. They may say things that aren’t true or twist facts to suit them. Expect it. Knowing it’s coming will give you a chance to mentally prepare yourself for what's ahead, and plan for ways to discharge the negative emotions so you can be as physically-strong and emotionally-centered as possible.

Don't take your frustrations out on your investigator. They're only there to do a job. I tried to make their work as easy as possible, by having my evidence in order, and being as professional as I could. For me, it was the right move.

You may have to question your investigator, if you see them violating the compliance manual or leaving out evidence & witnesses. If you have serious concerns, email your investigator about them, and citing the facts around them, as you understand them. You may also want to send a copy to your employer's Diversity Manager.

Include your observations & concerns in your final rebuttal to the Agency as well. Documenting an incomplete, or biased record will make it a bit harder for your employer to prevail on a summary judgment.

Being reasonable can be hard when your employer is being cruel. But those moments of stark contrast between your behavior and theirs will paint a clear picture for your investigator, and later your Administrative Judge and others at EEOC.

Expect your employer to try to bait you into reacting out of proportion, throughout your investigation.

NASA refused to give me a two day extension on witness rebuttals so I could focus on being with my husband at his mother’s funeral, in remote town in another state.

In trying to harm me, they were also hurting my husband at the worst possible time. But getting angry and losing it wasn’t going to help soothe my husband's loss.

I also wanted to show my investigator that I was grateful she had at least tried to get me the extension.

So I took NASA’s choice in stride and did what I had to do to hang in. It was painful and hard, but I did it.

Then, shortly after the funeral, NASA asked me to extend their deadline to complete the ROI. The old 1-2 punch. That seemed sewer-rat scummy to me, but I agreed to the extension without a fuss. I know my investigator saw exactly what I was complaining about.

Trapdoor 6: Expecting witnesses to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Self-preservation is human nature. When the boss sees you as an enemy, you can expect your co-workers to jump on the bandwagon.

My coworkers smeared my character in their sworn statements. Reading that stuff was even harder than reading NASA’s pretext. It felt more personal.

But before I got too sad about it, I also found myself chuckling about how terrible they were at “helping NASA” overall. It looked like none of them had ANY idea what to lie about, so they just lied about me. The smears hurt my feelings, but not my case. Every witness still said everything I needed them to.

My investigation was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was also one of the best… because now I know what I’m made of! I know I can handle myself even in difficult situations, and I can rise above the ill will (bad faith) of others.

I was so afraid all that dishonesty and pretext would win. But it didn’t.
So when YOUR employer starts slinging mud, remember it’s possible to rise above. Having the law and the truth on your side is a powerful thing.

I could probably do a part 3 of this trapdoors series, but I’ll save the rest for another time… Next week, we’ll be on to a new topic.