"Hate"

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"Hate"

Name: Tennise Gallegos
Email: Ms.Active@juno.com
Date: 18 Jan 1999
Time: 19:33:52
Remote Name: ppp-029.unm.edu
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My husband was a victim of a hate crime at work some six years old. Rudy had polio when he was four, and went through 16 operations to get to where he is today: able to walk on crutches as long as he wears one leg brace. The polio damage is visible. He's shorter than he was meant to be, and his legs and feet are small.

Rudy worked at a mental health center, where he'd done a variety of things. His background in finance and accounting, his years of working with people in the public school system before he moved to this job, and his obvious managerial and organizational skills, had made him a valued employee. Then the dreaded "let's improve things by bringing in an outsider to change everything around" idea gained favor, and Rudy had a new "boss."

There were many things this new boss didn't like about the New Mexico environment. He appeared to dislike Hispanics. He considered well-oiled groups of people who worked well together to be "cliques" and took care to break these clusters up immediately.

And, he appeared to believe that Rudy had been "getting by" on his disability and was really "dead weight" it would be best to remove.

Unfortunately for Rudy, this supervisory change came at a dreadful time of his life. His wife or more than 20 years had recently left him, and a beloved relative had died. He wasn't functioning at his best, but all the people who'd worked with him for years knew what he could do, and were inclined to let him have a temporary slump. After all, Rudy was the man who'd put in twenty hours of overtime a week making sure he got the details right.

Because they worked in a hospital setting, Rudy's new supervisor did not have the power to simply hire and fire. There was a lengthy procedure to go through, records to be reviewed, all far too time consuming for him. So he began to harass employees as a way of getting them to leave.

He was eventually successfully sued by a group of Hispanic employees who proved, in court, that he had reduced their job responsibilities to clerical and sub-clerical levels, or moved them out of their areas of expertise into new offices and new job descriptions. Some of them were one or two years from retiring, another group this man appeared to target.

It was no surprise that Rudy's supervisor decided to make his work life miserable. But, Rudy was one of the first people targeted, and the way he was harassed was particularly mean. In a period of twelve months, he had his office and job responsibilities "moved" five times. A supervisor in rating and pay, he was assigned the most brainless clerical duties.

One of his "new" offices was up a flight of stairs and could not be reached by elevator. Another assignment required Rudy to walk long distances to and from an office outside the Mental Health Center, where he delivered and picked up documents.

As time wore on, and Rudy refused to "budge," his supervisor developed a grudging kind of respect for him, and they even had some conversations. From remarks the supervisor made, it was clear that he was obsessed with Rudy's physical condition. He asked who did Rudy's shirts now that his wife had left him, and he seemed especially repelled and fascinated by the idea that Rudy, as a single man, might actually think about "dating" normal women.

The year we met and married, the boss trumped up a "sexual harassment" charge against Rudy and had a letter placed in his files. The supposed source of the complaint was a temporary who no longer worked at the Mental Health Center (she never came forward), and the gist of her complaint was that Rudy "leaned" over her at her desk.

Of course, Rudy had been assigned to share a desk with this woman, and given tasks that required him to take supplies out of a common drawer. Further, since he always needed the help of crutches to stand, he always appeared to "lean" while standing!

Rudy's co-workers eventually urged him to join their lawsuit, but he declined. He wanted to finish ten years at the Mental Health Center and be vested. Instead, he accepted being reprimanded and losing a week's pay, even though he knew that Policies and Procedures (which he'd helped write) were being violated. As a middle-manager, he had no union, and to prove his case he'd have to sue.

The harassment ended about six months later, when the supervisor was forced to ask for Rudy's help in cleaning up one of the departments at the Mental Health Center. Rudy went in, devised new accounting and other procedures, and became an essential part of what was now a well-functioning unit. In the meantime the supervisor began to display erratic behavior, came under scrutiny, and eventually left.

I am certain, in my own mind, that the particular viciousness with which this man pursued my husband was a result of his thoughts and feelings about disabled people. Fortunately, my husband rose above it and had the patience to wait it out. He's getting his MBA this spring, and the next time that supervisory slot opens up, he'll be a candidate for it!

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Email: bwesacivu@runbox.com
Date: 22 Feb 2008
Time: 12:13:44
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Date: 04 Mar 2008
Time: 06:08:10
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