Women Friendly Workplace Campaign Speakout
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Coworker who harassed now promoted to supervisor
- Subject: Coworker who harassed now promoted to supervisor
- From: Anonymous <no_email@fake.address>
- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 00:10:10 -0500 (EST)
About a year ago, I was working with a man who would give me "funny" looks a lot...one day he asked me to take a walk. I was fairly new to the job, and I went outside with him and sat at a picnic table.
He told me that he was very "taken with me", and that he would like to get to know me better. I knew that he was married, and had even met his wife. He said that he would like to "explore his possibilities" before he got too old to do so. I asked him what his wife would think about it, and he said "there are some things that she just doesn't need to know". He had told me that I reminded him of his wife several times.
I told him that I appreciated the fact that he felt we were good enough friends that he could tell me this, but that I was not interested, and that marriage was sacred to me...something you don't mess around with.
I told a couple of coworkers about it, and my parents.
Anyway, a little over a month later, he was promoted to be my supervisor.
He and I have severe problems with basic communication, and I absolutely hate having to come into the office every day. He finds fault with everything I do, and is documenting everything that I do wrong. A couple of weeks ago we got into a yelling match during my one-on-one meeting. If I'm two minutes late, after working at the office until after midnight the previous night, he has fits, making an example of me to everyone around. He also treats me differently than my male counterpart, who comes in when he wants, and doesn't do near the same amount of work that I do.
My review is coming up, and I recently hear that I'm not perceived as a "team player". My second-level boss (let's call him "Bob") says that I get rave reviews from the people that I work with in the office, but that my direct supervisor's reports are not so rosy, and doesn't understand why. So I finally made the decision to report my supervisor to HR, who said that they would pass the information on Bob. When I tried to call Bob and explain my reasoning for bringing this up, he refused to talk to me. I just wanted him to understand why there is a communication problem with my direct supervisor.
My supervisor even had the gall to ask during our fight "why I think that we don't communicate, and why I don't respect him as a supervisor". Why does he think?
I'm afraid that if I try to file suit against my employer, that he will bring up things like me being late...but it's a vicious circle...if I'm a couple of minutes late it's because I feel beaten and I simply hate seeing him every day. I work my butt off, staying late and working on extra projects.
Oh, by the way...he delivers my performance review this next week. I'm scared to death, and I'm so afraid that when all this comes out that he'll retaliate.
Thanks for listening...
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