STAND up for what you believe!

I have had my current job since December; I work in a professional sales office. To the naked eye it looks like any other professional environment, but behind closed doors it's a whole different story. Let me explain...

I am the only girl in an office 5, I am also the youngest person (I am 23, two are 43, and the others are 52 and 58). I am in the minorty any way you look at it. When I was first hired everything was easy going, it wasn't until probably my sixth week that things started to get hairy. My boss told me that he wished he would have hired someone else. Just like that, out of the blue. I sat in my office and tried so hard to choke back the tears that were running down my cheeks. Why was he so mean to me for no reason?

Well, things continued on that way for a couple of weeks and then stopped so I let it go. Then on Saturday, March 3 I was talking with a lady coworker that is now no longer working here, (I had known her previously so it was routine conversation between a couple of chatty ladies), and telling her about how I had a lot of appointments for the weekend and when I told Jake he reacted by smacking me on the butt and saying, "Make me proud, Baby." Well, one of the appointments went well and my boss, who had overheard the conversation between the receptionist and myself, came up to me and smacked my butt and said, "Make me proud, Baby!"

WHAT THE F***!?!? But I let it go, telling myself that it was all in good fun and that it was an isolated incident. Boy oh boy, was I wrong. From that time on he touched my butt fairly routinley. I had never dealt with this sort of behavior before so I was not quite sure how to react. I knew that it was not appropriate, but at the same time I felt like everyone was making a joke out of it so I treated it the same way. Jake didn't. He was pissed and on an almost daily basis he would tell me that if I didn't do something about it, he would take it into his hands.

Well, the inappropriate touching stopped, but then started the lude comments. I already have body issues, (what girl doesn't), but this took things way out of hand. Almost daily he was making some sort of remark about how I should wear spandex or the size of my breasts, anything along those lines. There was a time that I told him something that was going on with a customer, a concern that I thought he should be aware of since he is the boss and he said, "That's great, now say it with your top off." That is a quote he heard on some movie that he has said many times.

Along with all of the comments he has directed to me, he is also constantly making lude comments about women at our corporate office, customers, and women who turn in resumes. All of these comments are sexual and derogitory. He threw away one resume, saying that "I don't want to look at her fat, ugly ass all day." There is also another guy in the office that he occasionally pokes fun of for being overweight.

Then there's the issue of him picking on me. He shows favoritism to one employee, who is less than valuable to the company in my book, that has a daily habit of leaving early and coming in late and taking exceedingly long lunches. If I am a couple of minutes later walking in the front door than what he would like, he is all over me about it. I come to work everyday, I sell houses, I contact my customers, I get along harmoniously with everyone in the office and never cause any ripples in the pond. So once again...WHAT THE F***!?!?

Most recently, my boss and the other guy, ganged up on me about having to take my dog to the vet. Peanut had an appointment on Friday morning, (Friday is my scheduled day off, I had customers coming in for the afternoon, but I had already had that worked out with them, I was going to meet them here at noon.), and these two guys decided that it was a waste of time for me to take care of my dog and thought I should come into the office. My boss said, "Well geeze, Kianne, I think you ought to have your boyfriend take care of the dog so you aren't losing a deal." To which I replied that I was not going to loose a deal, that I had already worked out the scheduling with the customers and that he was my dog and therefore my responsibility. He responded with, "Well, i'd rather let the dog die than run into this problem again." I was dumbfounded. At this time, my coworker jumped in and pointed out the window and said, "You see those cinder blocks outside there? I'll tie the end of a rope to one of them and the other end to your dog's leg and throw it in the lake."

"What did you just say?" I asked. I had every hope in the world that I had heard him wrong.

"I hate dogs! I'm not kidding."

"Well," I said, voice quiverring and hands shaking, "maybe I should just tie your fucking daughters to a brick and watch them drown. I hate kids."

Well, that got quite a reaction from both of them. They told me to calm down and that what I said was uncalled for. Well, it's not like me to say something like that, and I never would have under any different circumstances. I only did it in retaliation.

I had been keeping a notebook of exact dates and times of any incident that occoured that was inappropriate. Whether this was a lude comment, leaving early or coming it late, whatever it was I kept track of it in my book. One Monday morning a couple of weeks ago, I went to write something down in it and it was gone! I had this notebook hidden in the back of one of my desk drawers, clear in the back in a box of envelopes. Someone went rooting through my desk and stole it! I am not blaming anyone and I have never accused anyone of the crime, but seriously! Grow up! I was keeping track of these occourances so that I had something to back my case up about my boss being really hard on me and letting others get by doing whatever they wanted.

Well, with all of this happening regularly, I was advised by someone that I hold in the highest of respects that I needed to contact someone at corporate. I toyed with the idea for a few days knowing that he was right but having doubts about doing it. One night Jake was sitting on the couch petting Peanut and he said to the dog "We won't let anyone tie you to a cinder block and let you drown, Buddy." I emailed a letter to my corporate office the next day.

I sent the letter on Saturday, Monday I had a response. On Wednesday, yesterday, the two heads of the companyu called me and informed me that everything was being handled. I can't say anything specific as of right now because I was instructed not to let anyone know of the contents of the conversation, but I can say that my bos is not allowed to converse with me unless it pertains to business only, and he must always have someone else present to even say hello!

I have to say, I am so nervous about what has happened and what is still yet to happen that I can barely eat, but I feel like a new person. I am so proud of myself for taking a stand against him. Someone had to do it sooner or later. A friend of mine described it to me that I am "taking a stand for all of woman kind." Wow! I feel like Erin Bronkovich!

I will keep everyone informed of the events as they progerss as I am allowed to do so!
Wish me the best of luck and keep me in your prayers!