Photo Courtesy of Janika Frimpong/ Instagram
A black IT graduate, Janika Frimpong, has quit working at Legal & General’s showpiece HQ in London after tape-recording two colleagues saying racist comments behind her back.
The 25-year-old former receptionist from Legal & General said she left her “toxic” job after experiencing racism and bullying on “multiple occasions.”
Frimpong left her phone to record a conversation when she left the room. The two women, who were talking as Frimpong exited, were unaware that she had left her phone on record.
On January 6, Frimpong tweeted an excerpt from the shocking tape on Twitter with a caption:
In the minute-long section of the tape she posted, two unidentified women, A and B, can be heard in conversation about her. The colleagues could be heard saying, “she has a smell about her, like a fried, oiled smell, It stresses me out…black people have a smell about them…you know, some people smell clean and fresh – and some others …..you know black people, they don’t wash their hair.”
At one point, one of the women refers to Frimpong, adding, “she’s not here, though. She’s in the toilet.”
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The tweet soon went viral, and Frimpong was praised for having the courage to quit her job and offered advice by other Twitter users on taking legal action for constructive dismissal.
Legal & General replied to the tweet and said they were “upset and saddened” to hear about Frimpong’s experience.
Both Legal & General and Mitie, the recruitment agency all three women were employed by, have launched investigations into what happened, but we know what happened.