Can anyone please help me. So recently I became unemployed due to a moment of “when keeping it real goes wrong.” Long story short I became involved in a workplace arguement with a coworker who made a racial remark towards me. A shouting match ensued between myself and the other party and we were both terminated because of it. I was with the company for 6 years. (it was my first company out of college)
I’m starting to get interviews for new positions now and I don’t know what to say or how to spin it on why I left. Normally I would just say I was laid off but unfortunately my U-4 on my FINRA licenses says “Terminated by parent company, workplace arguement.”
This sucks cause I am a nice person, non-confrontational, and was well liked at my old firm(been through two promotions). My manager was new to me because I was promoted into a new position during my final year. My old manager loved me and I wouldn’t have gotten fired over what had happened if I was still under her. The other party was halfway out the door and had a personal HR vendetta with the new manager.
Does anybody know how to spin this when it’s brought up on a interview. Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
Spin it that you stood your ground against a racial remark, however, you got caught up in the heat of the moment and shouted things out of spite. Everyone flies off the handle once in awhile.
Wow that’s a bad break. I also would have put a verbal beat down on anyone who started making racial comments regardless of the circumstances (in or out of office). Can you sue them for wrongful termination? Shouting might have been over the line, but it’s hard to justify firing for just that, unless you left out other parts of the story.
IMO I wouldn’t spin it, I would own it. I would say you were fired for standing up for yourself after your co-worker made a racist remark to your face. Of course the new firm will want to speak to the company to verify that, but perhaps try to get them to speak to your prior manager as well to get the positive review from him/her.
I can only speak for myself personally, but this would have zero impact on my hiring decision if you are a good candidate and what you say checks out, but maybe that’s just me. I’m sure there are plenty of lame people in Corporate America. I think the key here is to be confident and open about what happened and not try to hide from it and spin it a lot because then you will just seem dishonest.
IMO if you are a stand up guy with some skills, this could actually end up being a positive because it shows you have confidence and integrity, but it depends on how you come across during the rest of the interview process – the emphasis should, as always, be to come across as a non-threatening, good guy.
Thanks… my fear is that I will come off as the stereotypical “angry black man.” Basically this is how it went down that day except the commment was more derogatory lol.
Yeah, just tell the truth - or at least the truth how you described it here. People will understand if you say someone made a racist insult against you and you got mad. It will help if you seem like a nice person in real life.
With NY state(where I live) being an “at will” employer state your employer can fire you for any reason any time as long as your not discrimated against. My company fired me and the other guy so their covered against a wrongful termination suit.
The HR office said I made a threatening remark, although I didn’t. I specifically stated that at no time was phyisical contact made nor did I say I was ever going to hit the other party. I’m not going to lie, curse words were exchange though(heat of the moment).
I’m mostly angry because I begged my company to allow me to resign so I wouldn’t have a bad record on my license but they wouldn’t let me. To add salt into the wound they also denied my unemployment claim. Really a bad situation through and through. Ironically I was looking for new work since I just got the CFA charter 2 months ago.
As you know, you’re going to meet racist people anywhere and you can’t control that. I’m a white guy and I wouldn’t assume you’re an “angry black man” because you stood up for yourself. I think the more important thing is not so much the content of the story, but the emotional context in which you deliver it. Just be cool.
You are correct sir. I usually get a “hold up that was racist moment” once every 18 months. I was overdue for one. Two weeks ago when I was in Austin,TX I had a girl drop the n-word(with the ‘er ending) in front of me while she was in conversation with one of her girlfirends regarding her friends’ black bf.
I politely chuckle and said to her “can we at least pretend there’s a black guy present in the room.” I normally brush these things off. Its just unfortunate I slipped up at work. Thanks for the support guys.
The other thing to note is that your U-4 simply says “Terminated by parent company, workplace arguement.” (sp)
It didn’t say anything about the tone that you used or what the exact specifics were. I’ve advised clients before that have had much “nastier” U-4 terminations. If it were me, I’d simply take ownership of the situation, explain that a workplace argument did happen, and that the nature of the argument involved some racial comments that were directed towards you. Prior to that incident, you were a top performer at your workplace (if indeed that were true), and you have other references to validate your reputation (if indeed that were true). Going forward, what you learned from the experience is that if you were so unfortunate as to encounter this in a workplace again, you’d know better this time and simply bring it to HR’s attention and let them deal with it according to their company policies.
Good advice all around here. If I were hiring someone in your situation, I would want to see how that person has evolved since the incident. What did you learn? How exactly would you handle this now? What if this happened in a client meeting? Even though you were right, I think you can put yourself in a good light by admitting that you could have handled the situation a little bit better.
Own it, be brief, and try to keep things moving! Good luck!
How to spin this? Seriously? I will have you know that racial slurs and shouting matches have no place in a civil society let alone the workplace. Your behavior highlights that you have no self control and are prone to bad judgment. Have you been living under a rock? At this age, your lack of preparedness to handle a racial slur reveals that you are privileged or just haven’t received your fair share of white oppression. Either way I’m not sorry for you.
Totally feel for you bruv! i hope the interview went really well and that your recruiters are intelligent enough to consider your situation in context…
No offense, but something doesn’t quite add up here. You’re the victim of overt racism, and yet you get fired for your reaction to it? That might have happened 50 years ago, but very hard to believe that it happens now unless there was some other kind of issue involved. A few years ago my friend was involved in a similar situation - someone used a racial slur in describing ethnic food and my friend of said ethnicity flew off the handle, then stormed out of the office and threatened to sue the firm. He was AWOL for a couple days before the firm and offending person issued an offical apology to him. I cant remember if said offender was terminated as a result, but my friend basically retruned to the office like a comquering hero. This leads me to believe that there’s something missing to your story where a) you’re the victim but yet b) they wouldnt let you quit and instead fired you for cause without compensation and c) you give no indication of being litigious when in fact it sounds like you would have a pretty easy lawsuit on your hands.
^Maybe he flew off the handle and it got out of hand? I can see both people being fired if it became a physical exchange or the insultee does something even more out of line to the insulter.
As i already said, that would imply that he has a pretty obvious lawsuit on his hands, which by the way would also fix his U-4 issue, but the fact that he hasnt even brought that up as a consideration would lead me to believe that he knows that he did something dramatically wrong to warrant termination despite being the victim.