In September 2010 a pretty, young female employee in her place of work at the Scrabster fishery office was subject to being assaulted by a man that worked in her office. For many years a lot of the men that worked in that office treated this woman with disrespect and malicious comments. They would make fun of her body shape and post pictures of animals pretending it was her. She was helpful and friendly but yet they referred to her as being cheap, simple and crazy. Some of the men spoke about her in a way that no man should ever speak that low of a woman. She was harassed to the point that a male officer turned up to her home late one evening and forced himself into her house. He told her that he could make her life a lot easier for her at work. She knew what this meant and she insisted that he left her home and never to return. Her life at her place of work was not made easier because she rejected him.
Our sister witnessed this each day of her career working with those men. She started to stand up for this woman in her place of work and then the focus turned to her on the day she spoke out after one of the men who no longer works in that office attempted to hit the female employee. When our sister witnessed this criminal act and the men who were all in the room at the time saw and heard what had happened, none of them defended the female employee. If anything they made the matter worse by doing nothing. Our sister took the matter further and spoke out against what happened because that was a criminal act and she feared for the safety of this female employee and for herself. Our sister was being harassed and bullied by some of the men in the same office and nothing was being done. It was being ignored by human resources and senior management. No one wanted to know. However it was reported that many complaints were given to human resources over the years prior to our sister being employed by the female employee.
The situation was created by human resources and management. They were aware for many years that certain members of staff were bullies. One manager goes on record to say that he feared for the safety of the office manager because ****** was a bully and misogynistic. However this manager is aware of what our sister and the female employee was going through and did nothing for them. He protected another man. Who is misogynistic? One by one this manager begins to move staff around but in the process gives the men who are involved in the bullying and harassment opportunities. The male officer who threw the punch at the female employee gets what the Scottish government a managed move on two occasions, all expenses paid to his chosen place of work. The same manager gives the male officer, who he calls a bully and is misogynistic, a promotion. The male officer who assaulted our sister receives an all-expenses paid managed move to his chosen place of work and a promotion. The manager looks after the male officers who are involved in the incident when the female employee was nearly knocked out by a punch.
Our sister was pursued by this manager and a group of men who created situations where she would be faced with extreme hostility. They blackened her name and posted sensitive material publicly so that she would be discredited and her coworkers would think that she was a liar. They hid the truth from the organisation. At the time there was a female director of Marine Scotland Compliance and the managers on numerous occasions failed to share details with her about what had transpired and they are noted for saying that they did not feel that she should know. What they meant was that the director at the time was a woman and it was none of her business. They were afraid that if the female director learned of the truth she would have intervened to put a stop to their androcentrism.
Our sister was not going to be mobbed by these men and the more she stood up for herself and others, the more she was subjected to harassment and bullying. However because she reported the matter of witnessing the attempted assault against her female colleague she was targeted by the senior male management team for speaking out against "the boys."
What we know is that if our sister had to be like more some women that once worked for the organisation who accepted being controlled by men she would not be in the situation that she is in today. Marine Scotland Compliance demonstrated that strong women with a voice were not wanted.
Who protects those that are bullied, harassed and are whistleblowers? No one, not even the human resources team could do their job because the job of sorting out the toxic work environment was so large that they would have to discipline and dismiss so many that were involved. Other managers in other areas of Scotland were doing the same thing to other employees, bullying them to the point that they considered taking their own lives. They had families, children and wives and could not just walk away. Then management changed their strategy, let’s go after the whistleblower but we won't let the public know that this was going on for years before she even began to work for the organisation. This way management and human resources would look good and the person who reported the incidents would be dismissed.
End of story but they did not know that our sister is a strong woman and even though they have chipped away at her for years, we as her family are her strength now.
Let DeeAnn Speak.