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promotion talk changes to loss of employment, harrasment involved

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awol313

Junior Member
I have been being sexually harrased and mentally abused by my boss for the last year. I put up with most of it because at first, I was flattered by all of the attention. He is married but wanted to pursue a relationship with me outside of work. He made his intentions known on the 3rd day of my employment. I had never had anything like this happen to me before so I just went along with the situation to salvage my employment. Great job at a start up company that could have resulted in financial independance.

There were several situations where through work, we went to dinner or drinks and the flirting at first was mutual.
I started to realize that this friendship was becoming a problem when he started revoking my support people(restricting their travel to my region, reallocating resources to sabotage my success) based upon whether or not I would take his calls or meet him for dinner. He is an extremly jealous person.

This situation got out of control and I informed my boss that I did not want to pursue a relationship with him and would not accept his calls outside of work. I then reminded him that he was very married. Finally I had to let my boss know that I would not have any phone conversations with him without another person present on the phone due to our conversations becoming increasingly abusive.
About 4 months ago, he hired a regional director to be a buffer between he and the entire sales team. I thought that this would be the end of my problems. I was wrong.

I was told about 2 months ago that a new position was being created for me that I would be moved into. I was to have a conference call to be introduced to this position. To my knowledge, it would be a lateral transfer. The conference call then took place and unfortunately I again was only on the phone with the boss that I was having problems with. Before the call, someone in the corporate office had mentioned that I now had a new boyfriend that I had been talking about. The call started and the position was discussed. I was informed that there would be an interview process due to the interest of one other person in the position. As the conversation went on, his mood got worse and worse. Salary discussions took place and he again wanted to decrease my base pay. When I would not agree to the salary decrease of 15k yet again, he told me that my services were no longer needed at the company.

Today I recieved a seperation agreement and general release stating that the company will pay me one month severance in the amount of X if I agree to waiving all of my rights including "said claims include, but are not limited to:(1) employment discrimination(including claims of sex discrimination and/or sexual harassment) and retaliation under Title VII(42 USCA 2000e etc) and under 42 USCA section 1981 and section 1983.......)

This is the first listed claim on the agreement and I am wondering if i am not the first person that might have encountered this treatment.
The severance agreement seems to me as if to be a huge bribe to bait and switch me out of the possibility of more compensation.

I look forward to anyones thoughts about this. I hope to never have this type of situation happen to anyone in the future.
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Put down the computer.

Run, do not walk, to the telephone.

Start phoning lawyers until you get hold of one that will see you and review this agreement in light of what has happened to you.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
This is the first listed claim on the agreement and I am wondering if i am not the first person that might have encountered this treatment. No, you're certainly not.

The severance agreement seems to me as if to be a huge bribe to bait and switch me out of the possibility of more compensation. It's an effort to induce you to drop the possibility of pursing legal action in exchange for severance. That's perfectly legal but if it this were me, there's no way one month's pay would cut it.

I agree entirely with cbg. Head for an employment law attorney NOW. He or she may be able to negotiate a far more generous severance package in exchange for your not pursing a claim for sex discrimination and retaliatory discharge. If the company won't come up with a package you feel is sufficient, then you can refuse their offer and pursue the appropriate legal action.
 

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