Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

Unlucky enough to be stalked twice

V, Oklahoma

I’ve been unlucky enough to be stalked twice.

The first was a fellow student in college piano class. His parents knew mine, but I was unaware of his existence beyond the kid that sat at the back. His father came in where my mother worked, excited that this guy and I were going to get married. My mother was stunned and confronted me about my ’secret’ boyfriend. I had no idea. Days later, coworkers where I worked pointed out that he was following me around the building (a library), making sure to stay out of my line of sight. Thankfully nothing untoward happened.

The second stalking occurred years later and was done by a coworker of mine at a large corporation where we worked. He was part of a circle of friends, fun to be around, very gregarious. He got it into his head we were perfect for each other, gave gifts, etc. then I started to feel uncomfortable with the extra attention. I began refusing the gifts and insisted that there was no need for him to walk by my cubicle as it was out of his way to anyplace he needed to be going.

When it continued, I complained to my supervisor, who had a talk with his supervisor. His supervisor blamed me, stating that I led the coworker on and that he was under the impression he was being encouraged.

He was “rewarded” by getting a larger cubicle around his supporters and I was relegated to a corner desk (not even a cubicle) with three supervisors in the room to make sure he stayed away.

The environment I was reduced to was essentially what they gave new hires, not people who’d been with the company for several years, as I had been. It did nothing to make me feel secure as he still had access to me to and from the workplace, breaks and lunches. Only my being fired eventually made this situation go away three years later. I am certain that their reason for the firing stemmed primarily from the incident, which ultimately had to do with my subsequent health problems. It was not provable, however.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 9th, 2007 at 10:31 am and is filed under Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Stalking, Health Effects. 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.

3 Responses to “Unlucky enough to be stalked twice”

Scott Says:
July 9th, 2007 at 3:27 am
It’s one my fears of getting a job is being sexual harassed by men and women. I kinda had that story with this girl who liked me (she wouldn’t have a chance anyways,since I’m gay,but I wasn’t out at that time.)She was in class of mine and I had to worked with her for job training at school She mistook me nice to her at work since my teacher was there.That I liked her back, how could I (I’m Gay plus she wouldn’t understand) But eventually I didn’t she her anymore. It was fairly benign
Bethany Says:
September 6th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Hi. I’m putting together a story for NBC News on stalking on college campuses and wondered if I can talk to you about your experience. I think it’s important to raise the public’s awareness to the issue. You can help by doing that.
Please email me asap.
Best,
Bethany Thomas
Sheila Says:
November 19th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Dear NBC News reporter,

How about doing a story on Stalking period. Or even, Stalking in the workplace.

I currently have a case for 17 counts of Stalking, Aggravated Harassment, and criminal contempt. It has been going on for over a year now and the person stalking me has stalked my fiance, his elderly parents, and friends and neighbors. His place of employment had to be subpeoned to the grand jury last week because they investigated te initial e-mail “death threat” attacks and linked them to his IP address computer at work. Because I don’t work there, they don’t care and just put him on administrative leave (paid) for a few months. During the time he was on leave, he was following me to work. However, they have buried their heads in the sand and continue to employ him. My fiance works at the same place that he does and has numerous death threats from this individual with still no relief. This employer is a large company that specializes in Space & Defense. My fiance has filed hostile work environment charges but they have done nothing to help trace the phone calls etc. They are waiting for us to do the investigation and get him convicted and serve jail time before they terminate him and stop funding his obsession.

Stalking is a horrible crime that the public needs more awareness and new laws enacted.

Unlucky enough to be stalked twice

3 Responses to “Unlucky enough to be stalked twice”

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