The Grass Isn't Always Greener

Three years ago I was hired by the L.A. County Office of Education as a secretary. After receiving FBI and DOJ clearance I went to work for a supervisor who was also new. She is very motivated and sets very high goals for herself which is fine, but she started jumping down my throat all the time and assigning me work out of my class. (We are union) She asked me to quit my part-time job at at Robinson's May so that I could work overtime for her as the 4 person teacher credentialing dept. was short one. I was willing because I make twice as much at this job and would work fewer hours. After working 20 hours OT in two weeks I turned in my overtime slip for approval and she denied me overtime stating that it was never "pre-approved". We are supposed to have a form signed prior to working OT but a verbal I told would suffice. I ate 20 hours and made sure to het her signature from then on and was told they will not pay me overtime just comp time. I accumulated about 40 hours OT that month. In the later part of August I was at jury duty for two weeks, sick for 4 days and had requested VT time and/or comp time for a civil trial that I was the plaintiff. She started writing me up for my absences and making it sound like she has to have my duties assigned to others when in fact, I had assumed their duties and they were just being returned to them. The union got involved, they helped but are still lame. When I would take a comp-day that I earned she would call me at home and say "why don't you just quit your job". She was a major bitch, married to a heart surgeon, living on the "strand" and went yachting every weekend almost. I wanted to tell her to bring her self back down to reality. Anyway, I just got sick of the harrassment in front of my co-workers and put in a transfer. By the way, I have diabetes, Fibromyalgia and get panic attacks now. I interviewed and got hired for a secretary position in the Head Start Grantee Office as a secretary. I was elated! Thinking that life had to be greener anywhere but with her. My first day their I was so happy and my new boss just said hi and that was it. She is African-American and I am caucasian. She had two sub-ordinates sit through all the interviews to choose her a secretary. (They were African-American as well.) My boss told a co-worker of mine to show me around the new bldg. She first introduced me to two clerical workers upstairs and I was perky and I said hello nice to meet you, blah blah and they asked me, "So, you are Bridgette's new secretary?" I replied yes I am. They both said, "we will pray for you." I chuckled and thought they were kidding because I was new, but they were not smiling. I took it with a grain of salt. Everybody I met that day looked like they already felt sorry for me. I thought, nothing could be worse then the supv. I just worked for. Boy was I in for a rude awakening. She was ten times worse. She belittled me, gave me deadlines for duties that were not in my job classification, found reasons to write me up. She didn't like me because I was not African-American. My co-workers all knew this too. She would laugh at me and harrass me all the time. (I have everything documented) One day I saw her coming and I had a major panic attack. It frightened me and she though I was shaking because of her that I am scared of her and that made her day. She went running to her "clique" and they all got a big laugh off of me. There is so much I have documented it is amazing. Finally one day she came to my desk and said that I need to fill out an absence slip for being late the previous week and taking an extended lunch. I said, what are you talking about? (I know she was looking for anything to get rid of me and I made an exception to be punctual at that time. I told her that I would not and that if she wants to reprimand me that I wanted union representation and she said, "I don't have time for no damn union" just do what I said. I told her I was not late nor did I take and extended lunch and that she better check again with her little "spies" and I that I was not filling out those forms. She said fine, then I am writing you up for being in-subordinate. I started hyper-ventilating and had another panic attack. I left right then went to Kaiser for help. I currently have a workers comp attorney and he said I need to get a discrimination attorney. I exhausted all my sick leave, VT, etc. My family medical leave ran out March, 2001 and I was forced to resign. I am trying to recover, but I have sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel. I had never even had a cold barely before this and all this stress from these superviors really did me in. I have never been treated like this. I have always had excellent reviews wherever I have worked. Of course Liberty Mutual declined my Workers Comp claim and I have a lawyer and we are appealing. I have been to two of their doctors and 3 of my attorneys. I have #2 depo in July. The Dept. of Justice received so many complaints about Head Start they went in and investigated. This was about a month after I went out on medical leave. DOJ mandated that everybody in Head Start get a copy of their findings. I have a copy of the confidential report and I could have written this myself. Everything that happened to me i.e., harrassment, fear of retaliation, favortism, discrination were found to be true. I felt validated because of the stress I was under I was doubting myself and not focused and ill and whew.... terrible. I thought, it really isn't me, I am not crazy. The DOJ report stated that this type of investigation had been done before in that office (Kormondy Study it was called) and nothing had gotten better. By the way, I found out that every secretary prior to me that worked for her had quit their job! The secretary currently working for my first supervisor is having major problems too. This is the jist of my story. As you know their are numerous more instances I could talk about, but this is not the forum for that. My motto this day is: Life is not always greener on the side even if you think you are presently working in the pit of hell, there are other pits uglier and nastier. Sorry this is so long, it is just so involved. I am working part-time doing merchandisin. I was hired for another company but only worked their 10 weeks on account of me not sleeping right at night, I had a hard time staying awake or arriving on time, so in fairness to them and me, I resigned. I am still emotionally and physically messed up. Please tell me what you think. Do I have a case with the EEOC or an ADA claim as I have diabetes, panic attacks, a sleeping disorder, IBS, etc...? Thank you for reading this. I have had a hard time putting this down in words as words cannot describe the hell I went through and the way I was treated.

Kind Regards,

Debra Shaver
Downey, CA
(562) 622-1000