Document Efforts to Set You Up for Failure
I think many workers have experienced the angst that is associated with suspecting that you are being set up for failure by a supervisor, manager, project leader, etc. You just get the gnawing suspicion that you don't have all the resources, facts, etc. that will help make your work effort successful.
If you're the victim of race-based mistreatment, you may have an even stronger suspicion that you are being targeted at work. Often, that targeting includes being targeted to miss deadlines, make errors or to encounter many other problems at work.
For instance, a supervisor may sit on assignments and give them to a worker at the last minute--ensuring that the work will be sloppy, incomplete, and/or will be submitted after the deadline has passed. Or, a manager may not give a targeted employee all of the instructions they need to properly complete an assignment. As a result, the work may be incomplete, fraught with errors, and have many other problems.
Setting employees up for failure is a common tactic used in the workplace. Someone who is determined to discriminate against a Black employee or who is trying to create a hostile/offensive work environment for that employee may see engaging in a set up as a legitimate means of lodging complaints against the worker. Or, someone may see engaging in a set up as a good cover for retaliation against a Black worker, who has complained of race-based abuses at work.
Regardless of the cause, there are some things you can do, whenever you suspect you are being set up at work:
1) Don't remain quiet. You only increase the success level of the set up by suffering in silence!
2) Address your concerns by email--FIRST. Don't speak to the individual about the problems with the work because they will likely sell you a crock of crap that will shut you up, while enabling their plan to continue. Just drop the person a quick email reading something like, "Do you have a minute to...
