I used to work at a place, which shall remain nameless. An interesting and significant case of sexual harassment happened there. One of our departments employed a fellow from a different country with slightly different standards there Aside and apart from that, he had psychological problems, paranoia combined with delusions of importance and a conviction of his own intellectual superiority. He was under the impression that women were interested in him when they were not in the least so interested. He couldn’t believe that they were not completely taken in by his charms and, if they were not, it was because they were deluded..

He was a tall fellow with a fair bit of weight on him but he was not unfit. He played racquetball and what have you. He could bounce around with agility, I was told, so he was a bit of a threat. This man would lie in wait for student interns. These were young people who would come in, on contract, as trainees for the work experience.

Often these student interns would work late because there were special tasks they had to do. This villain would wait until just about everyone had left the office and then he would ‘visit’ these girls and hang about. He was a large man. It was threatening to them. The girls complained to management but management, in the style of management everywhere, thought the way to solve a problem was to sweep it under the carpet. They didn’t move this guy to another area or anything. He still hung about and the girls had no defense.

Fortunately, very fortunately, he became entranced with a girl intern who worked down near the Executive Director’s office. She was in her office cubicle working during regular hours and the Executive Director’s secretary was working nearby. Apparently, the intern had complained to management that he had been harassing her. Their response was to move her to a safer area. Our villain discovered she had complained about him and he meant to give her a piece of his mind.

The big guy entered her office and leaned over her desk. This frightened her a lot and she screamed. That scream pretty much ended it all. That was the end, not of legal shenanigans, but of his being on the ground there in the office and his being able to get away with harassing the young ladies. He had gone one step too far and was banned from the office premises.

He came back once after he was booted out. He went all around the office and harangued people and made a general fuss and threat of himself. I was concerned for Annalee, who worked in his area of the office. He had it in for her. She was an older lady. I was younger then, and pretty feisty. I had sensed trouble brewing and had brought into the office, concealed, a pair of suitably modified plastic nunchucks a martial arts weapon made famous by martial artist Bruce Lee. I was going after him when he invaded the office for his last shout. I knew he had entered Annalee’s area.

One of the officers in my section ran interference on me. He should have been a football player. He was good at it. He was going from one side of the aisle to the other as I was trying to march towards the source of the trouble, all the time repeating “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Sonia!” The trouble died down. Annalee was unharmed and I didn’t get to try out my amateur martial arts skills or lack of same.

Management, in the style of management everywhere, overreacted after the fact and posted security guards at all the entrances. They would not let him in again. Problem was that they hadn’t given him a fair trial. He brought a case through the Union and it dragged on and on. He accused any and everybody of being against him and tried to pull them into this case because he was so important they must all be involved. I probably should mention that, although he was deluded, he was not dumb.

In his eyes he was right and he knew it. He was totally justified and everyone was prejudiced against him. This went on, unbelievably for years before it was finally settled, in our highest court of appeal. He had no case whatsoever but the Department had been wrong to terminate his services so abruptly without fair trial. His employment was not terminated but he was put in with a group, engineers or something, who were ALL guys. Even the secretary, although gay, was a guy. They must have figured that would pretty well stop the problem right there.

As far as I know he is still working for the Department in that masculine enclave. Some things confound the mind. This thing got so out of hand. Part of it was his delusions of his own importance and grandeur. his attractiveness to the fair sex and so forth. The rest of it was management just ignoring it until it was too late, then they overreacted. Thus, when one girl’s complaint was finally acknowledged and he was told not to bother her, it started this chain reaction.

I’ve got a feeling that this is not the first time this sort of thing has happened in an office. I suspect this sort of thing can happen anywhere.

© Sonia Brock 2007