Staying on Vacation
I’m off today! My girlfriend Erin is in town from far, far away and I haven’t seen her in over a year, so I took the whole day off to devote to her. Erin is one of those people who calls me twice or three times a week just to tell me that she loves me. I couldn’t feel more blessed to have a friend like her.
So I’ve stopped blogging from work. I knew in theory that I could get in trouble reading and writing blogs from work (even though I don’t blog ABOUT work), but I figured that it fell under the ‘reasonable personal use’ policy for use of company property. Until a friend of mine told me the other day (on IM of course) that there are hush hush emails going around to managers about the company watching certain people’s emails, IM conversations, and BLOGGING HABITS. I immediately felt my stomach drop and imagined my life on a firefighter’s income. Lord.
I’ve finally got the guts up to start applying for other jobs. As most blogs I read talk alot about how they hate working, or their job, or both, I just assume that its a given that everyone hates their job. And here I am at 6:45 on a weekday morning, having just had a leasurely breakfast that I made with my husband, having walked the dogs, now I’m blogging, planning my house cleaning strategy, then I’m off to spend the day with a friend. I could live this life.
More on work (OK, OK, so I do blog about work): I heard yesterday that there was just a big lawsuit filed against my company by two women engineers who had experienced sexual harassment and reported it. They were shortly thereafter laid off. Since I’ve been back from England, one of the two guys I was having problems with over there has been exacting his revenge on me for not taking his advances seriously. He has purposely set out to make me look bad to my management. It got so bad that I finally went to my management and reported that because of a ‘personal problem’ with him I felt that he was bad mouthing me unjustly. My managements response? The problem guy got wind of the whole thing and cornered me in my office TWICE to discuss it loudly with me. Then my management called me in and basically said they believed him. I didn’t tell them what happened in England, but I hear through the grapevine that they’re trying to figure out anyway. Fine, go ahead and dig yourself a sexual harassment hole. Long story short, I am so sad about the fact that this stuff actually goes on in the workplace. In my 5 short years as an engineer, I’ve had serious honest-to-goodness problems with men being disgusting THREE TIMES. Have I mentioned the time that a guy drew boobs and other female parts on a picture of me then passed it around? Yeah, his punishment was to have a ‘meeting’ with his manager.
No point to this post really. I’m just working on feeling relaxed today. It is so nice not to have to think about going into a place where my stomach starts aching as soon as I hit the gate.
I had a problem with a supervisor once, went to the management (which was actually, her husband) and they refused to handle it, so i quit. And you know what? I filed for unemployment & I got it. I had to go to a hearing, but because management failed to intervene, it was considered ‘good cause’ to quit.
good luck!
My company has banned blogging, IMing, and has major filters on our Internet access that limits which sites we can visit…If you hit a site that is not allowed, you get a black warning screen with blinking red letters that people can see from a mile away! It’s crazy! Something right out of a movie.
It’s the reality of women engineers, isn’t it? It’s going to happen to ALL OF US one time or another. All I know is, if you’re going to go after this guy, make sure that you have undeniable proof that he was harassing you; emails, notes, pictures… anything. Because even though they should take your word, they don’t always.
Anyway, I highly reccomend looking for something better. I’m convinced anything would be an improvement over my last company (shiznit, the things I could tell you)… but I finally found a job that’s going to put my career on the trajectory I want it on. Is it going to suck sometimes? Definately. Am I no longer going to be able to blog at work? Yup. Is there going to be overtime? As much as I want. But this move also came with a better work environment, more travel, more pay, better benefits. You’ve got nowhere to go but up, and the "magic 5" years of experience will do you well. And did I pick up that you’re finishing your masters??
Damn dude, I had no idea that was the kind of crap you were going through at your jay oh bee. I feel so lucky to work where I do… Best of luck to you on your other-job quest. I hope it all works out well for you. You totally deserve better than that.
I am sorry that you hate your job; I love mine and I enjoy working as much as possible.
Michele se me.
Despite the Jackasses you work with, it sounds form your previous posts that you are doing a fabulous job doing a job you hate!
That doesn’t really surprise me though, I think that there might be certain men whose masculinity is threatened when a) you turn down their hot bodies and b) you are better at the job than they are.
I think you have a lot going for you, and this job is just a stepping stone to greater things.
Enjoy your day off with your friend, you deserve it!
Well I am real glad for you about looking for a new job. And also thank you s much for your kind comments and words of encouragement