That was the subject line of an email sent by an EEOC judge to all of her coworkers in response to an agency directive that no orders be issued in LGBTQ+ discrimination cases without first being reviewed by headquarters. The directive was in response to Trump's executive order mandating that the federal government recognize only two sexes.
The judge, Karen Ortiz, urged her colleagues to resist. "It's time for us to embody the civil rights work we were hired to do and honor the oath to the Constitution that we all took," she wrote in her email.
To her surprise, she did not receive a single response. She soon learned why. Her email had been deleted from everyone's inbox. When she followed up, calling for the EEOC's acting chair to resign, the agency cut off her ability to send emails entirely.
The EEOC is the federal agency responsible for enforcing our nation's anti-discrimination laws. Instead, it appears to be actively suppressing its own judges and restricting their ability to uphold those laws.
Ortiz isn't backing down. "The unknown was not as scary as being complicit and not speaking up," she told The New York Times.
We often talk about the importance of workplace culture. A culture of fear, censorship, and discrimination undermines weakens morale and erodes trust. It creates an environment where employees feel disengaged, productivity suffers, and the organization ultimately fails in its mission.
THIS IS NOT NORMAL. And it shouldn't be.