Question to Ask the Workplace Doctors about suspension for bullying:
I have recently been suspended on a grievance made against me for bullying. I am a warehouse supervisor and I have a colored person working on my shift. We have been good mates, and he has even been to my house on a few occasions. In this type of warehouse environment, a lot of banter is thrown about.
Recently he took offense to a drawing I made of his partner (but at the time he was laughing with me whilst I did it). Looking back it was a stupid thing to do but seemed no different from the day-to-day atmosphere of the workplace. I then found out that he later came back to work to obtain the picture from the bin and make a formal complaint about me–for which I am now suspended. I have received racist and offensive comments from him before ‘white boy’ and ‘slim shady’ and have thought nothing of it. I am so down from this. Do I make a formal complaint about racism towards myself? I have tried to apologize many times, but he seems to simply have an agenda to get me out of the company. As the HR department has this picture as evidence, does this mean I don’t have a leg to stand on? I am not a bully and he had said things just as bad to me. I don’t know what to do.
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