One of my supervisors was fired this week.
This blog is fairly anonymous: I don't use names and I purposefully don't associate myself with the actual shop and company I work for. I have no idea who, if anyone (...besides the small group of friends I happened to mention it to), stumbles through my random musings on life from behind the espresso machine.
But writing's kind of always been my outlet.
If you'll recall, I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about how people always tell me secrets and stuff. Well, sharing's not exactly a two-way street for me. I'm horrible at talking about my feelings, and I'm super non-confrontational. So whenever I've had to express things of a warm and gooey or a hard and messy nature, I'd much rather write than voice them.
For instance, I had to complete a 'philosophy of life' project for my senior seminar course in college, where I was given the opportunity for in-depth exploration of the lens through which I view the world; I then had to thoughtfully analyze my principles and beliefs using a medium of my choosing. I chose to write a series of thank you letters to family members, friends, mentors and the like for investing in my life up until that point, highlighting how those important souls played a part in the way I'd come to see the world. I handed the project in to my professor, but chickened out and never actually sent the letters to their intended audiences.
I don't know why, but there's something about saying something honest out loud (or in writing), having people hear it, and then never being able to get it back, that makes me uncomfortable. But I'm working on it.
Without going into all the minutiae of the situation, this supervisor of mine was fired on account of sexual harassment. One of my co-workers came to me last week, and she said that he 'slapped her ass' one morning when they were opening together. I was disgusted and offended, especially since this wasn't the first time that I'd noticed inappropriate encounters with female employees (and customers) on his part. My co-worker and I talked about what might happen if she were to tell our manager, and she ultimately decided to report him a couple days later.
Hypothetically, if I were the type of person who talked about messy stuff, I might admit that over the course of the first few months of my freshman year in a brand new high school where I knew not a soul, something in a similar-ish vein routinely happened to me at the hands of an individual whose name and face I can't even remember now some ten-odd years later (TEN YEARS since freshman year of high school?!), but whose actions still cut - just every once in a while - but especially when I come in contact with grown men who have gotten this far in their lives without someone coming forward and initiating the proper mechanisms to stop their behavior.
I'm really proud of my co-worker for reporting the situation because I don't know if I would've had the courage, had I been the one in her position.
But I was really disappointed in the way the company that we work for handled things. I believe that there should be an expeditious policy of zero-tolerance in regard to harassment. There is a time and a place for the slapping of asses...? but it's not in the workplace. After the report was made, a week+ long investigation into the situation on the part of district management was launched. The supervisor in question had no idea that he was being investigated, and so all the while, he was allowed to continue working - often right alongside the young woman he violated.
I understand that there is a process that must be followed and a paper-trail that must be left in these situations, but that still kind of irks me.
. . .
Lise
This blog is fairly anonymous: I don't use names and I purposefully don't associate myself with the actual shop and company I work for. I have no idea who, if anyone (...besides the small group of friends I happened to mention it to), stumbles through my random musings on life from behind the espresso machine.
But writing's kind of always been my outlet.
If you'll recall, I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about how people always tell me secrets and stuff. Well, sharing's not exactly a two-way street for me. I'm horrible at talking about my feelings, and I'm super non-confrontational. So whenever I've had to express things of a warm and gooey or a hard and messy nature, I'd much rather write than voice them.
For instance, I had to complete a 'philosophy of life' project for my senior seminar course in college, where I was given the opportunity for in-depth exploration of the lens through which I view the world; I then had to thoughtfully analyze my principles and beliefs using a medium of my choosing. I chose to write a series of thank you letters to family members, friends, mentors and the like for investing in my life up until that point, highlighting how those important souls played a part in the way I'd come to see the world. I handed the project in to my professor, but chickened out and never actually sent the letters to their intended audiences.
I don't know why, but there's something about saying something honest out loud (or in writing), having people hear it, and then never being able to get it back, that makes me uncomfortable. But I'm working on it.
Without going into all the minutiae of the situation, this supervisor of mine was fired on account of sexual harassment. One of my co-workers came to me last week, and she said that he 'slapped her ass' one morning when they were opening together. I was disgusted and offended, especially since this wasn't the first time that I'd noticed inappropriate encounters with female employees (and customers) on his part. My co-worker and I talked about what might happen if she were to tell our manager, and she ultimately decided to report him a couple days later.
Hypothetically, if I were the type of person who talked about messy stuff, I might admit that over the course of the first few months of my freshman year in a brand new high school where I knew not a soul, something in a similar-ish vein routinely happened to me at the hands of an individual whose name and face I can't even remember now some ten-odd years later (TEN YEARS since freshman year of high school?!), but whose actions still cut - just every once in a while - but especially when I come in contact with grown men who have gotten this far in their lives without someone coming forward and initiating the proper mechanisms to stop their behavior.
I'm really proud of my co-worker for reporting the situation because I don't know if I would've had the courage, had I been the one in her position.
But I was really disappointed in the way the company that we work for handled things. I believe that there should be an expeditious policy of zero-tolerance in regard to harassment. There is a time and a place for the slapping of asses...? but it's not in the workplace. After the report was made, a week+ long investigation into the situation on the part of district management was launched. The supervisor in question had no idea that he was being investigated, and so all the while, he was allowed to continue working - often right alongside the young woman he violated.
I understand that there is a process that must be followed and a paper-trail that must be left in these situations, but that still kind of irks me.
. . .
Lise
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