Hostile work environment

[moselle2005]

What is the name of your state? California
Sorry long post:
A couple years ago a jerk (not in management but he lies to people saying he is assistant manager) at work sexually harrassed me in the most indecent behavior anyone could imagine. (exposing himself) It went on for months. Anyway, I finally got strong enough (I am the only woman out there and in charge of the office) and threatened to tell the manager and if the manager ever found out he would fire him. He stopped for a while then his wife had a baby and pretty much he stopped but he would yell at me at work and finally about a couple weeks after he stoppped the sexual stuff I told the manager. He did nothing. Never confronted him. But the harrassment stopped. Then I found evidence of a party or something in the office one morning and I freaked and thought he was doing his thing late at night in the offices and told the boss that something was going on in my office. All he did was send a joke of a letter to all the employees saying, to keep their sexual activities away from work. So the jerk still works at my work. He cheats on his time card constantly, today he got on the phone and told one of our customers that our salesman is an ******* and a prick. It is a constant hostile environment. Especially when everyone sees how he is and the boss does nothing. He is a liar and a thief and he pisses everyone off. One day when I found out he was not putting in the ingredients in a product we make for a customer (too lazy) I told him in anger in front of the manager and everyone there that he was a liar and so on. The manager is basically checked out. It is so unfair cause in the past and even in the present if anyone ever cheated on their time card or did what he does they would have been fired and strung up to rot. I wish something could be done but maybe one of those job offers I sent out a resume to will come through. I have been there for over 22 years. Other people have been there just as long. This jerk has been there for only 7. And it's been nothing but stress. He shames the company. I regret I didn't go to a lawyer when the sexual harrassment was happening. And it is tough when the other employees vent on me about him. I get so angry.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Oh, and the boss has no other boss except a board of directors.

 

[LATINOBOY]

In my opinion there is nothing you can do legally, but you can still complain to the board of directors for the lack of response from your boss. I would suggest you start documenting your complains to your immediate manager though. 22 years of service is a lot by any standard, so, you should try to resolve the issue within the company before trying to go any further.

 

[moselle2005]

From California: Moselle2005

Yes, I am documenting everything now. Thank you.

 

[cbg]

One thing you need to understand is that even if you had reporting this creep back at the begining, the employer is only obligated to make the harassing behavior stop. They are under no legal obligation to fire the guy, no matter how much you may want that to happen. So he might still be working there even if you had.

Anything he is doing that affects YOU PERSONALLY and directly, of course document and report. But as far as things that do not affect you yourself, leave them alone. It's not your business, for example, if he cheats on his time cards. It may be foolish for the company not to address it, but that's up to them. You don't want to get a reputation for being a troublemaker, constantly tattling to management about this guy. If he's that bad, sooner or later what goes around will come around.

BTW, if it should ever happen that you are sexually harassed again, the first thing you do is report it to managment, following whatever procedure your company uses. If the harassing behavior stops, fine. If not, your next step is to file a complaint with the EEOC and/or your state discrimination board. You CANNOT file a lawsuit until you have a right-to-sue letter from one or the other.

 

[moselle2005]

from California:

Thank you for the good advice. And yes, he's a creep and it's really really bad. But I will stop the reporting and just deal with the stuff that affects me. I think listening to the complaints of the other employees and his harrassment towards them gets me riled and then I react. Thanks again.

 

[moselle2005]

update

Things are better at work with the "creep". I stopped reacting and listening to the complaints by the other employees. I figure if they were real men they would tell the guy face to face what their personal beef was with him (or go to the manager) and not come running to me to "slay their dragons". It has been a big load off of me not having to listen to the garbage anymore. Although one employee isn't too happy with me not listening to his woes anymore.