Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

Nidia, Canada   

     My current situation is potentially getting serious and I just don’t know what to do.         

     I have been working with a company for a little over a year now.  About 6 months into my job, they hired this strange looking, socially challenged guy, probably in his fifties who I noticed would stare at me a lot to the point where I felt like he was leering or spying on me.  At first I dismissed it and I rationalized that maybe he was a bit weird, but then when there was a seating change and he was seated beside me, the situation got more and more strange.

     He sat directly beside me and would stare directly at me and when I turned to look at him he would look away.  He would stare at me breasts and my body whenever he left his seat, when he came back to his seat and the looks just got more and more invasive. He would even eavesdrop on my conversations with my other coworkers.

     Then he started trying to create opportunities to brush up against me (i.e. passing him in the hallways) or if he would see me walking through a doorway, he would try to squeeze through at the same time in an effort to force some kind of contact.  The situation got so bad that I requested a seating change. Or course that didn’t help, he just found new tricks.  Eventually I reported him to my HR department and they did ‘talk’ to him….

     But now what he  does is tries to follow me outside of the office when I am going home, or plants himself in my pathway  when he sees me returning from the washroom etc. 

     I have been reporting the situation to HR, even submitted a ten page document detailing most of the incidents that have occurred, but I am getting frustrated because I don’t think HR is taking the situation as seriously as it should.  I think my HR manager just doesn’t know what to do, which is disappointing.  My employment there is not permanent, only temporary so I wont be working with him forever but I am worried that this situation could bleed outside of the workplace and turn into a potential stalking situation.  I have already had my phone number listed as private just to be on the safe side.

     I don’t know what to do – there are days when I just get so angry and frustrated.  I ignore him and I don’t show fear, but it seems like he is trying to see how far he can take this situation – its like he sees it as some type of challenge or game.  He does not stare at me like he used to because he knows he is being watched – but still I don’t feel safe.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. 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.