Again, if this is “too long” for you to read, LEAVE. Reading hard 😢 If you care about being seen as a human being, and not a color, then read. If you are a victim of bullying, whatever your color or identity, SPEAK UP. Staying silent about these experiences is what allows a flawed system to persist. My experience was a direct result of white ideologies that are meant to divide the races. And it worked. Color should’ve NEVER been a factor in a situation like mine, but it was. TL;DR Asian employee is regularly bullied by Black employee for almost a year. Affirm refused to intervene in fear of being seen a certain way, despite the bully violating several company policies regarding physical violence in the office and conflict of interest. When attempting to approach a different manager to have these issues be resolved, Affirm then chose to go into my company communications to find “just cause” to terminate me to avoid being seen as a “bad guy” for removing the unprofessional bully. The “just cause” violations they found had all occurred within a week prior, and involved topics that were commonly expressed amongst other staff. While unprofessional, they weren’t exactly things you’d immediately get fired for in a fintech environment. In addition, they were only uncovered AFTER I had approached the second manager after almost a YEAR of dealing with my bully. It was very clearly a cover-up for their inability to address the real problem. NOT TL;DR I’ve chosen to re-edit this post since most people are assuming a lot of the wrong things despite me attempting to keep the post neutral, and free from any identifiable details. But it seems it’s needed, as people fail to recognize my form of discrimination, which was the entire problem with my situation. Many people seemed to believe I was Black, while my bully was White. This was not the case. This is exactly why my situation needs to be acknowledged. Discrimination against my kind, especially from another minority, is wildly ignored. Affirm has also been pushing the hiring of “underrepresented” minorities, those of Black descent especially. A large portion of their employees are Asian, because well, it’s Tech. The largest portion however, remains White. For reference, I am a VERY pale “white” Asian by appearance. My bully happened to be a Black employee. My bully’s motive was that they wanted my job, but felt that they were being overlooked because of their skin color. Since I was not their skin color but still considered a “minority”, they believed expectations were lower for me, and therefore I got a “pass”. On several occasions they had remarked to me about how they were forced to sound “less black”, and felt constantly scrutinized because of their identity as a Black person. While these are very valid assumptions given America’s demonization of people based on skin color, in reality, they were incredibly unprofessional, hostile, and their emotional state would fluctuate constantly if they felt like people were “giving them problems”. Color had absolutely nothing to do with their shitty attitude, but everybody was too afraid to speak up because of being labeled a certain way. My own boss said “I can’t just go up to them, I’m just a white person” - thus revealing their own racial bias. I also had to explain the concept of “white/model minority” to them, as they clearly were unaware of that social connotation. If you’re unaware, Asians have historically been pitted against Black people by white supremacist beliefs to further divide the races. It has caused tense divides between Asian and Black communities, especially post-pandemic. For people that hold extreme animosity for the way the Black community has been disenfranchised and historically set-up for failure, this is added motivation for their hatred. This was my bully. It’s so so unfortunate that I had to disclose the minorities involved, as not doing so immediately made people assume this was between a White/Black person, just because I said I was a POC. I do not fault my bully for having so much hatred towards the way Black people are represented. America has done horrible horrible things to intentionally prevent Black Americans from receiving the same resources/treatment/opportunities as the rest of America. My bully has every right to be upset about this - but this does not give them a right to be intentionally horrible to a complete stranger just because they didn’t get a job they wanted. Previous to my arrival, my bully had asked about having my position in addition to theirs, as many responsibilities overlapped. However, because they were otherwise employed under a different company, this never would’ve worked out for logistical reasons. In addition, every office across the world had the exact same set-ups - there was a version of my bully, and a version of me. Instead of understanding that the world doesn’t revolve around them to give them made-up positions, they instead took out ALL of their hatred onto me. Me: contracted through outside agency to work with Affirm, absolving them of “responsibility” regarding my employment, but otherwise having complete control over my hiring/firing. Bully: employee under company contracted by Affirm. Placement could be decided at Affirm’s discretion. From my VERY FIRST DAY spanning over almost a year, my bully: - Was incredibly hostile, brooding, avoidant, and unfriendly to me, and only me. I would see/hear them conversing and interacting with other employees in very normal and friendly ways. I never had these types of interactions, even from my VERY FIRST DAY. - Accused me of racial stereotyping in reaction to a topic we’d already been discussing. Their claim was investigated but was quite obviously a complete farce, and was dismissed. My bully’s manager FLEW OUT from ACROSS THE COUNTRY to have a sit-down conversation with them following this accusation, and their continual shitty behavior towards me. From other conversations it became clear my bully had a history of using racially-charged accusations against other people regarding their unprofessional attitude. My bully also had numerous public posts labeling themselves with the exact words/phrases they used against me, so again, it was just an attempt to make me look bad. This accusation arose when I attempted to have an open conversation about their continual poor attitude towards me. Without giving anything specific away, it involved a certain emotion that many people feel, which they were VERY much projecting onto me. And again, we’d had conversations about the exact same thing the week prior (when we seemed to be on understanding terms). I then saw them speaking with an outside employee (who was also Black), and it was obvious that they were speaking about me and their egregious belief that I was racially ignorant. I AM A POC. To immediately assume another minority fails to be aware of racial stereotyping is incredibly invalidating, and proved that my bully did not consider me a “true” minority. And if you think POC only means black people or those with darker shades of skin…well, you’re racist. This happened my 3rd week. From this point forward I avoided ANY interactions with my bully, and simply continued on with my day as if they did not exist (since this was clearly what they wanted to begin with). - Refused to communicate ANY work details the ENTIRE time I was there. They would even contact my boss who was OUT OF TOWN about issues IN OFFICE. - Displayed intentionally negative body language, including turning their back on me when I entered a room, and putting their hand up to the side of their face to avoid seeing me out of their peripherals. If I entered an area they were already in, they would immediately turn around and quickly walk away. - Sent numerous passive-aggressive messages to appear “helpful”, while in reality they were trying to make me look bad. This would be in moments when I wasn’t in the office “early” enough - so they felt prompted to let everybody else know I wasn’t present. One of these instances were potentially fabricated, which my boss commented on but otherwise refused to act on. For reference, I would usually arrive around 8:30AM to prepare, but some days allowed me to arrive later. This pissed my bully off, and they felt obligated to bring this to the “attention” of the rest of the group - most of which would not be awake for another couple of hours. - Singled me out for instances when I wasn’t following proper “protocol” when it came to opening the door for people. For 8 months they had mentioned nothing about this protocol - I had no idea it even existed. Then out of the blue they started sending passive-aggressive messages saying I was doing it wrong. - Got visibly annoyed when I attempted to engage in work duties that happened to be in their vicinity. Reactions included giggling behind my back, speaking poorly about me while on private calls “this is the shit I have to deal with, pHABjna is [doing their job]”. - Reported me to their company AND the building security when we ended up bumping hips while in passing. This happened in an area where cameras were conveniently cut off - a detail only they would know given their position. The bump also ended up happening because they decided to step into my path of movement like a brick wall, preventing me from moving past them without physical contact. They then accused me of “body-slamming” them. This report was investigated, and footage was recovered revealing that we did in fact only bump hips for a couple seconds. The affirm HR I spoke with said “it looks like you guys touch hips for maybe a couple seconds at most?”. Upon being told Affirm felt perfectly fine with having me return to the office, my bully apparently “freaked out” - a clear sign that they’d hoped this report would get me banned from the location. This is when Affirm HR originally suggested removing both of us, but my boss acknowledged it would be incredibly unfair as my bully would still be an FTE while I would be out of a job completely given my position was contingent on agency contract. - If I tried to ask them a question pertaining to my work, they would refuse to look me in the eye, and force me to repeat myself because they “couldn’t hear me”. They would also mumble in response, and use extremely short answers. If I sent them a question over email, they chose not to reply altogether. These interactions were absolutely minimal, and I avoided ANY involvement with this person otherwise. - Had a private call where they said “Who does pHABjna think they are? They’re lucky we’re in an office, because otherwise [cue punching sounds with fists]”. We weren’t seated next to each other. My bully was being SO LOUD that I could hear this call from across a very spacious office floor, perhaps 100ft away. This was in direct response to me having a lengthy conversation with another employee (who also happened to be Asian) in a communal area near them. They then reported me for being in said area “too often” and that it made them “uncomfortable”. This communal area happened to fall under my work duties, so they were essentially saying I was bothering them for doing my job. I later found public posts they’d made specifically referencing inciting violence against coworkers, and their wish to fight people they considered “white”. Had this been a white person complaining about a black person this way, it probably would’ve been recognized as discrimination right away. - I witnessed them SCREAMING and slapping their hands together while on a call with their manager regarding their continually unprofessional behavior and targeted actions against me. I stated to my boss that it legitimately made me nervous to see how riled up and heated this person felt in regards to me, especially considering I was seated 50 feet away. For all I knew (considering their threat of physical violence), they could’ve physically confronted me right then and there. My boss basically went “wow, [bully] is so dramatic”. - Felt compelled to confront me regarding a task that fell under my duties, specifically because it happened to be for the Black community group within Affirm. Keep in mind that my bully had refused ANY communication with me for almost a year, and then suddenly decided to approach me because it happened to involve their minority. Hmmmmmmmm 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 For almost a year I had my boss supporting me and encouraging me for refusing to waver under my bully’s petty, targeted behavior. I was thanked for not making a big deal out of it, and for continuing to do my job as normal. This in itself is re-encouraging the idea that Asians are expected to keep their heads down and work, without any complaints. My boss would regularly mention that they were also fed up with my bully’s uncooperative behavior, and expressed that they hoped they’d be transferred. Never happened. After almost a year of dealing with this targeted behavior, I chose to approach a different manager in charge of my bully’s placement. I specified my concern that they were spreading rumors about me being racially ignorant to outside staff (of their own color), and that it made me anxious coming into the office because it felt like I had an invisible target on my back. The manager replied with a message saying I shouldn’t feel this way for just coming into work, and offered to provide the contact for my bully’s HR to share my experience. Not even 3 hours later I received a call from my contracting agency that my contract had been terminated due to “previous conversations and physical interactions” that violated company policy. Now I originally thought this meant the false complaints my bully had filed against me, which would’ve made sense even if they were proven false. But upon attempting to contest my termination with an “outside” counsel hired by my agency to represent Affirm and me, it was clear that they had already thought about this, and the potential that I would raise an allegation of discrimination. To avoid this, they strategized and went into my company communications to find instances of “policy violation” that they could strictly use against me, as “just cause”. It was clear that this was planned in reaction to my complaint that my bully was spreading rumors of me having racial ignorance to outside staff - they needed to fire me to avoid being seen the “wrong way”. Except they inevitably engaged in discrimination, as they chose to fire me based on my race/skin color. Affirm clearly knew what they were doing, which is why they needed concrete “evidence” to justify my termination. My bully was allowed to violate company policies for MONTHS, and yet I was terminated for a couple flippant statements I’d made in my final week at work. Statements that again, involved topics that were thrown about in casual conversation. It was clear that Affirm had pressured a coworker into revealing the second “violation” as they were involved with the first, and it was obvious this all happened AFTER my complaint, as I’d had very normal, friendly conversations with everybody up until that point. It’s also clear that the company told other employees to avoid contact with me given the situation, and to further prevent me from revealing the reality behind the situation. Equality is not achieved by excusing somebody’s repeatedly unprofessional and hostile behavior on the basis of them just being that way because of their outwards appearance. That is exactly what equality hopes to destroy. It’s incredibly sad that I would have to ask, would my situation have been treated differently if my bully was White, and I was Black? If we had been the same minority, they never would’ve been able to use the race allegation as a way to label me as the villain, which obviously influenced the decision on my termination. Using race as a weapon against others is exactly what white supremacy wants. STOP IT. Affirm, DO BETTER. #hrissues #affirm #tech #google #meta #shopify #klarna #zoom #amazon
Tldr. Why don't you just keep a paper trail for the future?
Coworker was a bully for almost a year, affirm chose to fire me instead of dealing with the real problem. There was a paper trail, they effectively circumvented it by other shady methods to fire me for “just cause”.
I don’t think you know what tl dr means
Alrighty, lemme make it better
What is a POC? East Indian, Pinay, AA, Afro Carribean.....Please share details.
Not sharing those details, because they shouldn’t be considered in this type of situation to begin with.
Your post topic mentioned Racial Bias.Different races are treated different. Why not share?
Get some sleep bro, everyone knows black people are the most discriminated against people on the planet in every country, yet their culture is appropriated by many peoples
Who said I was black 😂😂😂
..you did
It’s not like I said it was a long post, and to leave if you didn’t want to read it 🤔🤔🤔
You lost me when you said the outside counsel was racially biased too. Are you projecting? I understand why Affirm chose to terminate your contract. When a business hires a contractor they want a no fuss professional to get a job done. That said, I am sorry that you felt like you were being bullied and your agency did not back you up. I wish you a better experience and success in your next placement.
When you have an upper-class white male tell you that “we all struggle” in response to being asked how certain minority groups end up struggling more to be recognized, that’s not projecting. When you have this same person laugh at you for considering that there is imbalance between different racial groups, that’s not projecting. You lost me when you said I “felt” like I was being bullied. Having somebody threaten to beat you up over having a conversation in an office space isn’t considered bullying? Having somebody intentionally hide things that fell under your work duties isn’t bullying? You should probably re-think your response.
And it’s pretty clear you lack awareness of the kind of culture that presides within a fintech company full of millennials/zoomers to say they wanted a “no fuss professional” 😂 Again, the instances they brought up against me were only uncovered AFTER I approached a different manager about the ongoing bullying and harassment that had been taking place for almost a YEAR. And AGAIN, the points they used against me were topics shared amongst other employees during casual conversation.
You realize the issue is that I’m forced to argue discrimination with people who fail to recognize my form of discrimination? That’s the entire problem with this situation. The counsel I spoke with was wildly ignorant of any social issues current in America - I had an upper class white male telling me that “we all struggle” when it comes to minority representation.
Good god. After (not) reading that long boring ass post and your immature responses.. even I wanna terminate you.. and I dont even work for affirm. Stop whining. Put your big boy pants on and get another job.
You realize this is what my bully should’ve done? Why should I be expected to find a new job because somebody else has serious personal issues they’re projecting onto me? Sounds like you’re just victim blaming. And seems like you might be the immature one given your inability to grasp how unjustified my termination was.
Cry more. Let call you a whaaambulance
I am certain you can find a non upper class white male to serve as counsel for your claim that can empathize with you.
Hfff.. we need audio posts in #blind 😤
You could transcribe it through text-speech, it is tech after all 😉