Discriminated at work because of your car?

Have any of you seen this? If it's on the internet its gotta be true, right? This was first posted on Twitter, and I saw it on Yahoo. Supposedly where this person works, the HR dept sent an email telling the person their 2005 Toyota isn't presenting the proper image.

Whether this story is true or not, I'm almost 100% certain it happened at my old job, just much more discreetly.



Linky to one discussion about this: Truth or Fiction

I would seriously doubt the validity of the letter or action by an employer as the legal repercussions could be substantial

Anyone who is VP of HR would know better than to send a letter like that.

I knew a woman that worked as a sales rep for a commercial furniture sales company. They did not sell to the public but to corporations. She had to comply with their standards and practices which stated that their vehicles had to be no older than 3 years, be 4 passenger or larger and no pickup trucks or minivans. She had to pay for the vehicle herself, the company didn't even offer a vehicle allowance.

Glad I don't work there my Ford truck is a 2003!!!

Wow ... stuff like this said in secret and in the shadows I can understand to a degree .. but to put it IN WRITING???!!!

I think it might be in today's "climate" some validity to the policy as to employer's rights.. A huge factor would be if this was a condition of employment or stated policy. You can be fired in most cases without cause. Stating a cause is just bait for legal action, and that was somewhat ill advised IMO.

I had a client decades back ask me why I was always picked up farther down the terminal when arriving with the band when flying back from touring .

He was riding in a Rolls, he bought me a new BMW, I didn't complain.

^ this. If it's a condition of employment, and you don't like it, you are free to quit. If you don't follow it, you should be fired.

If condition of employment were an issue in the fake letter, the letter would reference that.

She could deduct mileage and such for business purposes. Not that it covered all the expense but that is a legal deduction. Kind of a normal requirement for customer facing employees in some cases, I know field services reps that had similar requirements placed on them, but they did get an allowance as well. In my case I am under similar requirements with one major difference. The company provides the vehicle and I am allowed to use it for personal use, costs me $160/mo for a 2019 Silverado 2500 4 door long bed. They pay for all the gas, maintenance, insurance etc. I doubt that if I had to foot the entire bill as a personal vehicle that my gas bill would be less than $160 a month. It would be a sweet deal, if only I didn't dislike pickups in general. So I drive a 51 Cambridge when not on the clock for the most part. Every now an then the truck comes in handy, like when I towed the Plymouth home, 12 hour round trip. Or getting concrete for my patio addition, plywood and sheetrock for the master bath remodel, etc. But when I didn't have a pickup my car did the chore.

A 51 Cambridge is OLD, & I've never heard of a Cambridge.

IMO, you can really get in the trick bag with a company car. I used to have a couple with a company I worked for & my wife could drive it as well as me - that was part of the deal. BUT, if my wife piled it up, that could possibly threaten my job, even though the company owner would never admit that out loud. What if you had two beers & got pulled over on the way home & got ticketed? Company car & you are screwed. My own car, my own everything. Same with phones & computers - all MY stuff. The only way I need my employer "connected" to my life is I work for them - no other connections.

I was applying for an apartment lease in 1987 and was asked what kind of car I had and how old it was.

I see no problem with the truck I drive to work, what's all the hubbub about? The boys visiting from corporate can easily fit in the bed to take them to lunch

Same here, especially in today's delicate and litigious society. I believe it may have been sent, but as a joke.

Dear Mr. VP of HR and VP of Finance, my fiscal responsibility has put me in a position that everything that I own is free and clear of any liens or monthly payments, so I see 2 options, I will be ready at 7:00 am daily for the limo service to pick me up as that will greatly enhance the company image when the word gets out about the limo service, or I will gladly drive the company provided vehicle of your choice (gas insurance maintenance provided) and park it in the place provided for me, if the company is to pursue further action on this matter the discrimination lawsuit will help me reach my goal of an early retirement as a fiscally responsible employee. Thank you for the concern in this matter.

With my job a DUI, regardless of who's vehicle I was driving, would get me fired. As would a criminal record. Some of the places I go to have some serious clearance requirements. It is what it is, I don't ordinarily do those things that would threaten my job so I don't really worry about it. I am the same way with phones and computers. Personal phone and computer for personal stuff, company phone and computer for company stuff. I don't mix the two that way I don;t have to worry about crossing any unknown or forgotten lines.

About 15 years ago, the owner of the grocery store I worked at asked me several times to stop parking my AMC Gremlin in the front staff parking area as it made the store look "trashy". He'd rather me park on the side or behind the store. The thing I had a problem with was the fact that back then, my Gremlin was still in decent condition. Other people were driving cars or trucks that were in way worse condition but y'know, discrimination. What was funny was that my winter car was a '71 Swinger with more rust than is allowable by law, but that car was O.K. to park up front.

If they told me that I'd tell them real quick where I'd like to park it but it wouldn't fit,well maybe,there are some pretty big ones out there !

Its bad they can mess with ya over your car but if your name is LEE but you look like LORETTA you get extra perks.

Nope and I've been known to drive some pretty trashy vehicles. I have had people bug me about my vehicles being old on occasion and I always say if they want to buy me a new car they're more then welcome to.

I can understand some company policy about driving something newer or decent if it involves interaction with clients, other then that it's nones business what you drive or why.

Place I used to work had sales people and care reps who got car allowances and had to have a pickup or bigger SUV so they could deliver parts and such to customers. The rule seemed to apply to everyone EXCEPT a really gorgeous Puerto Rican lady with a killer rack. She got to drive a mini SUV and her boss made all her deliveries. Not sure why the others never revolted over that.

You never saw the movie "Catch me if you can" and the purpose of the Yankees having pinstripes on their uniforms?

I would definitely be out of luck at that company.

Many years ago at either the GM or Ford plant in Atlanta (not sure which as I had friends that worked at the GM plant & FIL worked at the Ford plant for a while), they would not allow an employee to park a non-GM or Ford vehicle in the lot.



Tim

That must have been a while ago... I spent five months covering at a GM plant, in 2009-2010, and in that entire time I only saw two non-GM cars in the parking lot.
My '81 factory turbo BMW, and someone's Mustang. No one gave me any grief about it. Maybe because I was a temp

I may be reaching here but what I noticed at my old job was how your overall image played into promotions you got and cars were a part of it.

Of course no one would admit to it, but it was pretty obvious. In the case of cars, all of the stores were small, so they had small parking lots putting your vehicle front and center whether you wanted it to be or not. There was no way to park 'out back' because in most cases, there wasn't one.

In my case, each time a major promotion happened, I wasn't driving one of my old hoopties. I started at my old job thru a temp agency when I was daily driving my wagon. After about 6 months working there thru the agency, I went out and bought a 2002 RAM 1500 which was only 3 yrs old at the time. Soon after, I was offered a position to work directly for the company. Much later, when I got the final bump into management, I was driving my Wife's old (but didn't look old) Pontiac Vibe as I had gotten rid of my mini van and had not bought my Dakota yet. Coincidence? I doubt it because I saw a similar pattern with other workers at other locations.

Oh, yeah, my replacement after I got fired was someone with a new motorcycle.

Bitter? No, just part of the game called life.

Funny, I was used to hearing the opposite. I once worked for the largest ladder and scaffold manufacturer in the world and at the time the factory had a couple hundred union employees. Negotiating raises seemed bring up how many new cars were in the parking lot and the company felt maybe we didn't need raises.

I've met a few demented HR bimbys that would actually be dumb enough to send a letter like this. My faves were the ones that were trying to stamp out cursing in a blue collar production environment. As in: [censored]? As for legality of it, I think it basically comes down to it's their parking lot, they make the rules. A lot of companies will extend their "right to inspect" policy past your locker and backpack and in to your car trunk. I really doubt that last one would hold up in court but doesn't mean they don't try it.

Back in the 80s I lived in Bethlehem when the Bethlehem Steel was getting beaten down my asian companies dumping steel in the US. They came out without a policy of no foreign cars, especially japanese ones, in any of their parking lots. Ford and GM plants doing the same sorta thing wouldn't surprise me in the least.

In the late 90s I was driving a 20 yr old Chrysler with rotted out quarters and fading paint but at least all one color. I had a white collar gig doing high end telecom work at customer locations. Most didn't care what I drove, some kinda dug it, others got real uptight about it. The evil Vanguard Investment Group was the worst about it. They never actually said anything the car itself but every now and then one of the clowns would come hassle me about where it was parked. I kept asking ok, where should I park it. They kept saying all I can tell ya is ya can't park it where it is. From time to time I would intentionally put it in the visitor parking right in front of the main entrance just to be a dick about it. Now that I think about it, kinda surprised they didn't tow it.

Me too.

Kinda along those lines, I've had to explain to customers that price increases had nothing to do with the manager's shiny new car sitting in front of the store. Said manager had gone from a beat to death Taurus, to a second hand Mercedes, to a new Jaguar in less than two years. He was promoted quickly after buying the Jag, so I didn't have to deal with it very long. Oh! There's that car thing again...........

I can understand the parking lot thing with only Fords at a Ford plant and GMs at a GM plant only because I'm pretty sure Coke reps can't be drinking Pepsi products at work.

I think if they catch you with coke in your car at any employer your going to get fired.

A couple of "true life" stories. I belong to a very "preppy" rowing club. Once I showed up in my '64 Plymouth "resto rod". I was asked to move it down the street. Basically, come back with your Volvo.

The GF is the daughter of divorced parents. Her mother "got the house" in a nice section of Long Island, and had trouble supporting it. They had an older car. Neighbors would knock on the door telling the mother to get a newer car. It was an "embarrassment to the neighborhood".

Our Union hall used to have a sign that said no foreign vehicles parking allowed.

HAHAHAHA ! i believe there ARE ones out there that are PLENTY big !

I hope your mother replied that the neighbor was embarrassing herself, and if she'd like to purchase a new car for her, that'd be great

A friend of mine works at the Ford truck plant here in Louisville and said non Ford vehicles have to park in a lot farther away. He said other brands parked at the plant have also been known to get keyed.

In the 70's and early 80's if you drove a stock Vega or Pinto you were going to take some ribbing - it was inevitable LOL. Particularly the Pinto following their flammability concerns when rear-ended.

Regarding the letter - think its bogus

If there wasn't a posted official company policy covering what type or age of vehicle was allowed for employees to use, I would have tossed the paper in the trash.

If a company was that concerned about the vehicle I drive, it must be time for them to provide a vehicle for me.

If the company really wanted to follow through with the issue, they would have to be stupid enough to call me into the office to discuss the matter. It could get ugly real quickly.

There was more then one reason I was self employed by my early 30s.

I worked in a shop once that a few of the guys working there gave me a bunch of crap because of the old beater I was driving. One winter day, the weather turned real cold through the course of the day and was well below 0 at the end of the shift. My old beater was the only vehicle that started that night without some kind of assistance. They never gave me any crap about my beater after that day. Gene

I used to occasionally drive my LRE to my last retirement gig. Went through a period where random coworkers would track me down on the floor (forklift jockey) and try to buy it. One guy about my age asked, so I asked if his daughter was hot. He got the joke, as in: would you trade your first born for it. Used the same line on some young kid that caught me off guard and he went straight up nuts on me. As in: took me way too seriously and his kid was clearly pretty young. Tracked him down later, apologized for the confusion, asked if his mother was hot.

Never heard from HR.

Since I drove a hearse for a while as my personal car, I didn't take it personally when a client didn't want me parking in front of their restaurant

In my previous gig with the NHRA I had a few great cars that the company paid for: think loaded Taurus SHOs. New one every year. Great perk.
At a job before that in the newspaper industry I actually had an HR person advise me against riding my Yamaha FJ1100 to work. I asked to see that in writing. Conversation never went any further.

At the Mopar Centerline office where I worked 2005 - 2008, the closest parking spaces were marked
for Chrysler products only.

At that time I was daily driving my (quite presentable but not perfect) 1972 Dodge Polara.

I got warning tickets stuck to the windshield about a half dozen times.

That's pretty funny. I guess the parking enforcement crew were youngsters.

Yeah, they couldn't even identify their own vehicles....

I remember that Green yacht in the parking lot!

I got a heads up from a friend in the purchasing department before my 78 W150 got towed from the office parking lot back in the early 90's. Seemed the guys in upper management didn't appreciate my military surplus truck parked in front of their office. One of the directors actually told me to get a better vehicle. I told him to pay me more and I would. Conversation ended there.

It is not unusual for companies to have as part of the job requirements for outside sales or positions representing the company where a certain image was desired, a decent late model vehicle, typically needing to be a newer than a certain number year. Normally, there is a stipend provided to be used for this.

If a contract was signed, or this requirement was included in the job requirements at the time you were hired, you are on the hook to do it or move on. If this was a complete surprise or had never been an issue for anyone else, maybe you need to have a discussion with HR to find out what's going on. Maybe the company needs to provide you a vehicle that they deem appropriate for their representative to be seen in.

If this is not an outside position and they just don't want a piece of crap on their lot, then you have to decide if you want to fight this or figure out why they want to get rid of you.

ETA...Twitter? The garbage can of America? Probably BS.

I have no idea if that's legit or not. Who knows... but it would cause my HR major heartburn if I ever received something like that... and I doubt that would happen "here" (my current employer through the end of March 2020).

Regardless, I'm still driving my '02 Subaru WRX that I bough 17 years and 11 months ago... and am frequently surrounded by late-model BMWs, Mercedes, big-buck SUVs, etc., in my corporate parking garage. I'm definitely driving one of the older vehicle I see parked here. It doesn't look as nice today as it did in this older pic, but you get the gist... old, but not a P O S.

My response? Ef 'em; I still have a mortgage and 3 kids to put through college.

I kept a '66 Charger parts car at work while I slowly stripped it down to the shell. They were cool about it.

One of my family members is a VP of a fortune 500 company. Their employer has a home office with regional offices around the county. This person works at one of the regional offices. Their boss, the CEO, works at the home office.

This VP typically drives a late model luxury SUV. They also had a 12 year old "beater car" to use as a back-up vehicle. On one fateful day, their SUV was at the dealer being serviced, so they drove their old beater car to the office. (It was probably a $2,000 car) They never expected anyone to notice the vehicle they were driving. As they stepped out of the car, the CEO happened to walk past. The CEO stopped walking, took a long look at the car, looked at them and then asked, "Are we paying you enough?"

A few days later, they gave me that beater car. I drove it for 5 years!!