Discrimination in the Workplace Due to Being Male

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Today I will give you two examples of how I was discriminated against for being Male in the workplace.

From 1997 to 2003 I worked for a Christian Ministry named The Quiet Hour in Redlands, California. I was on Salary which means no matter how many hours I work I get paid the same. It also means I didn’t get overtime if I worked a lot of extra hours.

The person in charge of the Bible School was Laura and she was also on Salary. She would arrive to work several hours late and then leave work several hours early. All of us on Salary got paid for 9 hours of work per day. So while I worked for 9 hours every day and got my pay for 9 hours daily, Laura would work an average of 6 hours per day but get paid for 9 hours.

Understand that I was told by not only my direct Supervisor, but also by the Director of the Computer Department, my Vice President of Operations, and the President of the company, that since The Quiet Hour is 100 percent donor funded that we have to make the best use of the donor’s money they donate to our organization. I was actually told once that even if I am on my allowed break time and I went on my computer to check the weather or the news that I was in violation of proper use of donor’s money since I am not doing required work-related stuff on the computers provided by the donor’s money.

At one point I was actually called into the Vice President’s office and told that if I start work just ONE MINUTE early that I would be fired. I asked what the problem was since I am on Salary so I don’t get extra pay, overtime, or compensatory time off for any extra timed I put in. Again the Vice President stated that YOU ARE TO WORK FROM 7:30 A.M. TO 5:30 P.M. AND IF YOU SHOW UP AND START WORK ONE MINUTE EARLY YOU WILL BE FIRED!

I was shocked so I asked the question why Laura in the Bible School was allowed to show up 2 or 3 hours late for work, and she leaves 2 or 3 hours early from work, and yet that isn’t a problem while starting my work 1 minute early is grounds for firing me. They had no answer but I know what the answer was. They were discriminating against me for being Male while they gave the Female employees special benefits. Discrimination of any type in the workplace is illegal under the law and yet I was a victim of gender discrimination.

This carried on when I went to work for the Southeastern California Conference office for the Seventh-day Adventist Church located in Riverside, California. One of the Estate Planning Officers, Lloyd Janzen, wanted to hire me as his Trust Services Administrative Assistant. He told me that the Director of the Department, Roger Heinrich, flatly told him:  I DON’T WANT YOU TO HIRE ANDREW AS YOUR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT. WE’VE NEVER HAD A MALE AS AN ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT IN THIS DEPARTMENT!

Well, gee, that sure sounds like gender discrimination to me. And what happened next was disgusting. My Estate Planning Officer, Lloyd Janzen, retired from working and Roger Heinrich decided to return being an Estate Planning Officer and allow someone else to be the Director of the Department. Unfortunately for me Roger took over the Estate Planning Officer position Lloyd had so now Roger, the person who didn’t like me for being a Male Administrative Assistant, became my supervisor.

Oh man I cannot tell you the amount of abuse I took at his hands for no other reason except that I was a Male serving as an Administrative Assistant.

Yes, people, I was discriminated against for being a Male in the workplace and at the Conference Office the discrimination came from another Male.

I hope my several blogs this month have shown you that I have suffered immensely due to discrimination for being White, a Male, older than 50 years of age, and sometimes all three of them at the same time, and yet no Attorney would ever take my case to file a Discrimination lawsuit against the perpetrators.

But I didn’t do what some ethnic groups do. I didn’t protest in the streets. I didn’t riot and loot businesses and homes. I didn’t run to the malls and airports and riot and disrupt shopping and flights.

Overall I came through all this discrimination stronger and smarter than those who are weak and stupid and who caused all the discrimination against me.