Speak Up! Blog

December 30, 2009

We like ‘em big here

Filed under: General issues — Jennifer @ 4:02 pm

I stumbled across this today while perusing our web traffic. (It was a link back to a post at another community.) It’s an email conversation between a female employee and her HR director, her supervisor, and the company owner, no less. I’ll let the conversation speak for itself.

my company is big on giving as much notice as possible if you need time off. Since i’m off this week, i scheduled some doctor appointments that i’ve been putting off. I sent an email to my supervisor, the company owner, and HR Director.

me: Hi. Just letting you know that I have a dr. appt. on the morning of Jan. 20th. It’s at 9am and i’m not sure how long it will be, but i’ll be in afterwards. Also, I need to schedule a minor surgical procedure. Not sure what date, but i’ll try to schedule it for the following friday so i will only miss one day of work. I’ll let you know. thanks.

supervisor: ok.

Owner: You’re not getting anything reduced, are you?

me: No.

HR Director: What’s it for?

me: I think you’re not supposed to ask that.

Owner: Oh, someone is feeling sassy today.

me: no, but i’d rather not say, and you aren’t supposed to ask.

HR Director: Ok. As long as you aren’t getting anything reduced, we’re fine with it.

me: I’m getting my penis removed, okay?

end of email exchange.

We’ve come a long way, baby!

I can’t help keep wondering what planet American men think discrimination laws were established for. They certainly don’t seem to think they were written for THEM.

This smart women is saving this email exchange, and is beginning her documentation folder.

Source

December 29, 2009

Sound familiar?

Filed under: General issues, Retaliation, Backlash and Victim-blaming — Jennifer @ 4:44 pm

In China, a 28-yer-old woman has won the first sexual harassment lawsuit since the country passed the Chinese Women’s Rights Protection Law back in 2005.

The woman, surnamed Luo, suffered repeated groping from her new boss at the Japanese-owned company Moriroku (Guangzhou) Plastics Company Limited. She complained to the institution officials, even producing photographs of her boss in action at a party. All she requested was an apology and a promise that the company would work to prevent such incidents from happening again. Instead, the fired her.

Luo reported to the China Daily, “They fired me under the excuse of skipping duties without valid reasons….I still live in a terrible psychological shadow after sexual harassment. I have been turned down for several jobs since the case was brought to court.”

The court ordered her former boss to pay 3,000 yuan ($440) in compensation and demanded the company issue an apology letter three weeks ago.

But you know those Chinese and their human rights abuses against women….tsk, tsk. We are so more evolved in the U.S.–NOT!

This is much like every other story I heard since SHS came into being: institutions trying to get around discrimination law by firing the complainants using some lame or trumped up charge about her performance. Many of these are published at the stories area of SHS, there are certainly too many to list here. For me, the professor-stalkers’ particularly lame excuse for their most recent conduct–including phone tapping and repeated burglary–is that I’m ADD and “not focused.” (Earlier, when I would not pursue any of them sexually, in retaliation they spread the blatant lie that I was cheating in school.)

Moreover, the same blackballing is also going on in the U.S., with people often unable to find new jobs after they are fired in retaliation for harassment complaints. And you are really up-a-creek if you come from a small community. I know of one couple who both worked at the company where the wife was harassed. They were literally run out of town after the boss’s conduct came to light.

The U.S. is as violent, discriminatory, and sexist as any other country that we love to point our fingers and sniff at. Will the people of the United States ever grow up enough to have the strength and maturity to see the truth about themselves? Let’s hope so.

Source: 1

December 17, 2009

Revising my “worst case” assessment

Filed under: Retaliation, Backlash and Victim-blaming — Jennifer @ 6:18 pm

Did I say that the Jay Glosser case was one of the worst stories of sexual harassment retaliation I’ve heard? Well, it still is, but now I’ve stumbled across another one that is worse.

Frank Garcia, a former nursing supervisor in Rochester, New York, has been sentenced to three life terms for murder. Prosecutors say that he shot five victims during a retaliation rampage after he was fired twice from two different healthcare facilities for sexual harassment. Two women he supervised complained he sexually harassed them— Kimberly Glatz at Wesley Gardens and Mary Silliman at Lakeside Beikirch Care Center.

The prosecutor said “He was fired because he couldn’t control his ego” and “he couldn’t put up with” romantic rejection.

Garcia first went to Lakeside Hospital where he killed Silliman outside. Two people, Audra Dillon and Randal Norman were driving by, witnessed the attack and tried to assist. Garcia wounded Dillion and killed Norman. Then he drove to the home of Glatz and killed both her and her husband execution-style.

“It was a premeditated, calculated, cold act,” said Judge Frank Geraci.

When I founded this community, it never occurred to me in my wildest dreams I would be writing about murders and attempted murders in the aftermath of sexual harassment and sexual harassment complaints. But really, we hear about this all the time, and never relate it to sexual harassment. Any romantically-obsessed stalker killing represents the same problem. We just don’t tend to make the connection.

In all my research on sexual harassment when SHS was coming together, I never heard one mention of how violent the aftermath can be. But then again, I never found much of anything about retaliation, in general, which is why that survey I put together is now out there on the Internet, although it never occurred to me to include “attempted murder” in the multiple choice list under the retaliation questions.

Our denial is extraordinary. We really believe that Americans are so advanced that no educated, financially secure, credentialed American male would think “If she doesn’t accept me, I’ll destroy her.” We really think this only happens in places like India and Afghanistan…..

We need do think again, and think long and hard.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

December 11, 2009

Women behaving badly

Filed under: General issues — Jennifer @ 5:40 pm

So, Liza Minelli is out of trouble now, though I would love to know how much the settlement was–the guy signed a “won’t talk” clause.

If you don’t know about this, Liza (63) got sued by her chauffeur for quid pro quo harassment. The victim said she made many repeated attempts to “compel plaintiff to have sex with her.’ He eventually gave in, but only after she threatened to fire him if he didn’t comply. He also claims she beat him during drunken rages. Source

This kind of thing isn’t as uncommon as you would think, and the EEOC reports that sexual harassment complaints by men against female supervisors are on the rise. Feminists have always said that women don’t sexually harass because they don’t have the power to. But women are stepping into more and more positions of power and are definitely abusing it, really making many of the same mistakes men have made. Women are less likely to use their power to sexually harass, but they are responsible for most of the reported workplace bullying cases which is becoming as big a problem as sexual harassment. (Interestingly, most of their targets are other women.)

Still, sexual harassment by females does happen–it’s happened to me–and we occasionally get a story submission involving this. Just see the stories area of the site.

What is most scary is that most of the stories of sexual harassment/exploitation by women that I have heard involve teachers, and many of these victims are very young. There is a blog that followed these types of stories. They quit posting a year ago, but it’s still out there. (This is where I found a lovely picture of Jay Glosser.) See Trash Education

December 5, 2009

Guilty: update on the TCC murder plot

Filed under: Retaliation, Backlash and Victim-blaming — Tags: — Jennifer @ 4:49 pm

Recently, LiveScience and Yahoo featured an article published by a university professor which claims the more formally educated someone is, the better they are at handling anger. Source (As if people stop learning when they quit going to classes.)

This made me laugh out loud. After working in social science research for years with those supposedly hyper-educated university professors, I can assure you it was never the secretaries or clerks throwing things in anger–it was always the people with “Dr.” in front of their names. Other professors would hide in their offices whenever there was conflict in the air. The PhDs from Rice University worked things out professionally by sabotaging the equipment of those who made them angry. (Not to mention the fact that I’ve been stalked for over seven years by university professors who clearly can’t manage their own anger, either.)

You’ve got to watch those researchers as they are notorious for focusing their studies and conclusions in ways that validate themselves, their values, their behaviors, their personalities, etc.

I think educated people are just more aware of how they should behave, but are more apt to be in denial (lie) about how they really behave as they are more image conscious.

This all reminded me of one of the worst cases of sexual harassment retaliation I have heard which involved a college professor at Tidewater Community College who hired a hit man to kill a female colleague who had accused him of sexual harassment. The story was reported back in 2006. At the time, there were only accusations and charges.

I remember that the harasser’s colleagues were outraged that he had been suspended for this. (It figures)

While the story had not faded from my mind, I had not kept tabs on what happened. So I have been Googling for updates. Here is a recap and what I found out:

Jay Glosser was an IT professor worried that a sexual harassment complaint made by Kimberly Perez could cost him his job. Perez was an associate professor in the same department. (Yes, the sexual harassment complaint was TRUE.)

Glosser had a neighbor, Raymond Groves, who offered to help him with his problem and arranged for one of his employees, F. Devin Scott to assist. Glosser offered the two men $3,000 to $4,000 to persuade Perez to withdraw her complaint or $10,000 to “take her out.”

But when Scott showed up at Perez’s front door, he ended up warning her instead. Later in a phone call, he asked her for $10,000 not to kill her. In another call, he told her he was connected to the Ku Klux Klan and that if he didn’t kill her, “some skinheads would come in from Alabama to do it.”

Subsequently, police sting operations led to arrests of Glosser, Groves, and Scott.

Glosser later pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for hire, solicitation, and conspiracy to commit extortion. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but most of it was suspended down to 8 1/2 years in prison. Groves got 8 years. Scott got 7 years.

Perez later filed a lawsuit against the college for ignoring her complaints. (I don’t know if this has been settled.)

She says her days are filled with fears and anxiety. “I can’t got to the store without worrying that someone is following me.” She said, “It’s a different life.

Most people still don’t know that the retaliation against sexual harassment complainants is often a lot worse than the original harassment. If you are interested in this issue, Perez’s story is really a must read: Kimberly Perez talks about her ordeal

Let’s get these educated folks some anger management classes. Quick!!!

Other sources for this article: 1, 2, 3

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