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

Yeah that happened to me at one of my last jobs too. Full on groping, rubbing, innuendos in front of customers AND management. It was a huge joke when I asked them to actually implement a sexual harassment policy, I didn't stick around.

I'm in the exact same position. HR did NOTHING

Go over his head and mention your manager laughed at you. Get them both fired. Double win.

I reported my boss bullying me when I was on FMLA, which is illegal. I reported it to HR. Guess who got fired? Spoiler: it was me

Your job is protected under FMLA though. How on earth did you get fired for reporting harassment?

Jethco 15

They only say that crap so that they can report to their bosses and/or the media and/or the government that they have done so. They don't actually care about your comfort level at work. They care about one thing only; $$$$$$$$$$$.

I'm having a similar situation at my job. I've had a certain coworker of mine cuss me out in front of a manager who didn't do anything about it. If it gets too bad you might want to start looking for another job.

FYL OP. I hope there's somebody who'll believe you and take care of your problem. You should try to get your coworkers who were also harrased to speak up too, they'll have to believe you then. And hey, on the positive side they didn't fire you like my boss did when I told him about my coworker constantly insulting me (his reasoning being that I'm making up lies).

I'm usually against violence but this is the moment when you have to beat someones ass. If words are not enough, you should plant some fear in your enemy.

Ironically, I also had a long work meeting today where we talked about similar things, and I also brought up a problem with a coworker. However, my manager was very serious about it and vowed to speak with him. Sorry OP!!