I work in the bakery and my ADL is a trans man. He is good at his job and I assume pretty far along in his transition because I didn’t even know he was trans at first, but he’s opened up to us all about it and has been really cool with answering questions, considering we live in east Texas and it’s not something many people are open about. Everyone has actually been really accepting which pleasantly surprised me except for our lead.
Our lead is like a 50 year old white lady who literally never gets anything done and cries when anyone criticizes her. She got promoted pretty recently so I’ve been trying to be patient but it’s like she’s not even trying. Anyway, she’s been making really transphobic comments about our ADL and I don’t know what I should do. Some examples would be her telling us all not to refer to him as he, and saying “does _____ have a stick or a slit? Okay so then that’s what they are.”
Listen. I live in Texas. My husband is trans. I fully understand that a lot of people around here aren’t accepting of that kind of thing, but Kroger has made a pretty public stance on being one of the best employers for LGBTQ people and I’m at a point where I don’t think she should have this position both based off work ethic and her lack of respect for her employees.
I’m mainly looking for advice I can give my coworker as I offered to report it myself and he declined but wants to know the next steps to take. We’re a union store so should he talk to our union rep? HR? Just file a report?
He’s been with the company at least 6 years I’m pretty sure and works way too hard to be disrespected over this. For what it’s worth our upper management is well aware that she is bad at her job and calls her out constantly (hence the crying) but I assume is unaware about the transphobic stuff. I’m not the only one bothered by it but none of us know what to do without having any retaliation against us
I’m so sorry this is so long but I appreciate any advice!