The Seville Series: Rayner Perez

I barely knew Rayner Perez.

He came to Seville as a floor host, several months before I was hired. I never tipped him very well. He was usually upstairs, where I rarely went. Whether he was on the show floor or champagne lounge, he didn't make much of an effort to help me with tasks I needed management help for. That probably correlated with the paltry amount of my money that I gave to him whenever I needed to track him down and have him sign my permission slip to leave work. I never gave him hugs, as I saw several other dancers do. I never bullshitted with him, as I saw several other dancers do. The slightly bug-eyed, muppet-faced Rayner was unremarkable and average in most ways. He possessed a certain degree of slut-shaming misogyny, which was evident from the way he referred to female patrons as “skanks,” and his displays of disgust toward women customers who he deemed unrefined. Rayner had a suave, Gomez Addams aura to him, accentuated by the copious amounts of cologne that he wore to work and at my arbitration. I knew Rayner would be testifying at my arbitration before ever seeing him or being informed that he would be there, simply by smelling his cologne permeating throughout the air in the arbitration association's lobby.

Rayner was the manager who informed me that I was fired in early September 2016. Rayner was the manager who informed another woman she was terminated, after she turned down the sexual advances of Jeremy Chase.

Because I rarely encountered him, I never talked to Rayner about problems I was having at work. I've included him in a few of the other Seville posts already. It doesn't surprise me that a company would send in Rayner to testify as a “manager” witness at my arbitration. He was able to deny knowing about my sexual harassment and misclassification, and in all likelihood, he did not know the details. There were five other managers and a regional manager. Rayner is a low-level worker who wouldn't know about that kind of thing. He is a strategic tool for a company to use in legal matters.

Predictably, Rayner denied everything at arbitration. The amount of sweating, trembling, nervous ticks and fidgets that came out of him during my arbitration was very entertaining to watch. Usually in these situations, the least reliable witnesses go first to testify. Rayner went first, and I doubt his testimony had anything to do with Seville winning.

What I learned from the Seville loss, is that it is necessary to speak to all managers about all problems, and record all conversations. That can be difficult and confusing when there are so many managers, most of whom are evasive. If you can't track them all down to do that, go after the regional manager.