Speak Up!

I will never be the same

     I was working as a temp at a technology company.

     This engineer posted a collage of pictures  on the wall and told me to come look at them.  Then he started asking me personal questions:  Do you have a boyfriend?  Do you see him a lot?  

      I couldn’t see the pictures because of the low light.  We went back to the work table and he stood behind me as I was leaning on the table to see the pictures.  As I was leaning against the table, he leaned on me and I could feel his penis on my rear end.  Then he started to grind and rub his penis on me, dry humping me.

     I was stunned.

     Immediately after the incident, I asked a co-worker if he’d seen our supervisor.  The engineer heard this and  freaked out and asked me why I needed him, and what was the problem.

     Then, a coworker told me he saw the incident and I was so relieved. 

     So I went and told the supervisor what happened and he just laughed and said that the engineer didn’t understand because he’s from another country.  He said it’s happened before.  (What?  Sexual harassment?  Or confusion?  Hhmmm…)

     I said bullshit.  He understood because of the way he reacted when I said I was looking for you.

      I called the EEOC and told them I just wanted an apology and an acknowledgment of what he did.  They advised me to call my temp service which I did.  I told them what happened and that I had a witness.  The temp lady told me that she was to call my witness and supervisor to get statements from them.

     Then I had a couple days of listening to my co-workers and supervisor make what I thought at the time were stupid comments,  like I should file a sexual harassment suit.

     I called the temp service to follow up and she said she was disappointed with the supervisor and witness because they had not received their statements yet.  We were all working together with a project when the temp lady called the supervisor about it.  I stood right there and heard her voice as he was standing next to me.

     After the call, the supervisor just shot darts at me for about 30 seconds then he walked away with my witness.

      From then on,  my witness said that he saw the engineer next to me, but didn’t see the incident. 

     Plus, there were surveillance cameras everywhere, but I was told that the incident could not be viewed because the camera view was blocked by bins  and cardboard on pallets piled high.

     In the end, all the supervisor did was tell me to stay away from the engineer and for him to stay away from me which was impossible since we have to interact to do our jobs.

     After a week or two,  I called the temp service back for a transfer and told her how uncomfortable I was.  She said she understood but there was nothing else available.   So that day,  I didn’t say anything to anyone, just got in my car and left during lunch and never went back.

      I’ve now gotten an attorney who specializes in sexual harassment cases.  He has shown me statements that plainly show the supervisor and witness have been lying about what happened.   They are both cowards.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Formal Investigations and Litigation, 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.