Office Politics Make Strange Bedfellows…..

In one of my past posts, I mentioned that there was a top ten list.  That was not an exaggeration; there really was a top ten list.  One of issues had to do with sexual harassment, and how men and women should treat each other in the business environment.  Now, at this time, I was surprised that this was an issue, not only because this was a government contract but, because except for me and my friend Angela, everyone else was 40 something or older.  However, their behavior was more like… 15.   One of the top ten issues was Frank.  Frank was in his 40’s, married with 3 kids and had a huge crush on Angela.  Now, there was nothing wrong with having a crush on someone, but there was something wrong with unwanted attention, staring, grabbing a person’s hand, kissing a person’s hand, and etc…when the persons says, “Please leave me alone!”, repeatedly.   Well, one time Angela and I were sitting in the break room talking and Frank walked in and he grabbed her hand, and said “Angela, you have such beautiful eyes, I could just look into your eyes all day.  If you just said the word, I would leave my family and run away with you.”  She snatched her hand away.  Finally, I looked at him and I said “Stop, just stop.  She isn't interested, just leave her alone.”   He then looked at me, and asked me if I was jealous.   Because if I did feel neglected, he would pay more to attention to me as well.   (What??)  I told him, that I did not feel neglected, however, after that I got attention as well.  (Sigh…)  Well, one evening we were all working late, and even though his desk was at the other end of the hallway, he decided to come over and talk to me.   “Cara, I just wanted to say that you looked very nice today, you should wear dresses more often.”  (We had formal meetings with the client that morning, and I wore a dress to work.)   I said thanks and I spun around in my chair.   Well… it was a good thing that I spun around, because he had decided to reach down and kiss me on my mouth; however he only got my cheek because I was moving.  My response should have been “Why did you do that?  What the hell is wrong with you?”  But, instead I asked him to go away, and just said “Ew!”  My coworker Maryann thought that the whole thing was funny.  She did not see it as inappropriate at all.  (You will find out about her issues later) Yes, he did this in front of people.   As I mentioned in the beginning this was on my top ten list, so my boss, Lester had a long talk with Frank about how to treat women in the workplace,    However, Lester told me that “Ew!” was not a nice response to the incident.  (Yes, I told him my reaction.) I probably hurt his feelings.  He was having problems with his marriage.  I did not give a damn about his feelings.  But wait, didn’t I say Bedfellows… 

Well here is what happened, I had to start attending 8 am meetings and Frank was already a regular attendee.  These meetings occurred during the beginning portion of the IRAQ war, and well do you remember Baghdad Bob?  Well if you don’t know or remember, Baghdad Bob was the Iraqi Information Minister, and the media made fun of him all the time, because he would make these outrageous declarations that did not have any facts related to them.   Well, Frank was Egyptian, and he had to give a daily Change Request report every morning, and our Deputy Director would say every morning, and now here is Baghdad Bob, to present our daily Change Request report.  Frank would ignore it and give his report, but it was embarrassing.  I wish I could say that the mocking stopped there, but it would go on all day long.  The other guys that sat by him would surf the internet and pull up images of camel races and ask him what was it like to race camels or eat camel meat.  The tone was not that of curiosity, buy it was a mocking tone.  He wouldn't say anything, sometimes, he would do things like, leave his mail on his desk, because it showed his title, he had a PhD in Economics.  But, that did not stop the group, it just made it worse.   One time I was over there, and one consultant asked him how his family felt about the fact that he had a University education, after all she said, “Do they have universities in Egypt?”  I responded, “You know that are area is called the Cradle of Civilization.  Do you understand what that means?”  His response was yes, they have universities there.  I could not understand his tolerance.  It was too much for me, and I did not sit with them.   I went to my desk.  Later that that evening, he came over to talk to me and Angela and he said, “Sometimes, I think that we are still slaves.”  

#cradleofcivilization
#economics
#egypt