Harassment in the Workplace

Everybody has problems in the working world, and they always complain about it. Subjects like not getting the raise you hoped for, not getting the promotion you expected, having ideas stolen by another co-worker. All these and more are things that employees complain about. But the one complaint that stands out most to me is harassment.

I am currently unemployed do to a form of harassment. I was working at Cummins Jamestown Engine Plant, located in Lakewood, NY, through the Adecco temporary agency. Since July I had been subjected to harassment from a couple of co-workers that apparently had nothing better to do. The one was an older man that felt it necessary to tell me that I was stupid, retarded, and "f*ed up in he head." the other was a younger man around my age that assisted in the harassment by simply just telling me I was slow and retarded. I finally became fed up with all of it and started talking to my managers about the issue I was having. The one, who was still slightly new at that point, said that if it wasn't true I should ignore it. I realize that he had a point in telling me that, but he should have at least attempted to stop the harassment form happening. From him I went to the other manager I had, and he flat out told me it was my own fault because I had alienated myself from everyone. At that point I realized that this was not going to get taken care of without involving human resources. So that's where I went, along with contacting Adecco to let them know what I was doing.

Now at this point, HR was documenting everything and relaying all the information to Adecco. But the funny thing is, is that nothing was ever done. No one was spoken to about the harassment; the witnesses I named were never spoken to or asked for their statements. And nothing will be done unless I can find who I need to talk to about this through the Department of Labor, Labor Relations, or the Human Resources Committee.

I had endured the last of the harassment that I could take. On October 19, 2006, I went and spoke to someone of supervisor status and told them I was leaving work early because I couldn't deal with the harassment and that I would be back the following night. I also stated that I would not be speaking to my managers about leaving early due to the fact that they half of the problem. Maybe I should have, but I can't change that now. My managers contacted Adecco and informed them that I had walked out without notifying them first, and my "assignment was terminated."

I have since then applied for a new job that I will start in a few days, and have tried contacting everyone that I can think of to help me in my situation to no avail. I will continue to make my problem known to the public, and maybe the right person will hear me and will be able to assist me in my search for fairness.