With coaching, Greg Everage was becoming more tolerable. But the truth of the matter was, he treated me better by no choice of his. Regardless, I finally saw a glimpse of normalcy in our dynamic. Of course, you can forgive, but you can't forget how awful someone treated you. There would always be a lack of trust between us.
In June of 2016, I had my annual review. I acknowledged that I agreed with the written contents. When we discussed my review over the phone, Greg said that the incident on January 22 (previous post) affected my bonus. I was shocked. An incident--where I reported to management a hostile work environment—impacting my annual review, specifically financially, seemed retaliatory.
I took a moment to process the implications of what he claimed—wondering why I kept fighting further.
Katherine. Katie. Kate. Stop. Nothing you said changed anything. Nothing changed. It's not cynical, it's the truth. They don't care.
Despite my inner monologue, I decided to pursue. It did not make sense that my bonus would be impacted because I raised a potentially discriminatory issue to the powers that be. My approach was to have him elaborate about this bonus impact by asking how that incident related.
Greg and I then chatted in person. He said that the incident caused disruption at work--that's why my bonus was impacted. Other people were affected and the office suffered because of that. I didn't want to challenge him. I only wanted his confirmation that the situation negatively impacted his review of me. As much as this continued conflict drained me mentally, I set up a meeting with HR to convey that Greg was retaliating against me.
If you feel you, or any other employee, has been discriminated against or harassed, you should immediately speak with your supervisor, any member of management, or a member of the HR... You will not be subject to any retaliation for reporting the complaint.
I explained to HR everything I outlined previously; and I reinforced that the incident was handled--in good faith--as outlined by company policy; and it being used to retaliate against me, via my bonus, was happening. They said they would speak with Greg to get more clarification on how he factored it in.
A week later I was updated by HR:
- Greg told them that it didn't monetarily affect my bonus. I said that's fine, but the fact that he said it negatively affected my bonus means it impacted me in some way—what other way is there other than monetarily?
- They held their ground saying it didn't affect my bonus because he told them it didn't. It was just an incident that occurred during that review period.
- I held MY ground saying if it was part of the bonus consideration, it had impact--and it shouldn't.
They then asked if I felt I was harassed on January 22. And I said absolutely yes. They then said the incident was possibly not investigated how it should have been. (This particular person was not working for the company that past January.) They were going to review with the other people involved to do a more thorough investigation. I was surprised they didn't in the first place. I detailed to another manager and HR not only that instance but his pattern of intimidation and verbal abuse. How was that not investigated? At this point, "disappointed but not surprised" became my coping mechanism.
Weeks later when the investigation concluded, I was told by HR, "I asked Greg if it was retaliation and he said 'of course not,' so it wasn't." OF COURSE. No one will admit to retaliation if you spell it out like that. When I inquired about how they felt regarding his condescending and discriminatory treatment of women, the response was, "Greg has a wife and daughters. Do you really think he would discriminate against women?" I-- I was shocked. Absolutely shocked at that response. Greg has a wife and daughters, Kat, so everything that happened...is invalid.
I had no hope left of things ever improving in my current situation.
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