Just because something is unfair doesn’t mean it isn’t legal, which is what a son came to realize after his mother was allegedly fired from her job in Ohio. On Reddit, OnePieceFanBoi1 explained his 51-year-old mother’s situation on r/legaladvice, saying she’d worked at her company for about ten years. However, it hadn’t been even half a year in her current role when she went under investigation, and after three weeks, she was fired on the accusation of racism.
OnePieceFanBoi1 said the accusation stemmed from a work email his mom sent out that included the phrase: “not our circus, not our monkeys.” This wasn’t a simple complaint that sat in the HR department either. “It got pushed to the ceo of a partner their company was working with, then back to their higher-ups,” OP wrote.
Apparently, the mom had worked in different states prior and moved to Ohio to work in the position she had now lost. “This is the first time something so small got attention from the ceo of all people,” OnePieceFanBoi1 sighed. While he didn’t specify whether he or his mother knew who reported her, OP did say some people on her team were “of color,” though it’s unknown whether they are the ones who accused her of being racist.
To answer OnePieceFanBoi1’s question of whether “this is sueable under discrimination, or racial profiling?” Redditors feel there’s not much the mom can fight with. “Under ‘employment at will’ laws, your friend could have legally been fired for wearing green socks,” said a commenter, referring to OP’s mom. “In nearly all US states, there’s no need for a reason to fire someone. So trying to sue for it would be pointless,” agreed another.
For those unaware, the Polish proverb “not our circus, not our monkeys” is just another way of saying “not our work, not our problem” in English. Of course, it’s not impossible to construe this idiom as something racist, but OnePieceFanBoi1 protests that isn’t what his mother meant.
Many Redditors Felt as Though the Story Lacked Additional Context
Still, the post provides no context from the company’s side of things, and there’s not enough information about his mom’s history to defend her against the accusation that got her fired. As one commenter suugested, “I’m thinking there’s more to this story than just that. If they were investigated for three weeks, there was definitely something more damming than a commonly used phrase.”
