I’ve been reading with amazement, sympathy, frustration (the hijacks), jubilation and I hope some understanding for the issues related to the delay in taking action. Good for you in giving her space, and good for her in using it.
I was once in a very hostile work environment, though not like this one. I didn’t sue. I was a victim of malpractice, which has left me with continual pain in a nerve from my back down my leg to my foot. I didn’t sue. I’m in the middle of four other situations right now in which I need to decide whether or not to file a lawsuit. I don’t like to sue. I don’t think that lawsuits are the best way to resolve problems, and that they are drastically overused in this country.
With that said, it is my own humble, personal, opinion that your darling wife should sue the SHIT out of those people. Beyond the obvious reasons, there is the empowerment. The re-acquisition of the strength they took from her. And nobody ever had any right to do that.
I’m glad the stupid doesn’t go all the way to the top in Mrs R’s workplace, though it would make the suing easier.
Here’s a question for the informed out there. Once she has a clear definition of the company’s code of conduct, would she have a case against *just *DW & Jimmy? They’re both acting against Co. policy- DW by harassment and Jimmy with the bogus memo. Would it be a viable option for Mrs R to offer the Co. immunity from prosecution in return for their support in going after only DW&J?
The financial return would be minimal, but it may be far more satisfying - and leave the company more kindly disposed to keeping Mrs R on staff - if she wants to stay.
I missed this earlier, but I think it’s important. Her supervisor witnessed at least two of the incidents for himself. And HE did not report it. So, when does he get written up?
Apparently it does; it just takes a detour en route. Because Jimmy got fired yesterday. Well, he "resigned’–but given that he spent the last week talking about some project he was supposed to be heading up in May, I think the subtext is clear.
But JUST Jimmy got fired. The Dickless Wonder is still there.
I don’t understand why no one’s pointed out to the owners that firing just one of them – particularly the one they fired – actually makes their situation worse.
Like I said, I haven’t been in HR in a decade, don’t have a degree in it, am not a lawyer, and am obviously not neutral–but that strikes me as a bad idea in at least three ways. (Also you mean “litigation,” not “prosecution.”
I see that in the path to where ever the company may be going, they’re skipping absolutely no stops on the trail of potentially idiotic steps they could take.
Serious question: Why does Mrs. the Rhymer want to stay with these yahoos? I’m not saying she should feel obligated to leave, nor denying that certain people in the company wouldn’t see her leaving as justification of their behavior, but I’d think that there comes a point where knowing one is working for idiots would override the stubbornness that has been sparked in her.
I can see firing Jimmy and not firing DW. (not yet anyway)
Jimmy wrote up Mrs. R. He created a paper trail that is undeniably attributed to him, and him alone. He may have been directed to do it by DW but if he had no proof of that, he was screwed.
I imagine it went like this.
Angie and HR call Jimmy into office.
A “Why did you write up Mrs. R?”
J “Well she had porn and she didn’t immediatly report the harrassment.”
A “The porn was given to her as the harrassment, it wasn’t hers.”
J “Doesn’t matter, it’s against the rules.”
HR “Speaking of rules, there are quite a few about writing people up, are you sure you followed them all?”
J “Welll, ahhh…”
HR “Did you fill out for 27-Z-006?”
J"ummm…"
HR “Did you have a talk with Mrs. R with your supervisor first?”
J “Gee, ahh”
HR “Did you clean out your desk?”
Now DW, if your wife persues sexual harrassment, he does get to defend himself. He may make many outrageous claims in his defense but sorting that out is much more complex than sorting out this bogus write up.
It was just a possible alternative to the ‘settlement with resignation’ suggested earlier. Though I’m assuming the 95% greatness of Mrs R’s job has changed recently and could make fiancial setllement the better option.
I’m not from the States and have long forgotten all the legal terms I ever learned from Ally McBeal.
I would have loved to have seen the part of Jimmy’s exit interview where he explained that he wrote up Mrs R for not reporting the the same harassment that *he * hadn’t reported.
Any word on the supportive co-worker who was also written up?
We can’t condemn the company as a whole for not doing anything when they weren’t aware that anything was wrong.
It seems to me that the company’s yahoo quotient has gone down a little with the dismissal of Jimmy. He was aware of at least two instances of harrassment that he did nothing about. Whether HR knows about this or not is unknown to us at this point but we’ll assume that Mrs. R made that part of her complaint. He wrote up a memo that can at least be construed as an attempt to intimidate her. On the basis of that at least he was invited to seek employment elsewhere. There may have been past issues with Jimmy that contributed to him leaving while DW is still there.
The final resolution of DW is still up in the air. He may still be on the way out and Mrs R just hasn’t heard about it yet.
I’d love to have an inside person on the rumor mill in their break room and smoking areas.
Projammer, you may be right - I’m just hugely skeptical.
If something happens to DW, soon, I’ll eat my words, and gladly. But until that happens, I’m not going to assume that some secret punishment or training is going on, without that evidence.
I’ve been wrong by being so skeptical before, and will be again - but that’s still how I’d bet if I had to put money on what’s going on.
ETA: I certainly agree that I’d love to have that place bugged to a fair-thee-well.
I’m going to assume, owner’s nephew notwithstanding, the behavior of the HR department so far has been pretty good. I’m hoping the owner hired DW as a favor to his relative and has been dying for a reason to fire him.
But then again, until the second plane hit, I thought Sept 11 was pilot error, so I could be either very optimistic or very naive.
I think this is a distinct possibility. Consider the following.
DW has been accused of wrongdoing by a coworker. Accusations like this have to be investigated, investigations take time, especially if DW claims it’s all a frameup.
Jimmy has not been accused of anything, he was caught threatening an employee who was reporting harassment, violating company policy.
Aaaannnnddddd this should be the last update. Props to Projammer for predicting the resolution:
You called it. As my wife tells it, DW emerged from the Angie’s office late on Friday afternoon, strutted around for about a minute sporting a pair of V-for-victory signs, and exclaimed, “See ya, bitches! I’m tired of working with you nigger-lovers! I’m going to work for my other uncle, and I’ll be making MORE MONEY!”
:rolleyes:
The rest of his diatribe was cut short by Angie emerging, pulling him aside, and whispering something that made him shut his mouth, walk to his desk, and clean it off while she and a couple of large gentlemen watched. He tried to detour past my wife’s area on his way out, but was dissuaded by the large gentlemen.
And tomorrow there will be a series of meetings involving everyone in the firm to discuss sexual harassment law. Methinks this was not DW’s first offense–and probably not the last he’ll ever commit. Oh, and he sent her an email saying that he really hopes she is still working there when he inherits the place, “so they can resume their relationship.”
:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
So…whether this was a victory for the forces of good or not, I don’t know. Certainly all my wife’s black and/or female co-workers are happy.
Love a story that ends well. Just sorry that your wife had to have been involved in the story at all. Take her out for a nice dinner to celebrate the ending of it.
More money? Maybe, maybe not. Sounds like trying to get in a final dig as he’s leading the torch and pitchfork mob out of town.
And 5 gets you 10 that he stays true to form and gets his butt canned at “other uncle’s” business before a year is gone. Wonder how many uncles he has.
I cannot believe he had the gall to use the term “nigger-lover” in public. I have not heard that in civilized society since circa 1970.
The guy is a complete and utter tool.
With an attitude like that, I think he is in the position of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person one day. Sadly, he will probably blame the other person.
Please please PLEASE tell me she kept the e-mail, or at least, forwarded it to Angie.
Happy endings all around! Hopefully the Mrs. has got a little of her backbone restored after what happened in her past, and I’m glad DW and Jimmy got their just desserts.
Awesome. And kinda scary! This guy is way off the beam. Not just an asshole, but really rather frightening. I hope he’s forbidden from the premises, and I hope after that display, they keep an eye on her while she goes out to her car. I know that sounds kinda paranoid, but seriously…this guy’s fuckin’ crazy.
Yeah. I’m a guy and I still think I’d be asking for a security escort to my car at the end of the day for awhile. Or else I’d just bring my baseball bat to work in case the loon came at me in the parking lot.
