TheBanyanTree: Finished piece

[Sheri Baity]

Now let's see who jumps at it.  Several newspapers have been targeted along with a few magazines.  It was healing for me, but, will it be considered healing for others?

Sheri who just felt the wooshing of the wings when released

Guest Commentary

By Sheri L. Baity




Journal Entry Dated November 30, 2001:

He entered from behind, slowly pushing aside my hair from underneath his hands as he proceeded to massage softly. He then pulled me back closer to his body as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Would you be a doll and order pizza for the guys tonight?" He asked. As he turned to leave, he made sure to allow his hands to drag over my upper back and shoulders.

Sound romantic? It was everything but. He was my night-time supervisor. 

I was hired by a terminal who was part of a major corporation in the transportation industry. From day one, this man was too free with his hands. If I went out to smoke a cigarette, he was soon to follow. He would place his arm around me to tell me a joke or to point something out in the parking lot. No matter how many times I would take a step away, he would follow suit so that our bodies could touch together. 

He got a thrill of whispering in my ear when the topics were not even valid reasons for whispering. I'd catch him in the hallway many times just standing there and staring as if he was undressing me. He would come into my office, using the computer that set on the desk facing me, while his two computers in his office were setting idle.

The woman in my office, whom I was soon to replace opened up one night to me. She said sarcastically smiling, "I'm so glad they hired you."

I asked what she meant by that.

"Because now he leaves me alone," she said. I could tell by her voice and facial expressions, she was truly relieved. It was at that moment, I knew that I was not the first. May God Help any woman hired after me, because, I will probably not be the last. 

She went on to tell me, "That this monster has had dealings with trying to solicit sex from an under cover policewoman not such a long time ago." She further added that it was in the paper. I was unsure about all of this, so I asked my Mother if she remembered seeing this in the newspaper. She confirmed this to be true.

So, I asked my co-worker, "Why hasn't anyone here turned him in for what he is doing to us on the job?"

Her response was, "It wouldn't do any good. Somehow, he'd still have his job and we wouldn't." She went back to typing as if to say, it was time to end the conversation.

Seeing for myself over time just how the "clique" in the company operated, I realized how correct she was. I built walls with attitude. If I came in there in a bad mood and stayed that way throughout the night, he didn't bother me. Some days, those walls were secured so tight that I would, without realizing it, offend the drivers. I couldn't explain what was happening to me while they were out on the road. They couldn't see or understand the why's which in turn alienated some of them. I was tagged, "The woman who had constant PMS."

November 27th, 2001, my guard was down. It was a busy night. I needed a phone number from this man for work purposes. I leaned on his desk to his right, holding a piece of paper and pen, ready to write. He saw that, he knew that and so did the others in his office. Instead of just telling me the number, he reached all the way underneath me slowly touching my breasts and reached into the desk drawer to pull out a pen. As he did, he grinned and giggled as he said, "Oh sorry," and stroked them again pulling his hand back.

This man had just touched an intimate part of my anatomy, without permission, knowing full well what he was trying to do. He had just succeeded at crumbling me in the process. My gut wrenched immediately. I was instantly terrified of this man. If he was so bold as to do that in front of co-workers, what was he capable of doing after it was just him and I in the office at night before close down?

I grabbed the number and went directly to the rest room. My mind raced with questions. "I needed my job, I was living on my own now. I needed the income. It's not easy to find a job that pays this well. And then I recalled the other woman in my office saying that nothing will be done about it."

I hurried through my work and got out of there before it was just him and I alone. I went home and took a shower for an hour. I scrubbed until I was beet red, screamed and cried. His nonchalant attitude kept circling my mind. All those months of his touches, whispers and now this.

I got physically sick, I couldn't sleep much, but I found courage. I turned him in. I thought to myself that he would be out of there and I could go about my work and not have to see his face again. I believed this was something the corporation would not tolerate or so I thought.

I was never so wrong in my life. I was told by the terminal manager in a nasty attitude, "It's been dealt with!" Nothing more was said. I now felt, fear for my job. He apparently was "talked to", but that was the extent of things. His touches stopped, but he continued to be in my office at the desk across from me. He continued to be standing in the hallway behind my chair for minutes at a time. I could hear his breathing and the jingling of change in his pocket. I could feel his eyes piercing right through me. It was as if I was being violated in a different way now. A way he could get away with.

Over the next year, I took all of my emotions, feelings and hatred for this man and threw it into my work. I talked when spoke to, but nothing more. I brought the terminal into number one standings among the other terminals in the corporation. Even through this drive, I was told by my terminal manager that as long as he is terminal manager, no woman will ever hold a high position in his terminal. Woman don't belong in high positions. I received three raises and one promotion during that time.

For the money I was making and the amount of time I had invested, I was going to stay and hopefully make a stand in the company with my work. That dream was soon to be shattered.

January 3rd, 2003, the terminal manager had just told us about a hooker that gives oral sex behind a dumpster for $5, locally. We had laughed, because he made the story funny. But what was about to happen next was another violation towards me.

He said, "You know Sheri, if you could give in just a little to *night-time supervisor*. I bet we could get him off the streets and back down here to the terminal. I bet you could make about $50 bucks." He was then the only one laughing out of four of us. It was like he had just taken a knife and stabbed me right through the heart. Not only was he putting a price tag on me, he had just brought up the past and through it right back into my face as if it were some long standing joke.

Needless to say, I turned him into the sexual harassment hotline. This too was swept under the carpet, so to speak. But the ramifications of filing a complaint were soon to be my dream's demise. The work load increased. They wouldn't hire anyone to help me. I was already doing the job that they used to have 3-4 part time people doing. They treated me as if I had the plague. They kept on "forgetting" to call me in early when the work load was heavier for that day. They "forgot" to leave me notes on special accounts that would be coming in for the night; leaving me to take up more time to try and figure things out to do my job correctly. They made sure to make my job a living Hell. It was clear, I was not welcome there anymore. This had now become a "Hostile Environment."

I was drained to the point that I didn't even know if or what I was entering was correct. I took the biggest leap of faith I have ever taken. Six p.m. on February 26, 2003, I packed my things up and I walked.

In that last month, I spoke with many attorneys about taking my case against this corporation. The answers were all the same:


"The first incident is over the statute of limitations." 

"There was no sex involved with the first or second incident." 

"Jokes happen all the time in the work force." 

"I'll take your case if you pay a retainer."

"Your case is thin." 

In my experience with this, it appeared that I was not considered to be a victim. This is where my own healing became determination for education. In turn my education became powerful healing for others.

Statistics from the DB Pargman Diversity Training web page show, 40-70% of women and 10-20% of men have experienced sexual harassment. The number of claims has more than doubled during 1990-1997. The number of complaints filed by men has more than tripled in recent years. A 1999 survey found that the number of human resource professionals investigating one or more incidents of sexual harassment has risen from 35% to 65% in the last three years. 

A 1999 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management showed that 62% of companies surveyed offer sexual harassment prevention training programs and 97% have a written policy on sexual harassment. The company I worked for offered the training program for upper management and the written policy for all other employees. That is not saying much for this particular corporation that is stating they are a Zero Tolerance corporation. 

The effects that are left on someone, who has been harassed, are serious and sometimes left deeply scarred, emotionally. And what if you did follow company policy to the book and report such situations? What is to protect you if the company then chooses to get around it by harassing to the extreme that you finally can't take it anymore and you find yourself without a job? Who will be there for you to pick up the pieces and who will pay the cost, financially? 

According to the fact sheet offered by EEOC, a "Quid Pro Quo" case translates into this: unwelcome, intentional touching of a charging party's intimate body areas is sufficiently offensive to alter the condition of his/her working environment and constitute a "Hostile Environment." Let's not forget the other employees attitudes and actions towards myself, since I turned in the terminal manager. Another fact offered by the same fact sheet was this: when such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

This needs to be stopped. It is happening everywhere. I'm sure there are people out there that are experiencing the same thing I went through and are without the financial ability to do anything about the situations, therefore leaving these sexual predators to repeat their actions to the next person hired. The time clock may have expired for me, but it's not too late for you. Through my research, I have found the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission out of Harrisburg, PA. They can be reached at (717)787-9780 or www.phrc.state.pa.us Don't be blind and scared like I was. Take that and turn it into courage and power and take a stand. 

As a society, we need to wake up. Are you, as the public ready to step up and ask "WHY?" Are you, as attorney's ready to take this serious and listen to the cries, offer help to victims, both male and female, without a retainer or even make people known of the PHRC? Are you as the employers finally going to act appropriately by standing by your terms that "Zero" tolerance really does mean "ZERO TOLERANCE" and get rid of those predators that you have allowed to work and damage your company name?

Since this experience, I have checked back with my former employer at the corporate level, to see if my story has changed their aspects on this problem within the corporation. Two key people within, responded:


"It has not made a difference at the corporation level, but it has however made a difference at the terminal level. Much work has been done with that particular place re-educating the management on our policy and our strong stand."

"I feel like I have left you down. It has made me want to take more participation in these complaints that come forward. Now, I am more apt to personally get involved rather than let the lower management deal with the issues and not knowing the true outcome. I will, from now on, be a part of the resolution to prevent this from happening further."



Earlier, I had stated, they had won, I was beaten. Now I say, Thank You to this company I worked for. Because of you, I am finally fighting back with my words. Today, I am taking my knowledge, experience, anger and turning it into education for others and healing for myself in the process. 









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