Employee asks about moving heavy boxes to a safer place, employer deflects by writing them up for dress code violation

Unless the issues being raised are completely out of left field and hold no water, an organization should always treat them seriously; even purely as a means of covering themselves from any legal or operational vulnerabilities. Being dismissive or even retaliatory against a complainant might make the headache or "problem" of them calling attention to it go away, but there's a good chance that their fears coming to fruition and the ensuing grievance will be much more of a headache than dealing with the issue in the first place. And that's even before you consider the ethics involved and your duty to do the right thing.

When you're discussing these sensitive issues, it's probably best to have a means of communication that suits the purpose. Look, Discord as a platform is fantastic for a great number of things. It's flexible and leaves a lot of room for creativity in communication and adaptation, but those same strengths become drawbacks when you look at using it for your organization's primary method of professional and secure internal communication. Just as you wouldn't write your doctorate dissertation with a crayon, maintaining a means of sensitive written communication that fits the use case is equally important. Of course, it should come as no surprise that an organization using Discord would also use "whataboutism" to deflect a legitimate complaint by leveling its own complaint against the grievant worker in an effort to get them to drop the issue altogether.

Author image for Brad Dickson Brad Dickson
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