What would you do in this situation?
Hey y’all,
I work at a clinic as the team lead for the staff. I am the only black woman there and one asian and the rest (doctors and managers) are from the Middle East. I started working there last summer as their manager quit. Once I started working there I noticed that they kept watching me to see if I knew what I was doing. I fixed everything in terms of organizing the clinic, training staff, followed up on referrals. Pretty much all admin related . I assisted the doctors as well
Now the managers there are a couple and they always say that “we’re a family, I’m like a big brother to you, etc” since the day of my interview. I know that’s not the case but I didn’t say anything.
Anyways, things were running smoothly since I joined and so far so good is what I thought. Just last week, I had the manager ask to speak to me and he accused me of not calling a patient, being on my phone and had taken a picture of me during work without my knowledge. Now when I saw that, I was taken aback. I asked him when he took that picture because I know I wasn’t on my phone that week. And he also gave us the approval to be on our phone as long as our work is done. Mind you, I’m not the only one not my phone. The other staff are constantly on their phones watching videos, listening to music, on social media, you name it. But he didn’t say anything to them, just me. I thought I was unfair because I didn’t say I wasn’t going to call the patient, I informed him I was in the middle of an urgent task for a doctor and once I was done I was going to call. He understand and said okay. But to my surprise, that’s was not the case and I notice he always come to my computer when I’m on my break and meddles with my workspace. After that conversation, I just went back to work and honestly, very upset, but I continued with work.
When I finished work that day, I said bye to everyone and my coworker mentioned to me that the manager had a feeling I was upset after leaving work but I didn’t care. The next day he kept asking me if I was okay and I responded “I’m fine” and kept working. I no longer talk to them about anything non-work related even though they try to initiate a conversation. Then the manager came to me later in the day and said “ I’m like a big brother to you, I trust you etc” 🙄😒.
Now we have a new doctor and they’re trying to impress him so they asked me to train him on the EMR and when I met him, he gave me a big hug, which shocked the managers and this doctor gave me so much love and appreciation, he said I had good ideas and I was knowledgeable. When the managers saw that, they gave a small chuckle and agreed.
As soon as I was done with work, they thanked me for everything and said they “appreciated me.” As for me, I said thanks and I left. I don’t even feel comfortable anymore since it’s clear that they don’t respect me as a team lead. They don’t even communicate with me regarding staff attendance or anything really only when there is an issue that they cause and want me to solve it.
My question is, has anyone ever encountered this in the workplace? Do people think you don’t know anything because you’re a black woman? If you were in this situation or a similar one, how would you navigate this ?