Sexual Harassment

Copyright Oggbashan February 2020

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

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It was the mid-1960s. I had something to celebrate. I had just proposed to Maureen and she had accepted me. Shortly there would be an engagement party that Maureen was arranging with her office colleagues. They all went out together on a Friday evening at the beginning of each month. They had invited me to the next one to celebrate my engagement.

I was the office supervisor for twenty-five young women who were data entry clerks for our stock control computer. I was also the system manager for that computer -- an expensive acquisition for our company.

But there was a dark cloud on the horizon. At the end of the last calendar year I had prepared the annual appraisements for all twenty-five women working for me. I had marked them all as performing exceptionally well. That was my honest opinion. All of them worked hard and they supported me, going beyond their basic duties whenever I needed them to. As a single man in my early twenties I had been worried about being the supervisor of so many attractive young women. If they had wanted to, they could have made my office life a misery. Apparently they had decided that I was a fair and firm boss who appreciated them and treated them well. Their previous supervisor had been a divorced man in his forties who had a poor opinion of women, fuelled by his acrimonious divorce. When I had taken over from him the people I had supervised before had told my new staff that I was a good boss if treated reasonably -- and they had been more than reasonable.

But -- as part of the annual assessment process I had to interview each member of my staff personally and tell them their assessment and whether they were marked as suitable to go to a promotion board. None were, not because I thought that some might be suitable, but because they were years away from being in range for promotion because they weren't long enough in post. I could say that they might be when senior enough. I couldn't say that any of them are now. I had said that all of them showed maturity and dedication and when senior enough should be considered.

I had just finished the last interview and all of them were delighted with my assessments. I walked out of my office after the last woman, just as a very senior manager walked into the data processing room with a query. My staff hadn't seen him because they were all looking to see whether the twenty-fifth and last woman was as pleased as the rest of them were. Her broad smile was enough.

One woman said "Now, Graham!" and all twenty-five surrounded me and as many as could reach me -- kissed me. That wouldn't have mattered except the senior manager saw it. He reported me for sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour with my staff. It didn't matter to him that I was the one being harassed. He suspected that my excellent appraisals were because I was having out-of-office relations with the women. I wasn't. Maureen worked in a nearby office and all my staff knew she was my girlfriend.

The formal interview about the manager's complaint was set for next week, the Monday morning after my engagement party on the Friday evening. I was worried. I could be reprimanded, or moved away from my current staff, or both. I didn't think I would be fired but that was a remote possibility. That complaint had been hanging over me for nearly two months. My staff knew that I was worried. So did Maureen, Her unfailing support had been one of the factors that brought me to propose. If she was there for me when things looked bad that was a good omen for a married life together. My staff had also helped me even their frequent hugs might add to the case against me.

It was Friday 1st April 1966, the morning before the engagement party. My immediate manager rang me and asked me to see him in his office at 11 o'clock. I was worried. Would he have news about my disciplinary interview?

I walked into his office.

"Sit down, please, Graham," he said. "You might need to be sitting."

That sounded ominous.

"I know this is the first of April but what I have to say is no joke," he continued.

Now I was even more worried until he smiled.

"I have two pieces of news for you. Both are good and you and Maureen might have more cause to celebrate this evening."

Good news? That would be welcome as a distraction from Monday's disciplinary meeting.

"First. There will be no disciplinary hearing on Monday. The complaint has been dismissed as groundless."

"How?" I blurted out.

"How? Ask your staff. All twenty-five of them wrote letters to the chair of the disciplinary panel expressing support for you and said they had kissed you and that your behaviour to them had always been respectful. The Chairman also asked me about your appraisals. I agreed with every word and said that your staff had supported you above and beyond the call of duty. He and I have amended your reports on five of them to recommend them for consideration for promotion NOW despite their lack of seniority. Here is a list of the five. You will have to tell them they will be called to a promotion board in a month's time."

"Thank you, Alan, for me and them. That disciplinary hearing has been worrying me. It is wonderful that it is no more."

"Yet despite that you have still worked very hard, Geoff, which leads me into to the second piece of news."

He paused.

"You attended a promotion board in November. They have recommended you for promotion and added you to the list of qualified people."

"Thank you, Alan."

"I haven't finished. Normally that would mean you wait for a vacancy to occur at the higher level but the senior management has decided your supervisory position should be upgraded now. Your promotion is effective now -- today."

Alan handed me a letter which informed me that I was promoted today. He also produced another letter from the chairman of the disciplinary panel informing me that the complaint had been rejected and expunged from the record.

"One more thing, Geoff."

He looked at the clock.

"At eleven o'clock this morning, your new fiancée Maureen has an Interview with her manager. I shouldn't tell you, but I will. She will be told that she too is promoted as from today. She will be the grade you were yesterday."

"She will be pleased, Alan, as am I. Our promotions mean we can probably start buying a house much sooner than we expected. But..."

"But?"

"I can't quite understand how the disciplinary hearing was dropped."

"I can. Which reminds me."

Alan reached into his Out tray.

"I was sending this to you, but you can open it now."

It was a letter from the senior manager who had initiated the complaint against me. It started 'Dear Graham'. That in itself was a surprise. Such a senior manager would normally address a letter to me as 'Dear Mr surname'.

It was an apology for having mistaken my staff's appreciation of me for harassment by me. It continued saying that the letters written by my staff were unprecedented and a significant endorsement of my ability as a manager. He finished by wishing me well on my deserved promotion. He had signed it with his first name.

I showed it to Alan.

"Wow!" He said. "That is wonderful. Not only is your record wiped clean but you are appreciated by a senior manager. I knew that he had withdrawn the complaint but this morning I was also told he had recommended your promotion. Congratulations! Now go and tell your staff and hope that their response isn't misinterpreted again."

"Thank you, Alan. I'll see you at the party this evening."

Alan would be coming with his wife.

On the way back to my office I met Maureen. We exchanged our good news. I didn't tell her that Alan had already told me that she was promoted. We hid in a stationery room to hug and kiss.

When I got back to my staff I asked the five who were recommended for a promotion board to come into my office. They were incredulous at first. Their lack of seniority meant that they hadn't expected to appear before a promotion board for several years at earliest.

If anyone had seen their response, I would be facing another disciplinary hearing. I was swamped by five young women hugging and kissing me.

When I went out into the computer room I announced that thanks to them I wasn't facing a disciplinary hearing for sexual harassment. One of them put a hurriedly written notice 'staff meeting in progress until 11.45 ' on the outside and locked the room's door before they repeated the hugging and kissing that had been the cause of my previous worries.

One of the five women recommended for a promotion board pushed me on a chair before jumping on my lap for more kissing followed by the other four. When I could speak I announced my promotion,

That started another hugging and kissing section from all twenty-five.

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That evening was a much happier party than it would have been if the disciplinary hearing was still pending. If a senior manager had been present I would have been in trouble again. The only managers around were Alan and me. Alan's wife had to intervene because he too was being hugged and kissed for supporting me. His wife also kissed me before Maureen decided enough was enough and sat on me to demonstrate that however much every other woman wanted to express appreciation I was hers, and her new fiancé.

That night Maureen came to my small flat for the night for a further demonstration of her ownership. She rode her newly promoted fiancé for hours until I was exhausted and fell asleep with her arms around me. I might not have been guilty of sexual harassment of my staff but they had been expressing their appreciation far more than Maureen felt was reasonable.

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On Monday morning I was summoned by Alan's, and now my, direct manager. He explained that my new promotion came with a change of operation. Until now the computer unit had been working for 9 hours each day from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. I, and some of my staff, had been working an hour of overtime each day. But now I was promoted I was no longer eligible for overtime. The management wanted the computer unit to work for 12 hours a day from the start of next week.

Eventually I would have another ten staff and we would work shifts. I would also have two deputies who would cover the twelve hours between them. It was hoped to promote two of the five who would be attending the promotion boards, if two at least passed. Until the new staff and my deputies could be appointed I would have to cover the whole 12 hours myself -- without being paid for overtime. But if I did that, I would have a Christmas bonus at least as much as the overtime pay I would have been eligible for at my old grade. The only real difference was that the bonus would not be part of my pensionable pay.

Would I accept?

Of course I would. It might mean less time with Maureen for a couple of months but the bonus would be very useful to our purchase of a home for ourselves once we married. But a lot of extra hours of overtime would be available for my staff at a time when most were saving for their holidays.

When I returned to the computer unit we had a genuine staff meeting at which I announced the changes in operation. I told them they would be ten more staff -- eventually -- but until then overtime would be on offer to anyone who would accept. That staff meeting ended with more sexual harassment of Graham.

From the next Monday we were operating for twelve hours a day. The first week was tiring for all of us. Maureen and her parents provided the evening meals for me on Monday to Friday. On Saturday night I was Maureen's victim in bed but I needed sleep on weekday nights and Sunday before a long day on Monday.

Maureen and her parents were planning the wedding. I was told, quite forcefully as the groom, that I had nothing to do except be at the church at the right time.

Three months later I could resume more normal hours of work. I had ten new staff and two freshly promoted deputies covering the whole longer day between them.

My life had changed for the better on that Friday 1st April but my now thirty-five staff and my fiancée Maureen continued their sexual harassment of me.