It Gets Worse......
Up to now Brian has just been an annoying tit, a large boil on the face of humanity but this week things have got worse, and nastier. A member of staff, female naturally, told me on Monday that he was constantly texting her, both in and out of work, and that some of the messages had been offensive. It also turns out that because he has become obsessed with her that she even caught him going into her handbag, she believes with the intention of checking her mobile phone for private messages.
Unfortunately this has come at a very bad time in the life of this person, not that there would ever be a good time to be harassed, because her marriage is under considerable strain at the moment. Prescribed anti-depressants and vi sting a marriage counsellor she confided in Brian, on the assumption that he would be somebody she could rely on as confidante, well so far he hasn't told anybody else in the office anything but he has started to make comments to her which suggest he is slightly unhinged. He's asked her about he sex life and when she asked why he wanted to know he replied, "it's ammunition for later," on Monday she showed me a text he had sent, whilst he was out on audit and supposedly working, about another female colleague. Some of the texts he has sent are just so bizarre that they defy logic and we have reached the situation now where we genuinely feel we are working with the male equivalent of a 'bunny boiler.'
The feeling among some of us, those who are aware of what is going on, is that he wants to be sacked and then comeback with a claim for unfair dismissal, which in itself seems a strange career progression. Having had the various incidents reported to me we are left with no option but to begin disciplinary procedures, the problem is that the person suffering the harassment doesn't want to take things further at the moment. She is genuinely worried that Brian is going to start pestering her husband with accusations of affairs and because she has already revealed some personal secrets he has already got what he refers to as 'ammunition.'
As Shy has already posted people playing mind games take some believing, unfortunately this is going beyond that.
3 comments:
It looks this bloke has gone from being the office awkward bugger to being the office harrasser of vulnerable women.
Personally, in the absence of any other information, I hope you can find a way to sack him pdq.
I agree, it is clear bullying and is in fact "classic" symptoms to get worse. He should be sacked with or despite 'her' not wanting "to take things further", I would have thought that the texts are proof enough and even if it was just his word against hers these things fester, as I said before too...best not left to rot.
If you need some black/wet-op solution I'll be back in the UK within a month
;-)
I agree with you both and I think matters will be dealt with this week, unfortunately I'm out of the office on audit so will miss it.
Thanks for the last paragraph Span - it's been a shitty week and that made me laugh.
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