So, we seem to be having a little bit of a scandal at work....well, not really totally at work, but it involves work. Not sure much will come of it, but it is somewhat awkward (not for me).
I guess to start, I should tell you about one of our admins. For story purposes, we will call her "Admin". To be clear, our admins are extremely capable, very highly qualified and very well paid (they probably make more than I do.) All have lots of experience as executive assistant-types, either to business folks or government folks. Most of them are over 50.
The Admin in question, however, is only 33. She is also about 5'9", and absurdly good looking. Like, super hot. And very striking...very tall, very curvy and, I dunno...she just cuts a very stunning figure. Usually, people sort of stop for a second when they first see her.
The other relevant party in this story is a guy from one of the banks that we work with regularly (to loan us money:-)). A married guy who, I believe, has a couple of kids. I have noted to myself that the guy can be a little creepy after he has had a drink or two, and gets very flirty...to the point of being borderline unprofessional. I may have even talked to Admin about him specifically at some point in the past. I am not sure.
Last week (Thursday, maybe?) Admin and one of the partners here (neither Papa Bear or Boss Foxy) were at some kind of a networking event and said Banker was there. I guess the generally-borderline flirting crossed substantially over the line, to the point that he invited her to sneak away to a hotel room with him. And he didn't like that she kindly told him to fuck off (Actually, she probably did do it kindly...she is much more polished than, say, I am.)
There may have been some terse words, but she didn't actually say anything more about it to anyone. The issue only came to light because this guy's boss, who somehow knew, called the partner here to apologize and tell him that the guy had been reprimanded. Since the partner hadn't heard any of this, he asked Admin, who reluctantly told him the story.
If nothing else, the senior group here is fiercely defensive of its people, so the five partners huddled quickly and decided that they would terminate our relationship with this particular bank so long as this guy worked there. They said that they would remove him from our relationship, but the partners have said that won't be acceptable.
So now, a couple of the muckety-mucks from the Bank are in the conference room with all five partners trying to somehow salvage the relationship. No idea how it will turn out, but I have a feeling that the partners will hold firm in all of this.
Meanwhile, I don't think Admin is real happy about it. I think she liked it better when she could have just told the guy off and moved on...she seems a little embarrassed by the whole thing, and doesn't want to be that kind of a distraction.
Plenty of entertainment for me, though:-)
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Scandal abounds!
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10 comments:
Oooh I love office drams.
It's good of the partners to be willing to cease that relationship with the bank because of a member of staff being hassled by their staff. It's nice to see companies willing to stand up for their staff.
Juicy.
Still. For flirting to cross the line to THAT level, she probably had to have flirted back a bit.
Anne - I love them when they don't involve me;-)
Leetid - Yea, they are very good about that. They spend an enormous amount of time recruting and the hiring process takes forever. Once they find the right person, they don't fuck around.
Me - Well, obviously I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure. But, knowing the two of them, my guess is that she was initially friendly and polite, but probably tried to cut it off pretty quickly. And the fact that his boss could tell something was awry implies that the aggression was mostly one way. More on this tomorrow, with a little more detail might shed some light, too...
Ooohh. That's good. I feel a bit bad for Admin though. Kind of put on the spot, a bit. It's really nice and sweet how protective your bosses are though, makes me wish I had one like that!
"muckety-mucks" That's awesome.
I feel bad for Admin. I think I'd prefer to have just let it go and not create all this drama. Stupid boys!
Wow, that would be a little embarassing, but at least it keeps things interesting on your side!
Oh! That makes me stressed out for her. However, the admins at our work are equally qualified so I can only imagine how badly they want to keep her.
Excellent point.
Sucks for her now though. UGH. What a prick. And married. Says a lot about your company for addressing it. :) Nice.
I'm now really interested to know whether commenter 'me' is male or female. Your first comment was way off base. Guys can (and do) crack onto women without any flirtacious activity going on at all. Maybe they're not as astute and simply can't comprehend a situation in which they are not an object of interest, sexually or otherwise. Or they just don't care.
I am generalising here but all that means is that not all men do it, not that I am attributing certain characteristics to the entire species.
I am happy that the company is taking it so seriously and backing her up. I would like to think that my company would do the same for me but I doubt it.
Perhaps (potential) sexual harassment litigation is an area that my country is not that involved in yet. I suspect that we will see more of it though, and the trend will be led by the big banks.
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