Poor leadership goes unchecked for too long: my manager was seemingly bi-polar. She would talk sweet to employees out on the floor and then pull them into her office and berate them. Another nurse on the floor tried to flirt with me but when I approached the manager to discuss it, she treated me as though I was the trouble maker and held a vendetta against me. She began to change my shifts and write me up for untruthful allegations. The other nurse continued to harass and spread rumors about 'us' in the workplace and I tried going to HR who began an investigation. Unfortunately my manager and the HR rep were known to be good friends and instead of the investigation relieving me of pressure from my manager and allowing me to transfer to another floor to escape the creeper (he looked up my address on a county assessor website and showed up at my house!), HR began to make allegations that I had been lying to them about this imaginary relationship and, based on the word of my manager, that this other nurse and I were a known item on the floor. I was fired for impeding an investigation despite having alibis and proof to the contrary.
Morals of the story: 1) if your manager is crazy, record any private conversations. One audio recording of how my manager was beyond ridiculous (yelling, name calling, screaming) during a sitdown would have changed a lot. 2) If you are sexually harassed at Integris, don't expect people to take it seriously. You will need to produce some sort of evidence/reason and have a restraining order placed on the person by law enforcement. 3) Don't always expect a company's HR to be in your corner. Like any other positions, the person who you are sitting with and expect to help you in the workplace may in fact be influenced by other relationships and bias. Also know that the appeals process is long and will not be taken seriously.
