Harassment in the Work Place - Part 2

Flash forward to 1995.  Believe it or not I did not have another incident of harassment until 1995 and I must be more discreet now as I live in this area where it happened.  The person I worked, after I had been there for 6 months, began making advancing to me by putting his hand on my knee and saying things like “stick with me, I’ll teach you . .  .”  I was uncomfortable, needed the job, not sure if it was harassment or just invasive behaviour.  I would stiffen and he would stop but then he became aggressive in a different way and would throw things at me until one day he actually threw a screwdriver at me from all the way across the room. I had to put up my hand to deflect it from me and of course it stabbed me in my palm.  Two weeks later I had my annual review and he refused to give me a raise after one year.  I was livid and said it was unacceptable.  He would not budge.  I went for my lunch, came back and told him I quit.  He said when?  I said right now and out I walked.  I was beside myself driving home because Prime Minister Martin had said that anyone who quit their job would not get unemployment so I was nervous as all heck but I swore on the way home that if I had to starve in the ditch I would never, ever put up with a year of working in a poisonous environment.  I grew bone in the nose (Danish saying) and a rhinoceros skin.

Lucky for me that the person I met with at the Employment office was shocked beyond belief when I told her what I had gone through and she said “you have been sexually harassed and you should go to the Labour Standards Board.”  I wasn’t going to pursue it but a friend called me that night and told me that the perp (yep, that’s what I’ll call him) was telling everyone he had fired me.  I got mad then and so I did call the Labour Standard Board.  They were extraordinarily supportive, told me I was brave to pursue this and 100% supported me through the process.  The perp got his just desserts, had to pay me a certain amount of money.  After which you would not believe how many women in the town suddenly came to me to tell me they too had been harassed by him.  I wish they had come forward sooner but I think no one knew anything about the case until they heard I had got money out of him.  How that came out I am not sure because I never said anything so I think the folks he employed spilled the beans.  It was all over town in less than a week.

That was the last episode that I had of personal harassment.   But when I started working in downtown Calgary in 2000 I heard a lot of stories from colleagues on their experiences.  The town had changed since I worked for the law firms back in the ‘70’s and early ‘80’s.  A lot of lawyers got into trouble because they were notorious for having Friday afternoon drinking parties and things got out of hand.  I had never attended any of those functions in either of the 2 firms I worked with so I never got accosted by anyone.  I was considered a “staid married woman” even though I wasn’t married there is no doubt that I was staid.  But after some serious suits the law firms were very, very strict.  Not so other professions apparently.  And the ladies’ experiences were not good as the human resources departments were on the side of the company not the employee and most of the ladies had to find work elsewhere as they were blackballed inside the company.  Shameful but true.  Victim shaming?  Troublemaker?  As an assistant one is not valued in the same way as an engineer, project manager, salesman or male professional.  It’s disgusting and still going on today. 

Solutions?  I wish I had an answer except to say that women need to stop being silent, support each other and go to a lawyer if the firm does not pony up when they say “we take harassment and bullying situations very seriously” but don’t. 

Ladies – stand together and let’s get this thing right so our daughters won’t have to suffer through the experiences we’ve had to endure.  And men – start thinking with something above the waist. Hmm?