discrimination at work ?

need some advice on something that happend today to one of my buddies at work, around 3pm it started into a simple conversation between him and another guy that works there, my friend was asking this guy if he should work overtime next weekend to make some extra money, to which the guy replied 'well you live at home with your parents why do you need the extra money' so my friend says well im sorry but my daddy didnt buy me a house, to which the guy responded really loud in the office in front of about 20 people,,"what the f**k is your problem, why do you work here, you'r a piece of shit eurotrash, get the f**k out of usa, why are you in this country", seriously out of nowhere this guy went off on my friend and im amazed at how my buddy held back from knocking this guy out, but yea he went and told the lead(manager on duty) what had happened, and the lead which is friends with this guy apparently they go fishing and stuff together tells my friend "well you instigated it". no appropriate action was taken, i feel this was discrimination, and if its not then i dont know what discrimination is, i mean everyone in the room heard it and on top of that the manager on duty did not take any action at all, my friend had to stay and work next to the guy until his shift ended at 12am. my question is what would you guys do, what do you feel the necessary actions should be? would consulting a lawyer be an appropriate step ? im not really familiar with this kinda situation

This is sensitive stuff, and if I offend you you, it is not my intention.
My first inclination is (as always) to fight back.....HARD. BUT, in reality, you are getting second hand info, the may not be accurate. The problem is this.
1) Witness's to events have a bad habit of stepping up to back you until you NEED backing. Then, traditionally, they disappear, and did not hear or see anything.
2) He is the buddy of the boss, and the boss is in the position to make your friends life hard and those that might step up to help your friend. Jobs are at a premium at this time.
While it may hurt his pride, it may be better to see if this will die on it's own. Once you lawyer up, things get real complicated...fast.
If charges are filed through Govt. agency of some kind (and they may be justified) your friend may find himself on an island, and ostrasized.
Additionally, if public records exist on this sort of filing, employers are reluctant to hire people that make to many "waves".
CONSEQUENTLY, my advice is catch the bastard "off-site" and kick the golfin' shit out of him!!!!
Have a nice day!

If your boss doesn't do anything about it take it over his head and keep going until you get some resolution.

Is this the only instance? Has your friend been harmed somehow? For example, passed over for a promotion for no apparent reason or demoted for no apparent reason? If not, I doubt there is much here except some guy being a d-bag at work.

Now, if you meant harassment (as opposed to discrimination), then I would be surprised if a single, isolated incident would be sufficient. However, if this has happened repeatedly, then perhaps.

Still, harassment and discrimination are tough nuts to crack. I'd do a little searching around the EEO site.

Yeah I'm not sure that discrimination is at play here, but at the very least it was inappropriate behavior that should be dealt with accordingly by management.

I don't think either are the play here. The name calling d-bag just needs a good ass whooping outside of the office and that should clear it right up! :-)

It sounds like the other guy is a knucklehead. But there is a fine line between actual discrimination and "imflamatory comments" and/or "discriminatory comments".

If the boss had heard this with his own two ears, then that's another story. At best what will likely happen is, that is if your boy presses the issue, the other cat will apologize and squash it.

Discrimination, racism, sexual harrassment, is really, really hard to prove in the court of law. It really is. Generally speaking, the only way things get resolved is if it's either blatant or if there is a class action suit involved. In other words, multiple people have the same complaint without resolution.

If this had involved other people with similiar comments, they too ran it up the chain of command and nothing was done, then you may have a case on your hand. If not, all the other guy has to do is pull some shit out of thin air, say he was having a bad day and he's sorry. End of story. Unless your boy is making a ton of money at this place, the cost of getting an attorney involved and the emotional strain it would also cost may not be worth the headache. I'm not trying to discourage you or him, just shooting straight that's all.

Here's what I would, however. If I'm your friend, I would let this cool off for maybe another day or so. Have him go into the boss and say, hey, I've calmed down but I still think it was unprofessional of "so and so" to act that way toward me. The key is "unprofessional". I just think at least an apology is in order. Document that conversation with the boss, and if it happens again...strike two.

Make all checks payable to:

12th Man
P.O. Box Warpath
Washington D.C

Actually, if this occurred between my employees, and a witness could attest to the situation occurring exactly as Frost wrote it, I would find fault with both parties equally.

Asking someone "you live at home with your parents so why do you need the extra money" is not an inflammatory question. It may strike a nerve if you're sensitive, but it definitely does not call for a response of "well im sorry but my daddy didnt buy me a house". At that point, the discussion was unnecessarily elevated. Likewise, the other guy unnecessarily elevated it again with namecalling and cursing.

There is no discrimination at play. Both parties deserve a reprimand. But since neither is being punished, at least as far as I can tell from Frost's post, all is equal.

Lesson learned, if you don't want to get screamed at, don't say something like "well at least my daddy didn't buy me a house." Your buddy needs to accept responsibility for the role he played in that incident.

Schneed, what if his daddy did buy him a house? It's a very fair response to such a question. This is 2nd hand information and there are two sides to every story. However it seems the first guy overreacted a bit. No discrimination has happened as of yet.

Just to be clear, the only thing I was pointing as inflamatory was the Euro trash statement, not the lack of actoins by the boss.