By nevergiveinever - 01/07/2015 13:44 - United States - Emporium

Today, we had a long meeting at work about how we are supposed to feel safe, and to come to the managers if we have any problems. I decided to speak up about a coworker that has been harassing me and several others. My manager laughed at me and walked away. FML
I agree, your life sucks 30 858
You deserved it 2 027

nevergiveinever tells us more.

nevergiveinever 19

OP here, this is a long story but bare with me, lots of shit has gone down in the past week: First off, to those telling me to go to HR, here's the thing: my managers ARE HR. If they won't do anything about it, then we're screwed. Which absolutely sucks ass. Here's the full story: I work in an intricate metals factory, because that's really all my town has to offer, but manual labor a pays really well and I have bills to pay so I can't complain. And yes I will move eventually but I need to save up a few grand first. Our company recently got sold to another metal factory called Metalkraft and that factory's owners are now our owners as well, and there is normally at least one of them at our plant every day. Our managers are a married couple, which makes plenty of situations hard to figure out how to handle. Before this meeting, the husband manager had been touching me. At first it was like friendly like "welcome to the company" shoulder pats and him picking on me like the other employees..... And then it became legitimate touching of the crotch and boobs when nobody was around. When these new owners came in, I told them right away that he had been touching me inappropriately and I had found out that he has been doing to the other younger females as well. They nipped the problem right in the ass and he hasn't done it to me since. This past week, a coworker went to the owners with her own problem of harassment from the wife manager. If the stories are true, she had been yelling and screaming at this coworker about her job, when the only "problem" was this coworker was having trouble lifting some of the metal wire that comes in spools like thread that we use on our machines, and those things can get HEAVY. The wife manager claims that she didn't realize she was harassing this lady, and says that if she can't lift the wire herself and so her job herself that she does not need to have it. The managers swiftly took away the lady's office, took away her key to the front door, deducted her pay, and stuck her in the packing room with me and the rest of packing/shipping. That lady quit on Tuesday. And honestly, I don't think she really had a choice. So basically, our managers are telling us that we should feel comfortable enough to come to them with problems instead of the owners. But what they just showed us is "if you have a problem with us we will terminate your job position and make your life a living hell until you quit."

Top comments

Next step: HR. Seriously though. Sexual harassment is so common and underreported. I've been sexually harassed and my manager witnessed and encouraged it. That psychotic idiot should have been fired, but I kept my mouth shut and suffered silently. Don't let that happen to you.

Comments

My guess is the manager probably assumed it was a joke since they had a long meeting about it and OP just brought it up. Still this should not be treated as a joke. The manager needs to not joke around and get to the bottom of it.

You don't joke about, and you don't assume when dealing with harassment.

Next step: HR. Seriously though. Sexual harassment is so common and underreported. I've been sexually harassed and my manager witnessed and encouraged it. That psychotic idiot should have been fired, but I kept my mouth shut and suffered silently. Don't let that happen to you.

and it's even more ruined by the bitches which use it as blackmail or a callout on someone they don't like, which ends up in things like this. seriously though, take it up the ladder, this needs to be dealt with

sorry to hear that #2. At least you dealt with it.

johnfulcher90 12

no one said anything about it being sexual harassment.

well, yeah, but i thought it was at least strongly implied.

It didn't say it was sexual harrassment...

that meeting was very informative I take it

imkool136 22

Take it up with your bosses boss. That's not right. Nobody should be harassed at their workplace.

While I agree , I've seen far to many people cry harassment for the stupidest things. This is why I hated doing managerial work. Grown folks shouldn't need to be reminded to do their own work and keep their hands/ inappropriate comments .to themselves. If it is truly that bad then it should be dealt with swiftly and written up/ termination to maintain the integrity of the workplace .

You can do better than this. If you aren't getting any respect at your job, they don't deserve you.

JuliaaNoelle 26

Well, I wouldn't go straight to quitting. I'd just talk to someone higher up than OP's manager if I were him/her

#5 Why are people always so quick to quitting on FML? Atleast one person always mentions it, whether it be a job or a relationship.

FusionPlacebo 26

What was the point of the meeting, then. You should never feel that way at your work no matter what.

Good for you for trying. Hopefully you can get this resolved, is there anyone else you can report to? While you're at it, report that manager. Even if he thought you were joking, it's never okay to ignore the needs of people you are supposed to be looking out for.

Bring it to the attention of someone above him.

I know how you feel. This one girl always harasses me and has a problem with many others at my job and yet whenever I go to one of the managers, they don't believe me. She's actually convinced them that she's the victim.

Why? OP gets harassed so they should find another job? Screw that, if it's an extended, serious issue then that offended deserves to be fired. OP earned that job, you don't give up your livelihood for some pervert.

mds9986 24

You can't just quit your job every time there is something you don't like. It's better to resolve it.