Hi,
So yes, 15 years ago I was bullied by two women in my office and sexually harassed by several men in other departments and whereas I always knew it was wrong, I am only now starting to realise just how wrong and how big an impact it's had on my life.
I was 20, very inexperienced, a little naive and insecure. It was my first job in an office and I was genuinely excited to finally get out there and have a 'proper' job, but also quite nervous, as I seemed to be thrown in the deep end somewhat.
I didn't realise until a few weeks in that I was actually a replacement for a woman who got the sack and it didn't go down well with some of her colleagues. Two women in particular and they just so happened to be the ones who I worked with the most and who were appointed to train me up.
All smiles and welcoming at first, as in day one, but then it became clear that they just didn't like me and didn't want me there. They would constantly talk about how the sacked girl shouldn't have been sacked and how they wished she was still there and would deliberately leave me out of conversations. It carried on like that for a couple of months, just little drip feeding that I wasn't really welcome and general exclusion, but then they started making things up. Saying I hadn't done things which I knew I had, moving things out of my tray and actually making me feel like I was going mad. Very embarrassingly, I ended up in tears one day because of it. I started dreading going in. There were lots of other things, but this could get very long.
So that was upstairs in my main department, but then downstairs I would cover reception during lunch, sickness, holidays etc and looking back, what I had to endure down here was absolutely disgusting. It actually wasn't just harassment, you could argue I was sexually assaulted.
Every day, I was surrounded by at least 4 or 5 men on reception and would be asked really inappropriate questions like, did I give good massages, could I wear x skirt or top tomorrow and if I went to get a coffee from the machine, one of them used to go past me and on several occasions, would slap my bum and then chuckle with a wink, "sorry, I couldn't help it". This was the same guy who would ask if I wanted something "warm and wet" (meaning a hot drink...but not) when he walked past reception. This was also the guy you would say was a 'nice family man'
My nickname was "legs". I was effectively being cornered by them every day, sometimes literally, if I was photocopying something. I remember one guy who, if he spotted me doing this, would come over and get right in my face, again asking inappropriate questions. He clearly got off on knowing nobody could see and that I was powerless. I hated having them around me in a group, but it was worse in a way when they were on their own. It became much darker. The guy who would corner me said he would honestly pay me for a massage in the meeting room. He would also ask if my then bf was keeping me satisfied. All these men were senior, mostly married with kids and would have pictures of them on their desks, which I would see as I delivered their mail, as they would mark my outfit out of 10, wolf whistle and generally leer over me.
Honestly, just writing this, my heart rate is up and my palms are sweaty. I can not believe I let this go on! Yes I was only 20 and yes, I was naive, but ffs, I feel so weak! I would absolutely tell them to fuck off and report it now.
I had a bit of a lightbulb moment the other day, when I realised that I haven't been back to work since. I think I convinced myself that I was just happy to be a SAHM, but of course this horrible experience has something to do with it! How am I only just seeing this?!
I was signed off with depression and never went back. I'm sure those two women would have been happy
and I very much doubt those men would give their behaviour a second thought or think that they contributed to my depression and eventually resignation.
Not sure why I'm posting really, but thanks for reading anyway. Sorry it's so long!