Is this gender discrimination ?

Question

I am a shift supervisor at lowe's and my store manager told me that since i am a young man that I need to do more work then the elderly man in our department. He also told me that if I did not that they would find someone else who would. Is this any kind of discrimination ? I dont understand how he can tell me that since i am young and male that my work load should be more and threaten to demote me or fire me if I did not comply.

Answer 1

It is age discrimination, but where is your compassion? The man may need this job to put food on the table. The elderly don't work for fun. Your supervisor may not have explained his remarks clearly. When I was young I expected to work harder than people older than me. When I got older it didn't hurt my feelings when the young out worked me. Be a man and do your job. Don't worry about how much or how little someone else is doing. Take pride in YOUR WORK!!!

Answer 2

No this is what is called age discrimination not gender bias and it is extremely hard to fight. He can't fire you though. This is not cause. He will make your life a living hell though if it is not that already.

This has nothing to do with the work load. The elderly man is probably a drinking buddy of his. So you're in a no win situation. I've heard that Lowe's is not all that good a place to work in the first place. Usually they pick jerk offs for managers. Not a club I would like to get promoted to. I think you work for for the prime beef example of that point.

Now as you are a supervisor yourself you do have leverage. But companies like this usually hand out titles to the toilet cleaner. What would they call that "Flush Manager"?

As a supervisor you do have some flexibility. You could complain to Human Resources but they are usually ostrich butts flagging in your face at the site of any controversy. You're screwed here. Probably your predecessor went through the same crappola.

I wouldn't complain personally but I would be scouring the instore job opportunities in other branches. Transfer out of there even if its to a smaller store in a smaller town. Or hopping over to Home Depot, Future Shop, or Circuit City or the like, to see if they have some job opportunities.

You could set him up though. Its the civilian way of fragging a crappy leader/manager. Making sure that you leave no finger prints, if you have access to his desk stick a bag of weed into the back of the drawer out of the way of his sight. Then call the cops after a day or so. This may not stick on him but it sure will get him in enough hot water that he won't be on your tail too much.

Or get his computer access code and stick on a few porn pics in a subdirectory on his computer. Of course you must deny that you know how you got access after you told human resources or the owners that you did see him looking at dirty pics on his office computer. Again this will keep him in line. Besides a manager's job might all of a sudden open up, y'know.

If you and others think my suggestions are crass well they are. I totally agree. But I been there and done that.

Now the intentions of the store manager may not be all that bad. And you got to be careful that what you are seeing isn't what you think you are seeing. You see the elderly guy might be doing more than you think. Old people tend to know more about the job.

And they have more contacts in the client base. I mean Old Joe knows everybody. There are people that come in the store and they will ask for him or ask him for advice or tell them all their troubles. Now that sort of thing doesn't look like work but that sort of thing is vital in a hardware, dry goods store. So his importance to the store might not be readily apparent to the untrained eye.

If you fragged the manager, then you take his job your goals change. All of a sudden this shifts from your previous concerns just restocking shelves, doing inventories, cleaning the warehouse. Upper management wants the bottom line sales. So as a manager you gotta keep that old guy to keep those sales figures rolling in. If he goes to Home Depot those clients go with him. Ooops.

The problem with this particular manager is that he is totally handling this badly. He isn't sitting down and listening to you. He isn't making you see the situation correctly. He isn't outlining your role within the store team. He uses threats like your a two year old not a full adult. I think that is really what is going on here. When you get to manager and you will, you gotta remember that yes older people cannot do the physical work but if their sales skills assists that bottom line and it is better that they are spending more time doing sales than inventory.

This manager is not treating you as an adult. He isn't being forthcoming with the entire reasons why your work load is at this level. He should be giving you praise not threats. He deserves fragification.

And if you're a manager you will realize that you will get those new whipper snappers that are able to do more physical work and inventory and support while they learn the craft of retail sales. By exposing this whipper snapper to the grunt work he or she learns the stock so that when a customer comes in the store if the old guy aint there the whipper snapper can assist the reticent client.

Here's why. In retail sales in hardware you will note that most people or trades people will ask a query or seek the advice of an older person first. Indeed these client will often march on past your face to speak with the older guy. And everybody does this.

Now it wouldn't hurt to do this before you frag the manager. You have the choice of really settling down and getting to know the old guy. Ask him his advice on something even if you know the answer already. Watch him for a bit. Watch his handling of clients, you haven't had time to do that because that idiot manager keeps you working you too hard while you got to do some observation to simply learn.

Try to get on the same coffee cycle with the elderly man. To stab a guy in the back, you gotta get close to them. You might have to do this thing when you are a manager which is sometimes work with people you really don't like all that much but people that brings a lot to the table talentwise and client wise. This can't hurt y'know.

Then I tried to give you the options.

You can leave and go to another firm. This manager is an idiot.

You can frag the manager outright. Easy to do.Vengeance like this so cool.

You can get to know the elderly guy first. Then frag the manager and take his job. Then work the olfd fart's tail off.

You can simply count to ten. You're angry right now. Tomorrow you will cool down. I been there. I hear ya. Recognize that the manager is an idiot. Fragging would be too good for the SOB.

Living is a misery for the o'fart'. Besides the learning experience with this circus clown is worth it for an educational reason that he is doing what good managers shouldn't.

You got all these options.

Answer 3

That is more age discrimination then gender. If you both work in the same department and do jobs that require the same amount of work, then you should both be doing the same amount of work. If the elderly man is too old to do some of the work, then he needs to find someone who can to replace him.

Answer 4

Sounds like age discrimination. If you have a different job then the old guy, then you can be expected to do more work. But if you have the same exact job, you can't be held up to different standards. If anything, he should fire the old man for not doing the work expected for the job.

Answer 5

Notify the manager of Human Resources. Make sure your complaint gets put into your personnel file. A supervisor cannot tell you to do more than anyone else.

Answer 6

sounds like he was trying to make you a man , now man up and get it done then you will get promoted . He gave you an oppurtunity and you are whining about it . The people that ask about lawsuits and discrimination never get promoted and then become whining liberals

Answer 7

It would be gender discrimination only if the other person was a woman.

Answer 8

grow a pair and do your job without whining about the old dude not pullin his weight. you should be embarrassed that you boss had to confront you about you not doing more work than the old dude. you should have been doing more work already...

that is...this whole mess could have been avoided had you been working hard like a real man would do.

Answer 9

you should definitely file a report with H.R. It sounds like your boss is trying to see how far he can push you.the best thing is to push back...but be prepared to find another job.