Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

Julie, Missouri

     I am a 38 year old female that got a job selling high line automobiles.  I needed a substantial income to be able to afford keeping my home and was quickly the “top sales person” making over a hundred thousand dollars my first year. 

     The President and CEO of our Automotive group would “drop by to check in at our dealership” at least one to two times per week.  He was nearly 70, dressed impeccably and liked to brag about the fact that he dated “centerfolds” and young” models.

     Shortly after starting my position, this CEO learned of my sexuality (I’m a lesbian) and started becoming fascinated by it, asking me very personal sexual questions.  (He was also interested in our 20 year old receptionist who he ended up promoting to a sales position.)  The CEO would “show up” at establishments that we would be and send us text messages saying things like “you two are so hot.”  As time went, he became increasingly bolder with his comments and started requesting hugs and asking us to tell him that we “loved” him.  He would even comment on our breasts and specifically asked me one time in front of co-workers if it was cold or I was excited because my nipples were hard. 

     He did all of these inappropriate things in front of my two managers and we would frequently comment on what a pervert he was. 

     The last straw was when he invited me and my co-worker to a “marketing dinner.”  Although, I knew that it was a bad idea, I was somehow more  concerned about not going because it might offend him and affect our jobs. 

     When we showed up to the restaurant, it got completely out of control. He groped us both and used the most pornographic language I have ever heard. He begged us to have a three-way with him, and said that we would move up in the company if we complied. I called my General manager at home to let him know how out of control the evening had gotten.

     Three days later, my General manager reported the incident to the corporation.  The corporate attorneys flew in their corporate jet the next day and ambushed us with an interrogation about the evening and events leading up to the marketing meeting.  They took copious notes, but did not let us read or sign our statements.  A week later the owner of this billion dollar corporation flew in himself to personally apologize for the incidents and admitted that the CEO had broken down crying telling him that he was sick and needed help with alcoholism and sexual addiction. 

     However, they next handed us a “report of their investigation” that concluded that our report was not corroborated by a third party and that it was a “he said she said scenario.”

     Still, the CEO had to participate in mandatory counseling and our dealership was never the same.  Our managers started retaliating against us because they were very paranoid about their participation and lack of “correcting the problem”  We became the “bad women” who created all of the chaos.

     The corporate attorneys even flew in and asked us if they “could offer us a severance package to “make this go away.”  I just said that I wanted to keep my job and for things to go back to normal.  My co-worker said that she couldn’t take the job anymore and submitted a severance request letter which they used against her to force her out of the dealership. 

     We both hired an attorney who specializes in sexual harassment. 

     Six months to the date of the investigation, the CEO and both of my managers were fired.  We just had our EEOC mediation hearing last Friday, and I  almost fell on the floor when the attorney for the insurance company said that my coworker and I had an elaborate conspiracy against the company.  It is amazing how they have turned this around and placed the blame on us.  This man has turned out to have a record of sexually harassing women and has “bought” his way of previous cases. 

     I am struggling emotionally and physically with the stress but feel that the only way that I am going to have any closure or “vindication” is to expose this man and this company by taking this to court.  I almost feel that it will be therapy for me and my co-worker.  This is absolutely the worst experience I have ever been faced with.  It was great to run across this website for support and commiseration.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Retaliation, Backlash, and Victim-blaming, Formal Investigations and Litigation. 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.