the powers that be at work must be fucking idiots... or think that i am... or more appropriately, that my boss and i are... because they gave us this ridiculous letter outlining everything that has happened as a result of the complaint... how they think it is completely wrong, and will not be condoned... how they have accepted the guilty party's immediate resignation... notwithstanding a three week period in which he will stay on to help out the company until they can find a replacement for him... because of course the company is in dire financial need and his expertise is absolutely required... which is a load of horseshit b/c he's got his head up his ass most of the time and is actually the one responsible for getting the company into the aforementioned shithole... he should be gone, and his continued presence in an office overlooking where i work (yes there is a huge window) makes me nervous... and the fact that i could run into him at anytime if i'm walking around upstairs makes me nervous... and the fact that my boss ran into him today and he actually spoke to her makes me nervous...
so basically this letter was given to us and we are to sign it saying that we are okay with all of this and we think the company has done a bang up job of making us happy, etc. etc... basically we sign away any and all rights we have so that they can have proof that they did everything right and sleep easy at night knowing we won't sue... but i'm not stupid... i already have looked into it and i know that by the letter of the law they have done everything, and maybe even a little bit more, than they are required too... they have done a lot towards removing the threat which was making the work environment hostile for the complaintants (me included)... and i do appreciate that... but then they go on about how they are only trying to do what is best for us when clearly they are only doing what is best for the company... they don't want to have to explain why their CFO had to leave a month before his scheduled retirement date so they are stretching it out as long as possible... they don't want to have to explain his continued absence while he works from home so they have asked us to just not go into the administrative offices where the mail room, copy room, coffee, meetings, etc. all are... it's like they've created our turf and his...
and i'm not angry about that... i completely understand... i just don't see why i have to give my acquiesence to all of this... i've accepted it... i haven't been dragged kicking and screaming into, but i'm not skipping along either... i refuse to give my blessing to something that wasn't even my decision and that i actually wasn't even directly consulted on... all of this was decided without me and the only person who has asked my opinion is my boss and she's way more pissed off about all of this than i am...
i was talking to my sister about this and she made an excellent point... she said that, taking into consideration who he was and who we are, the outcome isn't really all that surprising... maybe if the roles had been reversed and it was an upper management woman making a complaint about a middle or lower management man then it would have made some difference... in fact, i'm absolutely sure that it would... really we are powerless in this situation... the only thing that we have left is all tied up in that letter...
so i want to just flat refuse to sign it... but i don't really know how they are going to react to it... and i'd like to write some eloquent addendum to it outlining my personal feelings towards the whole situation... but really this has been taken out of the personal arena a long time ago... putting myself out there probably wouldn't help matters much... i have no legal claim against any of it... it just doesn't make me feel comfortable... and i know the CEO is going to come traipsing downstairs in the next day or two asking for the signed letters... and what of it then? i can't let my boss speak for me anymore b/c i think trying to take some sort of united front on this would be a bad idea... i think we both have our own reasons for not signing... some of which are related but not entirely...
and what's really ironic is that here i am all stressed out about my work situation when the whole point of reporting these types of things is to make it better... and it hasn't, at all... it's made it harder in about a million ways... and i honestly wish now that i'd never said anything in the first place... and that makes me feel worse... and i blame the company for that.
