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A ‘not so easy’ Quick, Equal Employment Opportunity Decision
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was enacted in 1965, following the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to protect employees from work discrimination based on their national origin, race, age, religion, and sex including pregnancy, sexual orientation, AND gender identification (
EEOC history: The law
). While the EEOC protects employees from unfair discrimination and bullying what happens when an employee takes advantage of the EEOC, crying discrimination? The company Adult Empire, owned by Ravana, LLC, is an adult entertainment company (yes, it is what you think it is). Adult Empire is not just a walk-in shop like your local adult entertainment store. Adult Empire is an online-retail shop that offers movies, subscriptions, toys, and more. Adult Empire has a customer service center filled with educated representatives to help you with orders or any questions you may have along with a warehouse stocked with everything mentioned. Like any company, Adult Empire has a manual of regulations and protocols and by law must abide by the EEOC. However, the managing/hiring office of Adult Empire has an unwritten rule, not in their manual, to not hire any significant others (boyfriends/girlfriends, spouses, or partners) in the same department. Another unwritten rule in the hiring office is that all new hires start out on the second or third shift as current employees get priority when a first shift position is available regardless of which department.
The Issue at Hand
Here is a breakdown of the situation that occurred at Adult Empire in the spring of 2023. An employee (we will call her Tasha) works in the customer service department on the first shift.
Tasha was attempting to get her partner, whom is a transgendered female (male to female, whom
we will call Annie), a job within Adult Empire. Tasha was told by the hiring manager that Annie could not be hired in the customer service department due to them being a couple however, there was a position open in the warehouse on the first shift that no other current employees wanted and if Annie wanted it then it was hers. Annie was hired onto the first shift in the warehouse. On Annie’s first day she made the warehouse trainer aware that she was ‘offended’ when showed the products in the warehouse and gestured toward the male Gentelia toys. On day three of Annie’s training a co-worker made the comment to Annie, “I have a lot of transgendered friends.
You should really consider coloring your eyebrows to match your hair color. That’s what my friends do.” Annie took this comment as “offensive” and “discriminatory,” taking it to human resources (HR) stating that “she felt threatened” and under EEOC action needed to be taken. The
co-worker that made the light-hearted suggestion was called into HR and admitted to the comment, as it was made with sincerity. Wanting to avoid backlash from Annie, HR unjustly fired the co-worker for his comment on the spot. Annie was sent home for the rest of the week and continued to receive pay. The next Monday the hiring manager placed Annie in the customer service department on
the first shift with her partner. Other current employees took notice and irritably brought it up to the hiring manager and HR as these employees had previously attempted to get their own significant others a position within their department only to be told no due to the unwritten rule stated previously. New employees within the customer service department also made complaints as they had wanted the first shift position due to being working parents, some single parents, but were denied. When questioned why Annie was able to not only work with her spouse in the same
department but also on the same shift, the hiring manager stated that “since Annie was offered
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first shift in the warehouse they wanted to keep her on first shift in the new department and did not want to deal with any PR ‘backlash’ as they have seen transgender people take issues to social media and get people fired and places shut down.” Annie wound up quitting not even a full week later regardless.
Transgendered/LGBTQIA in the Workplace
Navigating transgenderism can be difficult for both the trans-employee and the company.
While trans rights and safety are protected through the EEOC and civil rights act, a company still
needs to treat every employee as equals. However, “wokeness” and “woke-washing” has made it borderline impossible to treat everyone as an equal. If a supervisor sides with a straight, cis-
gendered employee based solely on logic it can still be perceived as “favoritism” or “discrimination” by the transgendered employee, using their gender identity as leverage to tilt the
favor towards them. “This cultural mandate plays out differently for each business owner depending on the resources one has been given
(
Tarwater, J., & Lenow, E.,2021).”
We have seen this more over the last five years with the use of social media. Transgendered people take situations or experiences to Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok to bash a place of business, person, or anyone else they deem they have been discriminated against. And by doing so the “woke-
warriors” come to their aid leaving 1-star yelp or google reviews, calling employers, blasting people on social media, and turning them into enemies going as far as to even get places of business shut down. This type of social backlash makes employers question their next move and interactions with their transgendered employees as they do not want to be the next social media blow-up. It is this fear that prompts emotion-based action rather than a logical one.
Both Perspectives
Transgendered people experience discrimination almost, if not, daily is various aspects of their day to day lives. Having a safe workplace that does not discriminate is important to their mental health and work ethic. “
(LGBTQ) individuals experience high rates of adverse mental health outcomes due to the stressors they experience in families, communities, and society more broadly. Work and workplaces have the potential to influence these outcomes given their ability to amplify minority stress
(Owens, B., Mills, S., Lewis, N., & Guta, A., 2022).” Every discrimination allegation needs to be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly while making accommodations for the filing employee until evidence is gathered and a decision is made. Discrimination is defined as “
the unjust
or prejudicial
treatment of different categories of people,
especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability.” The visual of male genitalia toys and a comment regarding color-correcting eyebrows and hair do not fall under the definition of discrimination therefore the accusation made by Annie and the firing of that current employee was unjust and too quickly delt.
The manager and hiring manager along with the training staff should have met up with HR to discuss the allegation, decide if the comment fell under the definition of discrimination, asked witnesses on warehouse’s first shift about the comments made by the fired employee, looked into if additional comments were made, and then decided the best course of action before firing or moving anyone. Even after the employee was fired, accommodation was made for Annie which could have been made regardless and both employees could have kept their jobs. The fired employee is now attempting to sue Adult Empire for wrongful termination and discrimination. He is claiming discrimination for being a straight, cis-gendered man that was wrongfully terminated for trying to make Annie feel welcomed and strike up conversation.
Conclusion Discrimination against transgender people is real and a valid concern, especially within the workplace setting. However, discrimination was not valid in this case and a fear of negative public relations led to an ineffective, poor business decision that not only led to the loss of two workers but also a lawsuit. Every EEOC complaint should be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated in a timely manner before decisions or actions are made but, in this case, too quick of a decision and punishment was made based on emotion, lacking logic or any legal foundation. It is imperative that in cases like this the filing employee and accused party are investigated as well as surrounding witnesses while also considering all potential avenues of resolution.
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References EEOC history: The law. US EEOC. (n.d.). https://www.eeoc.gov/history/eeoc-history-
law#:~:text=Title%20VII%20of%20the%20Civil%20Rights%20Act%20of
%201964%20also,to%20eliminate%20unlawful%20employment%20discrimination
.
Owens, B., Mills, S., Lewis, N., & Guta, A. (2022). Work-related stressors and mental health
among LGBTQ workers: Results from a cross-sectional survey.
PLoS One,
17
(10)https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275771
Sobande, F. (2020). Woke-washing: “intersectional” femvertising and branding “woke” bravery.
European Journal of Marketing, 54
(11), 2723-2745. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-02-2019-0134
Tarwater, J., & Lenow, E. (2021). Business Ethics in the Marketplace: Exploring
Transgenderism. The Journal of Markets & Morality
, 24
(1), 55–.