Reply #7: Harassment [View All]

[Sundoggy]

I found the entire article interesting though not convincing, but was especially intrigued by the last point, because I have had a personal experience with it.

I had an excellent boss some time ago who was dynamic, creative, knowledgeable, and extremely productive. She had everything necessary to go far in our industry (IT). Unfortunately she had a tendency to throw her weight around based on her perception that she was supported by higher-ups, and was extremely prone to mood swings and bouts of extreme unreasonableness that got her thoroughly disliked. Despite all this she is one of the best bosses I ever had, just because she was really, really good at her job, and very cognizant and appreciative of the skills I brought to the table.

So one day I get a call from Human Resources. A sexual harassment charge had been filed and I had been named as a witness.

I was dumbfounded. I wasn't told who filed the charge, and for the life of me I couldn't imagine what it was about. It turned out that my boss had filed a sexual discrimination charge against HER bosses, claiming that they were obstructing her simply because she was female.

Now I was even more dumbfounded. Apparently she felt that I could or would support such a charge, but it was absurd on the face of it. Any obstructions she encountered were absolutely a combination of the natural environment of a very responsible job and the fact that she really rubbed people the wrong way. I had to tell the truth: that I had never seen the slightest sign of any sexual discrimination. Perhaps she WAS encountering obstruction but there were pretty obvious reasons why that might be.

It really bothered me that she would make such an accusation. Here was one of the savviest women I had ever worked with using this weapon without any regard for truth.

She was fired a couple of months later for insubordination. She was told directly not to invite a group of vendors into the building. She quite typically ignored this and had a meeting with them in her office. The next day she was gone. I think she still feels that everyone was terribly unfair to her.

Caveat that this is not meant to be illustrative of any larger truths, this is just a thing that happened to me personally. The article made me immediately think of this boss; she was just facing the rigors that anyone at that level faces, and either purposely or mistakenly attributed them to sexual harassment.

I think the article is confused on this point, though. The type of "harassment" the author describes as existing prior to women being in the workforce, and which my story relates to, seems to have nothing to do with his two categories. He seems to confuse "harassment relating to sexual behavior" with "harassment through simply being of a different sex".


P.S. I would like to add that an article that, right up front, warns us that the truth isn't politically correct, is flashing a great big red warning sign right there of the author's intentions.