"Would it be considered harassment if a coworker or supervisor attempts to stop me from filing a claim of harassment against another party?"
My coworker, Party Girl, posed this question to me last week while well within earshot of our full-time coworker, Bugs. Bugs is not in a supervisory role, but when Boss is gone, Bugs is typically put in charge. Boss happened to be out of town when things were going down with Nurse Ratched.
Party Girl, another coworker we'll call Betty, and I had dug around and found the official HR form for submitting a claim of harassment. We decided to each submit our point of view of the Nurse Ratched situation, and Bugs attempted to discourage us from doing so. The question was Party Girl's cute and clever way of telling Bugs his "advice" was not needed.
"Pretty sure the answer is 'YES!' as we all learned from our mandatory harassment training", I promptly replied as we all gave Bugs the side eye.
He backed off after that.
To summarize, Boss did something we all (except for maybe Boss) agreed was inappropriate (not sexual, nothing like that) with a student. That student went to her instructor - Nurse Ratched - to complain about Boss and ask for some leniency on the exam she took with us since she was feeling frazzled while she worked on the exam.
Nurse Ratched, understandably, became upset with Boss and complained to... somebody. I really don't know what all happened after that as I don't have a need to know. But because of the incident between Boss and Student, Nurse Ratched decided to bully, judge, and demean all of us, even though she's never dealt with anyone other than Boss, other than that one incident.
And THAT is when it became a problem for Party Girl, Betty, and me. Nurse Ratched's abuse toward us seemed to be persistent and escalating, so the three of us each decided to get our two cents in.
Bugs tried to stop us, saying, "It's already being handled" - referring to the Boss/ Student/ Nurse Ratched incident.
We disagreed as it had spilled over to baselessly involve us three underlings. This was a new situation for handling.
Anyway, we felt good about telling our sides of the story and get confirmation from the honcho in HR who handles these things. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much, but I guess something happened. Nurse Ratched has been cordial in her subsequent communications. Dare I say, apologetic, even?
Sheesh, in all my years, I'd never felt a need to submit a report of harassment or anything else to a Human Resources department. Kids, I tellya.
I feel good that we didn't just cower and hope it goes away. I'm glad we spoke up for ourselves despite Bugs' attempts to stop us.
Bugs is a nice enough guy, but doesn't like making waves. We more or less told him, too bad, you're in the deep end of the pool with the big girls now.
And to this day, I still haven't even met Nurse Ratched in-person.
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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5. Write a blog post inspired by the word: proud
8 comments:
It was good that you all filed your own paperwork, if for no other reason than it documents the incident and gives your side of the story. Keep us in the loop about what happens next.
John, those were exactly my thoughts. I didn't really have my hopes up that HR would respond, but nice that they did.
Spring semester just ended, and I don't know if Nurse Ratched is teaching any summer courses. We'll watch and wait.
well bless your buttons! Cowering never gets anything done!
Linda Sue, cowering was never really an option 😑
Am I a good coworker? LOL :) Just said that since you called the othe coworker Betty :) I want to make sure I'm good to work with :)
Having said that, I think you all were right in submitting the paperwork and expressing your thoughts about what went on with Nurse Ratched and her treatment to you all. Good that it seemed like some intervention took place. Let's hope Nurse Ratched "behaves" herself around you guys in the future!
betty
Betty, HA, I actually was not thinking of you when I named my coworker Betty for this post😆 But actually "my" Betty is great to work with.
Nurse Ratched situation was getting out of hand. I told Bugs he could try to explain it away all he wanted, but the reports were going to happen either way.
Wise of you to speak up.
It's crazy how in this day and age some people still need reminders about boundaries. I'm glad none of you felt intimidated into keeping quiet!
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