4 February 2012, 5:47 pm
I started working with this company it's a laboratory here in San Diego, California (not going to mention the name of the employer for personal reasons) and it's been almost 5 months now that I've been there. When I first started out working as a billing clerk here, I must admit - I love what I do, but not the people I work with. I have a team lead (she's a female who is 27 years old) and she was basically the one who hired me when I was doing an interview along with another woman whom is the supervisor. As days go on, I would notice that she would start making comments about me, I'm asian and I have long black hair, and she would call me Samara - that girl from the Ring.. and I felt uncomfortable that she would do that, but I let it go - so that there wouldn't be any trouble. Plus she wasn't physically assaulting me or anything. Also, at our job, since there is little space in our office, me and my co-workers including her, would be right next to each other, somewhat looking like an internet cafe. Anyhow, there were times when they would talk amongst themselves and I would be excluded or in other words left behind. But I would just ignore it, and go along my own work. Anyways, I'm just there to work and not make friends. I mean I have talked to them altogether - we'd have casual talks here and there but I wouldn't get too personal with them, because in the end, from my previous jobs, I know that we will end up like enemies anyways. That's what always happens to me when I work because I become friends with them and as days goes on, what happens is they end up backstabbing me and I'm so nice to them and everything I don't even know why it ends up that way. I am 30 years old and Asian with long black hair, and I look young I must admit but I don't know if that has anything to do with why I'm being harrassed at work. Anyhow, as the days go on, I had a death in the family, my grandfather, and we have these name tags at work where it would say "hello my name is --" I took a week off my job because I needed to take care of funeral/viewing arrangements, and when I got back, I saw on my name tag it says "hello my name is Samara right next to my name" and that Samara wasn't there before... and at this - I was like really pissed off... but let it go... but whoever wrote that was really messed up.. they were probably thinking it was a joke or something. So I told my supervisor about that, and she said okay, we'll discuss this with the group so I was like okay. So after a few days, I come back from lunch and I see this bag of gift along with a card saying Condolences from the members of my department. Anyhow, I let that Samara issue go. As days go on, my team lead sometimes touch my head and feel my hair and say, I love your hair, I wish I had hair like that. When she said that, I said oh thanks - and then continued with my job. One day, out of the blue, my team lead slapped the back of my head but it was very light... I let it go again.. because she was just saying hi... but then one day again, this happened just yesterday, I was working, with my headphones in my ear, my team lead passes by my desk and slaps the back of my head hitting my ear, and I turned around and realized it was her.. I was gonna say something, but when I turned around she was already far away. I don't know why she is doing this to me? I haven't done anything wrong to her - Like I said before, when I work I'm always just at my desk, doing my thing, and I do socialize with them, but not too much.. because I'm just there to work you know? The second time she hit my head, it was harder than the first time. So now this thing is getting to me, because I know this would seriously happen again. Not soon, but I know in the future it will. Just because she's a team lead doesn't give her the reason to treat me like this, I'm not a dog, I'm not her daughter and plus we are all co-workers, I'm just a human being trying to make ends meet. I wonder why this is happening to me. Why is she doing that to me? I have a co-worker that sits right next to me, he's a guy, but I'm sure he won't say his my witness because he's scared of our team lead plus he doesn't like me too much either. I have emailed HR already so I'm talking to them this Monday. I don't know what's going to happen next once I do tell HR. I know there will be big time tension between me and my team lead once I do tell them what she has been doing. She's done other things to me too, like bad stares, even talk to my other co-workers and make me feel left behind and others, but what really got to me is that she slapped the back of my head the second time. I don't want this to happen again, so I'm doing something about it this Monday when I talk to HR. What do you guys think I should do? Do you guys think this is physical harassment? I lov what I was saying is that I love my job, but now that I'm telling HR I know there will be a huge tension between me and her. What do you guys think I should do? Is telling HR a bad idea? Or is that good? Or should I just wait for her to do it again, and kick this bitch's ass?... Read More »
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