Posted by iwannabelikekev on 9/29/08

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State: Texas

I am working for a consultant company and I was contracting
for a client company.
I got acquainted with a married woman at work in the client
company through some meetings. She was also a contractor but
working for another agency. She was very friendly and talked
about a lot of things including her personal life. Since she
was having friendly conversations, I also started having
some friendly conversations with her. Since I guess she and
I were almost coming and leaving at the same time, we have
met a lot of times in the garage and walked together, she
would go in her car and I would go in my car. She lives far
away and I live near by. So, we take different routes. In
fact, I invited her and another friend of hers for my
birthday lunch. I saw her as a good friend.
One fine day, the manager at my client company said that he
was not satisfied with my performance and he decided to let
me go off from the team in 2 weeks and he asked me to
transition the work that I had been doing to another new
employee.
One week after this incident, I got a call from my
consultant company asking me not to go to the client company
as she filed a harassment complaint. She had mentioned that
- 1. I had been following her in the garage and at
workplace, 2. I had been staring at her office from the
stairs (insane why would I look at chair and desk in the
office?), 3.I have been waiting for her in the garage when
she was in the fitness center working out for 15 minutes.
She was talking to me casually until the last day I met her
and I have no idea why she would file a complaint all of a
sudden. She never told me that she was uncomfortable talking
to me.
She has mentioned that her husband doesn't have a job 3-4
times, she lives in her mom's house temporarily until her
husband finds a job (it has been almost 4-5 months since she
said that), she wasn't making good money in her previous
job, she is trying to have kids, going to doctor because of
complications, won't get paid if she takes sick leaves or
maternity leaves. Not sure if money was her motive. But
anyways, the client company terminated my contract. So, she
won't be able to sue the client company and make money.
My consultant company has a lengthy procedure for handling
harassment complaints. At first, I was interrogated by
couple of HR folks based on the complaint. But, I wasn't
given the copy of the complaint and they didn't disclose the
date on which it was filed. They just disclosed the name of
the complainant. The next day, they went to the client
company to interview the complainant and her manager. Those
details were not revealed to me.
The HR folks have documented all these information and sent
them to Grievance committee in my consultant company. It has
been almost 3 weeks and I have no idea what is going on.
AFAIK, they will take a decision and communicate to both the
parties. If someone is not happy with the decision, they can
appeal for it and the final decision will be made.
What are the possible outcomes here? In the best case
scenario, if my consultant company says that her allegations
can't be proved and if she is not satisfied and files a
complaint with EEOC, will she be able to make any money? In
the worst case scenario, if my consultant company asks me to
resign, what are my rights? Can I file a defamation lawsuit
on her stating that she filed the complaint for making
money? She is also a contractor working for another
consultant company.

Re: Harassment Complaint, 10/08/08, by Terry.

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