A
angbrin
Guest
VIRGINIA
Hello: My name is Angela L. Brinson. I am interested in suing my employer for Sexual Harassment and Creating a Hostile Environment. There are many other incidents in my workplace other than the ones listed below the make me feel that my workplace is hostile. Would you please give me advisement as to what kind of grounds I have to sue? Below are e-mails sent to the Vice-President of my company concerning my complaints. I am currently asking for a transfer to leave the dysfunctional group in which I work as a Subcontractor. I have gotten little or no support from the Prime Contractor and new management. I would like to know what my rights are? The Sexual Harassment was treated with disdain since the accused worked for the prime contractor, he was given a "pat on the wrist" and told not to address women the way he was when he made sexual propositions and innuendo towards me. After denying the claims, the company took no action. I am mentally scarred by the experience as well as the hostile environment in which I currently work.
12-14-00
Since my beginning here at the SDC last October, I have, as my accomplishments and evaluation clearly state, been a very motivated, challenged, dedicated, professional and excellent employee; and have represented SETA very well. At this point however, I feel that it is best that I be transferred to another contract. Early in my career here at the SDC, I was placed in a hostile work environment whereby my accomplishments were not appreciated by the client. Throughout my year here I have continued to work in a very hostile environment, gone through sexual harassment, unfair treatment, lack of consideration for assignments or extra responsibility and have become the target for rude and unprofessional behavior. I still remain loyal and dedicated to SETA, but I feel that consideration for a new assignment is in order. I withdrew my request when asked, with regard to my sexual harassment claim. I am now asking that you change my assignment.
Since at the SDC, my mental and physical health have deteriorated, and the hostile environment continues. I have opted to see two new doctors to assist in those areas, but I have already been told that a change in my work environment is in order, to preserve my health.
6/08/00
SDC Problems and Concerns
My problems have been verbalized to both Brian McFadden and David Sklar. The patterns which they represent have proven to be unchangeable in this environment and given low or no priority. Laverl Blackman, Dawn Morris and William Talley have been the central and consistent cause of all of my frustrations at the SDC. Laverl: Hiring Manager. Through her personal bias and consistent use of preferential treatment to ACS employees and her own personal friendships,was totally unresponsive to my needs, concerns or input. At times I was told not to express my opinions in meetings, that they should be addressed by an ACS employee, William Talley, Lead Librarian, who was her personal friend. In my opinion he was indifferent about the concerns for the library, never offering any information or opinion at the staff meetings. He was very cavalier in dealing with my concerns saying "I don't know if those concerns are important, I am the Lead Librarian and will address all issues". When given direction not to express concerns or issues with the Library I followed the direction. When being yelled at by Dawn Morris and reporting the incident to Laverl, I was given the direction to confront her with the problem. When the problem continued, and reporting it to Laverl Blackman, I was yelled at by her, given the direction to confront Dawn Morris and told "If I get involved in this issue,you will be reviewed as will she and I will have to make a decision". It is my opinion that a brief reminder at a staff meeting that we owe each other a certain level of professional courtesy would have been fine. When taking Laverl's direction, by confronting another CM Staff member with a concern about his overzealousness and miscommunicating CM information to another SDC employee, I was once again yelled at, and cursed at. William Talley: William has been given the position of Lead Librarian on the SDC contract and I as his assistant take direction from him. William has consistently shown in this eight month period that he is unwilling to delegate work to me leaving me at times to use my own vices to find productive work when there is a substantial amount of work to be done in the CM Library. William habitually has shown tardiness concerns. He has regularly arrived at work between 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. giving no excuses when his reporting time is 8:00 a.m. He has in that lateness caused the Librarians to be reminded on a regular basis that arrival time for Librarians is 8:00 a.m. Although my arrival time attendance is in no way perfect, I consistently arrived at the SDC for the first five months between 7:00 a.m. - 7:45 a.m. Recently, with personal concerns (namely divorce issues, doctor's appointments and emergencies), have been arriving, with permission later, or have attempted to call uppers in a timely manner. With the recent high turnover at the SDC, direction was given by the Manager of Product Assurance to cross-train all CM staff, and to keep me in the loop where more responsible tasks associated with analysis and tracking documents through every stage of the life cycle were concerned. Here to date, there has been no consistent training, assignment of other duties other than those assigned to me by the Manager of Product Assurance and the New Configuration Management Manager. There is absolutely no delegation of new duties, only assignments of menial tasks.
Dawn Morris: Dawn Morris who was promoted from Assistant Librarian/Systems
Analyst to Senior Analyst in the span of a four month period has shown consistently that she is not experienced or developed in the areas needed for the position. She also tends to train, assign and delegate duties only to ACS employees and her friends. Yet again, where being kept in the loop is concerned, I am not considered to be one that is privy to certain information and training.
Debbie, although these concerns and problems may not come across as being severe, my message is that I don't feel appreciated, I feel that my skills are underutilized and that the lip service given to change perceived problems is not followed by actions. I am clearly motivated and qualified to do an excellent job wherever I am placed. I have attempted to consistently and professionally address these concerns to all managers to whom I report. I don't expect that change comes in a day, however, these wrongs done me, have been done from the beginning and will surely continue to be done unless something is done to rectify the situation. The role of subcontractor here at the SDC is one of limited access, secondary information and step child status. Clearly, there are ACS concerns that are classified to ACS employees, but the degree to which I am kept out of the loop,and the regularity of comments such as "you're a subcontractor, you can't have access to whatever it might be, or in the position that you were hired for you don't need Electronic Tool knowledge", my read on the situation is that the CM Team is not knowledgeable of my experience with Tools, other environments,ability to address concerns and resolve problems nor are they interested. Their main thrust seems to be, that my status as a subcontractor gives them permission to continue their patterns of behavior. These patterns are consistent throughout the contract, and contribute to the chaos and severe problems in the organization and execution of the intended task.
Although I name these three people in particular, please understand that I have taken every measure to reach resolution of these problems with none being forthcoming. I hope that you can capture the sentiment that I am expressing.
[Edited by angbrin on 12-22-2000 at 09:30 AM]
Hello: My name is Angela L. Brinson. I am interested in suing my employer for Sexual Harassment and Creating a Hostile Environment. There are many other incidents in my workplace other than the ones listed below the make me feel that my workplace is hostile. Would you please give me advisement as to what kind of grounds I have to sue? Below are e-mails sent to the Vice-President of my company concerning my complaints. I am currently asking for a transfer to leave the dysfunctional group in which I work as a Subcontractor. I have gotten little or no support from the Prime Contractor and new management. I would like to know what my rights are? The Sexual Harassment was treated with disdain since the accused worked for the prime contractor, he was given a "pat on the wrist" and told not to address women the way he was when he made sexual propositions and innuendo towards me. After denying the claims, the company took no action. I am mentally scarred by the experience as well as the hostile environment in which I currently work.
12-14-00
Since my beginning here at the SDC last October, I have, as my accomplishments and evaluation clearly state, been a very motivated, challenged, dedicated, professional and excellent employee; and have represented SETA very well. At this point however, I feel that it is best that I be transferred to another contract. Early in my career here at the SDC, I was placed in a hostile work environment whereby my accomplishments were not appreciated by the client. Throughout my year here I have continued to work in a very hostile environment, gone through sexual harassment, unfair treatment, lack of consideration for assignments or extra responsibility and have become the target for rude and unprofessional behavior. I still remain loyal and dedicated to SETA, but I feel that consideration for a new assignment is in order. I withdrew my request when asked, with regard to my sexual harassment claim. I am now asking that you change my assignment.
Since at the SDC, my mental and physical health have deteriorated, and the hostile environment continues. I have opted to see two new doctors to assist in those areas, but I have already been told that a change in my work environment is in order, to preserve my health.
6/08/00
SDC Problems and Concerns
My problems have been verbalized to both Brian McFadden and David Sklar. The patterns which they represent have proven to be unchangeable in this environment and given low or no priority. Laverl Blackman, Dawn Morris and William Talley have been the central and consistent cause of all of my frustrations at the SDC. Laverl: Hiring Manager. Through her personal bias and consistent use of preferential treatment to ACS employees and her own personal friendships,was totally unresponsive to my needs, concerns or input. At times I was told not to express my opinions in meetings, that they should be addressed by an ACS employee, William Talley, Lead Librarian, who was her personal friend. In my opinion he was indifferent about the concerns for the library, never offering any information or opinion at the staff meetings. He was very cavalier in dealing with my concerns saying "I don't know if those concerns are important, I am the Lead Librarian and will address all issues". When given direction not to express concerns or issues with the Library I followed the direction. When being yelled at by Dawn Morris and reporting the incident to Laverl, I was given the direction to confront her with the problem. When the problem continued, and reporting it to Laverl Blackman, I was yelled at by her, given the direction to confront Dawn Morris and told "If I get involved in this issue,you will be reviewed as will she and I will have to make a decision". It is my opinion that a brief reminder at a staff meeting that we owe each other a certain level of professional courtesy would have been fine. When taking Laverl's direction, by confronting another CM Staff member with a concern about his overzealousness and miscommunicating CM information to another SDC employee, I was once again yelled at, and cursed at. William Talley: William has been given the position of Lead Librarian on the SDC contract and I as his assistant take direction from him. William has consistently shown in this eight month period that he is unwilling to delegate work to me leaving me at times to use my own vices to find productive work when there is a substantial amount of work to be done in the CM Library. William habitually has shown tardiness concerns. He has regularly arrived at work between 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. giving no excuses when his reporting time is 8:00 a.m. He has in that lateness caused the Librarians to be reminded on a regular basis that arrival time for Librarians is 8:00 a.m. Although my arrival time attendance is in no way perfect, I consistently arrived at the SDC for the first five months between 7:00 a.m. - 7:45 a.m. Recently, with personal concerns (namely divorce issues, doctor's appointments and emergencies), have been arriving, with permission later, or have attempted to call uppers in a timely manner. With the recent high turnover at the SDC, direction was given by the Manager of Product Assurance to cross-train all CM staff, and to keep me in the loop where more responsible tasks associated with analysis and tracking documents through every stage of the life cycle were concerned. Here to date, there has been no consistent training, assignment of other duties other than those assigned to me by the Manager of Product Assurance and the New Configuration Management Manager. There is absolutely no delegation of new duties, only assignments of menial tasks.
Dawn Morris: Dawn Morris who was promoted from Assistant Librarian/Systems
Analyst to Senior Analyst in the span of a four month period has shown consistently that she is not experienced or developed in the areas needed for the position. She also tends to train, assign and delegate duties only to ACS employees and her friends. Yet again, where being kept in the loop is concerned, I am not considered to be one that is privy to certain information and training.
Debbie, although these concerns and problems may not come across as being severe, my message is that I don't feel appreciated, I feel that my skills are underutilized and that the lip service given to change perceived problems is not followed by actions. I am clearly motivated and qualified to do an excellent job wherever I am placed. I have attempted to consistently and professionally address these concerns to all managers to whom I report. I don't expect that change comes in a day, however, these wrongs done me, have been done from the beginning and will surely continue to be done unless something is done to rectify the situation. The role of subcontractor here at the SDC is one of limited access, secondary information and step child status. Clearly, there are ACS concerns that are classified to ACS employees, but the degree to which I am kept out of the loop,and the regularity of comments such as "you're a subcontractor, you can't have access to whatever it might be, or in the position that you were hired for you don't need Electronic Tool knowledge", my read on the situation is that the CM Team is not knowledgeable of my experience with Tools, other environments,ability to address concerns and resolve problems nor are they interested. Their main thrust seems to be, that my status as a subcontractor gives them permission to continue their patterns of behavior. These patterns are consistent throughout the contract, and contribute to the chaos and severe problems in the organization and execution of the intended task.
Although I name these three people in particular, please understand that I have taken every measure to reach resolution of these problems with none being forthcoming. I hope that you can capture the sentiment that I am expressing.
[Edited by angbrin on 12-22-2000 at 09:30 AM]