Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

Linn, California

    After working at a small company for over a year, my boss came on to me saying he wanted to kiss me. (My boss is the owner of the company, married, and has a son my age - and I worked with the son and wife.) I could not believe it. I thought he was a nice man. I had admired him. I thought he was a smart businessman and good husband and father. I told him I was uncomfortable and that his wife would be uncomfortable too. I had hoped that as the end of it. It wasn’t… He kept trying - saying he wanted me to be his girlfriend, saying he wanted to marry me, kept touching me, even grabbed me and kissed me on the mouth. I started to cry and he kept telling me not to tell.

     I continued working there for a long time and he kept it up and I did not tell anyone at work…I felt terrible. But what could I do? If I told, my life could get worse. If I quit, then I know people would wonder why and I would have a hard time not revealing the truth–and I would feel resentful that I quit because of his actions.

     I wanted some sort of justice. I wanted to prevent him from doing it again, and I strongly believe he had done this before me too. I did eventually quit and told the son why. I think he believed me. But when I got my final paycheck, I also got a note from an attorney denying everything… it was ugly. I found an attorney and after a few weeks, the company offered a settlement that I accepted. But now, I fear what this does to my career options. Will they give a terrible reference? How do I talk about why I left without talking about why I left (terms of settlement)?

     I have really lost trust… And sometimes I really hate being a woman. I just do not think there is much hope that the world will treat women right.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 18th, 2006 at 11:02 am and is filed under Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Effects of Sexual Harassment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.