My department manager that was recently hired divulged personal and confidential information about me with someone in our firm's biggest competitor's office, as well as to a mutual friend of ours outside of the company. I reported the instances 3 months ago. The office manager I reported them to chose not to do anything about my complaints. The situation became more hostile and my dept manager began to make things mandatory for only me, would use curse words towards me, single me out and make unprofessional comments towards me via email and out loud. After I submitted a complaint in writing they have engaged my dept manager in what they call 3 "serious" discussions. They told me after each of these discussions that they believe his behavior would cease. He has now begun to report false information to my COO about my attendance in order to reflect poorly on my performance. I believe he is doing this as retaliation against me for filing my complaints. An HR director told me that the best she can do is talk to him like she has done and hope that the behavior stops. I do not feel comfortable working for this guy any longer and do not trust him at all, but don't know what to do now. I am afraid I might be fired if they believe him over me and he continues to turn in false reports that I am not at work all of the times I am supposed to be. I don't know what to do now, as it seems HR/management will do nothing further. Anything helps...
First make sure you have all of this documented, every step you have taken, when, with whom, copies of your complaints, etc. Is this personal confidential information something like your race, religion, culture, age, sexual orientation, disability, health, etc.? If so type to file an EEOC complaint and lawyer up.
Royals: yeah I knew him as an acquaintance for about a year and he also asked me out before he was hired by my office... I also ended up dating one of his really good friends for a while. Funny thing is told my office this guy was great and they should hire him. That came back to bite me in the you know what. Philly: the information he divulged was about doctors appointments I had and when I had them.
I think revealing sensitive information about doctors appointments are enough for a discrimination suit. How did this guy get the information about your appointments? Did you have to tell him you were taking off of work for them? Does he know what they are for specifically?
What an awful double standard. But he's right. I never ever would want to work with an ex, someone I've turned down, someone who has turned me down, friend or family... it just never ends well. Unless fraternizing/socializing with coworkers positively impacts my income or future opportunities; it's just not worth it.
I was thinking of this as a sexual harrasment issue, though guy to guy harrasment does happen as well. People are idiots to send anything that could be construed as harrasment sexual or otherwise through company email.
RE: How did this guy get the information about your appointments? Did you have to tell him you were taking off of work for them? Does he know what they are for specifically? My best guess is he looked over my shoulder and read what my personal calendar tag said about my appointments. I don't have to tell him what they're specifically for, but somehow he knew. I do have to tell work that I was going to be out of the office for appointments ahead of time. Yep, I'm a girl & he's a guy.
Not to diminish your situation, because it sounds more serious then the following scenario, but for you HR folks out there: If I am out sick or at a doctor's appointment and a mutual friend or person from another company says "How is bobrek" and my manager says I have been in and out of the office recently. "why is that", he is asked. My manager then replies that I have had some doctor's appointments (or that I have been sick). Is that bad from an HR perspective?
Then I am guessing the unprofessional comments via email were either sexual in nature or somehow related the doctors appointments with a sexual slant? Either way make copies of the emails and get ready for an ugly lawsuit.
Bobrek - Totally an valuable question. Unfortunately he was not asked "how is she?", he told my ex boyfriend that he was going to "show me who is boss" and then told him the details of what happened during his first week of work, which included discussing my performance (which he could not say was sub-par because I am a an excellent employee), so the worst thing he could tell him was that I had been out of the office for a couple of hours for my doctors appointment. He also has no reason to tell the person in our competitors office the details of my doctor's appointments. But thanks for giving the opposition's side, it's always helpful to see things from a difference perspective.
