The real story here is that the author depended upon these jerks for his/her work visa, facing deportation back to (I assume) a less pleasant country. It sounds like everyone involved took advantage of that fact. Perhaps systemically.
I've faced similarly abusive workplace cliques on multiple occasions. They're very easy to bust if you're willing to put aside your personal shame. But I never had a visa hanging over my head during these confrontations.
It doesn’t sound like she was being taken advantage of, they obviously wanted her to leave. She was staying (and killing herself) out of fear deportation which sucks. My question is if California is at-will employment why didn’t they fire her when things weren’t working out? Is it because she went to HR?
The author also mentioned she (?) had some friends at Apple too. She didn't write "everyone".
And some of the "bad" people might just have been ordinary people who didn't dare to say no to the more real oppressors. Like, not being friends with, or helping, the kid at school who's getting bullied by the bullies
HR reviews when a manager wants to fire someone, and ensures they have justifiable cause, rather than something more nefarious like racial animus that can lead to a lawsuit later. So if the employee is in certain protected classes, they need to dot their i's and cross their t's first.
While HR's main job is to advise and not order, this is one area where management tends to listen because in certain cases liability can become personal, and the cost is low.
I've faced similarly abusive workplace cliques on multiple occasions. They're very easy to bust if you're willing to put aside your personal shame. But I never had a visa hanging over my head during these confrontations.
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