After I told my boss that I was expecting things began to change.
Aside from the comments that were made about my being pregnant (when would I be leaving? how much time was I going to take off? and, would I be able to keep up with my work load?) I became the object of my bosses misplaced and misguided jokes about the fat pregnant woman.
My boss was a young guy; married with young children. He was completely selfish in his managerial applications. He had a hard time interacting with his female employees and acted like a juvenile delinquent with his male employees. He moved quickly up the management ladder only to be caught with his hand in the kitty years later. Not only was he having an affair with one of his employees, they were stealing money from the company together. How sweet. He lost his job and his wife walked out on him. Karma works. This guy got a kick out of making fun of me. He made fun of the way I waddled. He made fun of the way I carried myself down the aisle with my arms full of files. He would walk down the aisle mimicking me daily. This would be the same clown who would later evaluate my performance and make recommendations about any raise I would get.
But it wasn't just the boss who handled himself poorly. It was also the guy who sat in the cubicle next to me. He would throw paper clips at me while I was sitting working. When the paper clips would fall onto the floor he would watch me bend over to pick up the clips. I didn't know he was a paper clip voyeur at first. Initially it had the appearance of innocent fun; a young, unmarried guy thinking it funny to harass a colleague. But after so many paper clips ended up on the carpet near my feet, it was obvious this had elevated to the level of voyeurism. I became humiliated; to know that someone would think it was funny to throw small objects on the ground just to watch a very pregnant woman bend over to pick them up was something I had never experienced before.
I made more notes.
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