Are the deaths of the kids that committed suicide due too bullying not getting through? Seriously! I see everyone on my facebook joining the group for that poor Amanda Todd girl that committed suicide from being bullied, but the funny thing is, bullying is still happening. Bullying doesn't mean that you have to be physically hurting someone to be bullying. Even instilling fear into someone, because you have a very intimidating look and saying things to people when they walk by to make them more uneasy is not cool.
I am going to get straight to the point here with this. And I don't care who likes what I am about to say. I was working with at the University of New Brunswick Saint John as a security guard back in 2011 from July to the end of September. My cousin has already been working at the University as a cleaner for over a year at this point when I first started working there. She had been living with my family in this apartment in the uptown area of Saint John, which in the building there was a tenant that lived underneath us. I will not disclose her name for privacy sake along with giving my cousins name as well. The tenant underneath us was talking one day to my cousin and I about jobs and asked us if we needed one. My cousin said she was looking and the tenant told her to be up early at 5am the next day because her supervisor was looking for work and she helped my cousin get the job.
So as a year rolls by my cousin distances herself from this tenants, due to the mean things that the other co-workers have been saying about our tenant.
So when I came in a year later as new hired security job, I started to witness and notice harassment going on towards the tenant underneath me. Just for no apparent reason they would exclude her from sitting with the rest of the cleaners at lunch hour in the cafeteria. I started noticing it when I took my lunch break with my partner I had on my shift. He and I took lunch at noon which did most of the cleaners as well. I never saw the tenant that lived underneath me ever eat in the cafeteria.
It was kind of weird, because my cousins friends/co-workers were all suck up to me and then they would subtly say things about the tenant if she was walking by as I had to make rounds in all the campus buildings from the residence to all other buildings for where the teaching took place.
They once made a comment about the tenant, because she is a christian and they were making fun of it to me infront of my cousin. I was kind of appalled at my cousin, because she claims to be a christian herself, but, yet took part in making fun the tenant.
So I just basically said to them all 'So I am a christian? Do you guys have a problem with that?' And of course they did not have a problem with it. I got responses from them saying things like 'Oh no no, you're cool.'
Also, the cleaners had heard about my tenants past from someone that she had a bad upbringing and she does not trust men and I will leave it at that, I am sure you can figure out why she can't. She was little when this had happened to her. So the tenant never did have many or any boyfriends, and there was a male cleaner amongst the morning cleaning staff and at the end of the day, most of the cleaners took a bus home, which this male cleaner got on the same bus as my cousin, the tenant and a few others.
What ticks me off even more, is my cousin had enough gull to laugh at the fact that the tenant got so nervous a few times, because the male co-worker had sat right beside the tenant on purpose when the bus was vacant and there were other seats. He was just doing it to be a donkey ( I won't say the other word).
My cousin came home and told me that day about what was going on, because it was my day off that day and I had no clue that more stuff was being done unto the tenant underneath us. They all thought it was funny and so did my cousin, she and other encouraged this man to do so unto the tenant. Which is not fair, because in the beginning when she had helped my cousin get this cleaning job, they use to talk and sit together at lunch, but then when my cousin had been assigned to help others clean when she got her building done. conversations/ gossip would start about the tenant and they poisoned my cousins head about how mean the tenant can be. Which is not true. They all laugh and hold it against her for that day that male sat with her on the bus, because she pulled the string for the bus to stop and she got off and decided to wait for the next bus. The tenant had confided into my cousin about things way before my cousin had turned on her and once she did turn on the tenant, she told all the co-workers everything about her, from the abuse as a child from foster care and the abuse from men as a child too. Most people don't laugh at that stuff and find it funny, because most of the time there is usually more than one in the crowd that can relate, but not one person had any remorse for her at all.
When I started working there, some of the co-workers would say in conversation to me or around me that they don't have a problem with the tenant herself, they don't like how she isolates herself from everyone and does not trust anyone. Which is not cool, because when she first started working there she was never accepted.
So now this is where it gets kind of mean. This took place near august or September of 2011. I don't know what exact date, but anyways I am going to tell you. I was making my usual rounds and it was nearing noon hour for lunch time for everyone and as I was making my way under ground through one of the basement passage ways, I saw my cousin and the tenant kind of getting along, because a few weeks prior to this incident I am about to tell you of they were kind of getting along and my cousin was trying to do the right thing and include the tenant no matter what other people thought. So as I walked along they were walking with me as I was coming through one building leading over to another under ground as we got the threshold of the doors that on one side is considered one building, and the other side is the other. I was making my way to the elevator and this elevator is really old and slow and took a few minutes to get down, so I came back over to converse with my cousin and tenant. There is a vending machine room in between the elevators and the doors that my cousin and tenant was standing at. There were two cleaner/co-workers in the room and there is one that is quiet and one that is more mouthy. She heard my cousin and the tenants voice conversing and then when she looked out to see them she yelled for my cousin to hurry up and to not waste her time. Which was pretty rude, because basically she was implying that my cousin was wasting time on the tenant. So for the first time ever the tenant spoke up and said "If she wants to talk me, she is allowed to, she does not need your permission and you are also not her Mother." then the mouthy co-worker yelled "whatever 'tenant' stop being such a baby."
I heard the elevator beep so I walked on over to the elevator and I saw tenant looking sad and almost holding back tears. My cousin slowly walked away from tenant as the tenant left to go to lunch. The mouth co-worker was folding her arms with a bit of an attitude as well. I over heard before I walked into the elevator something a long the lines of 'f*** that women is annoying.'
I saw tenant later on that day as it was time for the cleaner to clock out. Tenant and mouthy cleaner were both in the security office signing out of their log sheet for their shift. Tenant was first and she had down cast eyes and you could feel to uncomfortable feeling she felt, because she knew mouthy co-worker was behind her, because mouthy co-worker was conversing with my partner in security. Then purposely mouthy co-worker was tapping her feet while waiting for tenant to sign off onto all the sheets they sign out on and I noticed once she did that, it made tenant feel more uneasy.
During the week at some point I was making my rounds as I was coming through tenants building that she was responsible for cleaning, and she was eating her lunch underneath the stair well at the very bottom level so no one could see her. Luckily I could see her feet just a bit and I came over to see her. I was afraid she was going to be crying or something, but no she was eating her lunch at reading her bible. She opened up to me about how she found it hard and that she had always tried to be nice even when they have been mean and she gets discouraged at times about the way she is treated.
What's really sad for tenant now is lately I have been conversing with her through e-mail to this present day and she has been sick a few times and had a huge book shelf fall on her and most recently ingested toxic stuff from the laboratory in the building that she cleans. She reported each event and is told that she makes up these incidents and she gets threatened to be written up all the time. However, all the other co-workers on the other hand are all buddy/friends with the supervisor and when they get sick or leave work early from not feeling (including my cousin) not a one of them gets threatened or reprimanded for needing to leave.
So what I want to do today is make awareness of the fact that bullying is not only something that happens in school. You can be an outcast at work. And please if there are people at your work place that you notice are alone or if you always hear gossip about them from others, please disregard all of that and go talk to them. Get to know them. Like I did with tenant, her and I are good friends. Not everything that is said about someone is necessarily the truth. Don't be apart of the harassment. Help me make awareness of this and share my blog with anyone or everyone.
Also, here is a link to prove to you all and show you all that this does actually take place in the workplace and please feel free to check it out and share it with all: http://www.unbf.ca/towardarespectfulworkplace/cat.html
No comments:
Post a Comment