American Taliban: Women have no right to their own bodies, but they're responsible for HIS

[JDPriestly]

41. It was gender discrimination.

And if you are an older worker, and you learn after you were hired that your boss just fired another older worker and that worker accused your boss of age discrimination, watch out.

If a few years later your boss calls you in and tells you that he is firing you because he thinks you aren't as sharp as a younger employee would be -- you've been used. Your boss doesn't want older workers. He hired you to avoid a law suit threatened by the first employee. You've been used. And chances are that you won't get any job after this guy fires you because now you are a few years older than you were when he hired you and generally older people have a hard time getting a job especially today.

There is no fairness in the American workplace. Employers hire lawyers to tell them how to avoid lawsuits. Employers take special courses and receive newsletters that tell them how to fire people, how to do whatever else they want and avoid lawsuits.

Watch your employer. Keep notes. Write dates and statements down and don't throw them away. Keep a record. Create a file on your employer. All criticisms, all compliments, whether justified or not. The slights. The insults. The new people hired, dates, qualifications and job assignments. Keep track of demands that you work late and weekends especially on short notice. Short paychecks? Sign your boss is having a problem and may want to save money on your salary. Personal favors you did for your boss? Don't give anything away, not even your time. Trust me. Personal texts from your boss? Texts of any kind when you are not being paid to work? Good Heavens. If there is anything sexually suggestive, watch out. Start filling out job applications. That's a sure sign you will be filed and then fired. If a male boss has sent you, a woman, a suggestive e-mail, touched you inappropriately or made off-color jokes, prepare to move on. You are trapped. If you respond, you will be fired. If you do not respond, same result eventually. And you will suffer in from the nagging feeling that you are prey and your boss the predator in the meantime. That's the emotional distress that sexual harassment causes. It is very painful. Male bosses harass women to feel powerful. You will never be able to make your boss feel powerful. If he has to harass you to make himself feel powerful, he has a problem about his potency. He has to cure himself. Your attention won't help him. Your days in that job are numbered. Check with a lawyer about how to react no matter how much you like your job or your boss. And write your resume and look for a different job or a different boss even if the pay is lower.

Any insults? Write everything down. Everything. After all, your employer is keeping a record. So should you.

Your job is never secure. Your employer is not your friend. He or she is your boss. He or she sees you as expendable no matter how "nice" he or she is or how many extra days you are given off. The workplace is not a good place for romance or talking about very personal things. Watch out.

There is a war in the workplace. Your boss wants to make more money, build a better resume, promote his grandson, sell the company to a Romney-type or climb the corporate ladder. You are a tool he can use and discard as he wishes. Your only weapon is keeping a record, my friends. Keep names, dates, places. Don't be careless about this.

It isn't paranoid to be professional about defending your reputation and place in the workforce. You would be surprised at the depths to which employers will sink. Imagine what utter idiot (male) would admit in court that he found his former employee (female) and opponent in court so sexually attractive that he had to fire her to save his marriage? And this bozo got by with that? This is the same mentality that rapists have. Only the employer has a little more self-control. Not much. He is willing to ruin the life of the object of his unbridled lust.

What if the woman who was accused of being overly alluring and was fired was your mom or your daughter or your sister or, heaven forbid, your wife?

As for the woman herself, she has all my sympathy. She should have the sympathy of every woman in America. She sounds like a very courageous woman.

Keep records. Keep notes. And good luck.