The weird hierarchy game of HR and race
IDSC December Exclusive: The chicken costume that made me give up on contacting HR
Human Resources has always been a peculiar space in Corporate America — for me. Sometimes it is a safe ground where employees can air their grievances, and the HR rep will play the mediator between subordinate and supervisor. Then there’s the time my workplace report was greeted by an HR rep, who pulled out his smartphone to show me his friend wearing a chicken costume and told me I needed to learn to “play the game.”
I fully understand why so many black remote workers refuse to go back to their old jobs after the spring of 2020.
I quit that job shortly after, filed for unemployment and even the judge who took my case (after the company refused unemployment) was dumbfounded by the chicken costume antics. I represented myself in court, won the case and received unemployment. I suppose that should’ve felt victorious. I could’ve gone without the experience altogether.
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I used to believe Human Resources actually was intended to work on behalf of all employees. It took multiple incidents with HR, specifically the chicken costume story, to realize it’s not always the way it seems. Interestingly, the first time I should have gone to HR was after a boss was irate about me dating one of the employees at my after-school job. She’d been hitting on him left and right, whispering in his ear and saying all kinds of lewd things.