Q: I love my job, and it took a while to get here. I never thought that I'd pay the price of harassment to keep it. I've told the person I'm uncomfortable with the behavior. I've gone to HR and not much has changed. I avoid contact with the person, but our departments are across from each other. No contact isn't possible, and the person gets more and more clever about finding ways to harass me without being witnessed. Help! Uneasy
A: Oh, Uneasy, This is an extremely difficult situation. You can't win. If you complain too much, you'll be labeled "a complainer," which may get into your personnel file. It will definitely, through the grapevine, dim your bright prospects. People may also say that you're making this up.
Cleverness may not be your best ally. Standing firm may. Spend an hour with an attorney or get advice from a policeman to gain perspective and ideas. You may decide to set your sights on something better (i.e., your next job) and reach for it or go to house counsel. In any case, forgive yourself for thinking that your rational conversation or steps taken could change the person's behavior. You can only change your own. mlc
GOOD VS. INDIFFERENT
Q: I've accepted an entry-level job in three different companies in a row with the idea that if I hung on for a year or so, I'd find something better. That hasn't happened. I check in with HR once a week to keep track of new openings, but either I'm not qualified or the jobs wouldn't be an improvement over what I have. Is this all I get? Downcast
A: Dear Downcast, The pits are the pits, aren't they? Just like a broken record. Sounds as if you're working in large companies where you're pigeon-holed or at the bottom of a pyramid in any sized company, whose apex is extremely small. Movement doesn't transpire just because people want it. The company has to be dynamic, from the ground floor up.
It's never too late to interview people in a company, even when you're there. Who in your area has moved up or over? Which ones are doing jobs you'd like to do, either for the sake of the jobs themselves or for the tickets you imagine them to be? Ask them:
The worst you could hear is "I made a mistake." On second thought, it might give you wings to fly! mlc
**blogTip**
NAVEL(ahem)-GAZING
What do employment professionals and HR people see that job-hunters overlook? Chicago resident Marquita Hynes once worked for a company that helped job seekers. She met a woman attempting to finesse her resume to disguise lengthy experience stripping.
"Things seemed to be moving forward, and then one afternoon I called her at home," she recalls. "Her answering machine greeted callers with provocative-sounding music and the woman's sultry voice saying that she couldn't take the call." The two had a chat on the inappropriate.
A friend of Hynes's in HR described a background check that became outrageous. Not the check. The background. On one applicant's Web site, "the manager learned more about this guy than he ever wanted to know," she says, "-- real personal stuff.
"Yikes!" Hynes exclaims. "People really need to think things through!"
( (E-mail your job-hunting questions to syndicated columnist Dr. Mildred Culp at culp@workwise.net. Copyright 2005 Passage Media.)
