Surviving the Ultimate Workplace Bully - My Story

By William Johnson

When I had been bullied in school for being gay I could not have imagined that, years later, I would be bullied the workplace, but I was, and not just for being gay.
Many books have been written about kids being bullied in school, but very few books have been written about people being bullied in the workplace.
I had to ask myself why that was. The answer was simple, because most folks who are bullied in the workplace, whether they be male or female, are, most times, terrified to come forward and report to higher management that someone, or more than one someone, whether they be male or female, is bullying them.
Why are victims of bullies in the workplace terrified to report it to upper management or HR? Because, as you will see in my book, most times when a person is being bullied in the workplace it is being done by someone in upper management, and, as I have found out, HR will stand by the bully in upper management. And yes, bullies in the workplace can be male or female…
…as I sadly found out for myself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664180567

William Johnson

Having grown-up in proximity to many strong and capable men and women, Dr. William Johnson has benefited from interactions and relationships denoting the special connection between generations of like-minded people: especially in regard to community improvement.His span of experiences includes 21-years in the United States Air Force, management positions within the Financial and Insurance industries, as well as business ownership, and leadership as a member of the clergy. This life trajectory demonstrates the confluence of many of the desirable characteristics collected along a productive life.Active in both church and community, Dr. Johnson is comfortable as the lone voice of dissent against the negative elements of society. This reliability for sober consideration served him well during the effort to desegregate Omaha public schools, as well as during his tenure as president of the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Superintendent of Omaha Public Schools.Doctor William Johnson has been a member of the Clergy ranks for over 35 years and the pastor of two different churches as well the chairman of many church groups. Dr. Johnson is the father of four children: two girls, the oldest is an Educator and the youngest is a Medical Doctor, together with grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Two young men, the oldest is a Mechanical Engineer, the youngest is a District Court Judge. Doctor Johnson was married to the late Beverly Ann Johnson, who was a Master Social Worker.The main family has been residents of Omaha, Nebraska for thirty-five plus years. Doctor Johnson brought the family home during his time in the Air Force. He is intimately involved in the development of today's youth in every facet of their growth, from birth to adulthood. Dr. William Johnson also has two Masters Degrees, a Master of Science and a Masters of Divinity and of course a Doctorate, along with numerous hours of advanced studies in various topics.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by William Johnson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/13/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

818197

Contents

Introduction

Have You Ever Worked for a Narcissist?

This Is to Anyone Who Will Listen

Judyisms

Seeking Compensation for Jewelry Company’s Homophobia, Discrimination, Bullying, and Outright Abuse

Instances and Examples of What It Was Like to Work for the Jewelry Company

The Biggest Sin Is to Criticize the Almighty World of Jewelry

Gay Thoughts and Sad Memories

Me, Other Gay People, and God

I’ve Changed

The Story of Angel

More on Bullying

When the Heat Was On at the Jewelry Company

Where HR Failed Jewelry Company’s Employees

Me, William

Incidents of Invasion of Privacy at the Jewelry Company I Worked For

Tyrants

Abusers of Power in the Corporate World

What She Said to Me

It’s Not Just Me

The End of the Sadist VP Era

Inventory Saturdays

An advocate against workplace bullying and bullying of any kind, who proclaims himself the founder of the war against workplace bullying, its need to have laws put in place against this growing epidemic and future, the author of a book on bullying speaks out.

Mogul (and Others Should Be) in Heaps of Hot Water

People in Management Who Are Self-Obsessed Ghouls

Control Freaks

The Trauma Lives On (11/29/2017)

Women Prey Too

The Price of a Mean Boss

Mind Rape

Ugly Rants

#MeToo at Work (Written by William and borrowed from John Adian Byrne’s article recently in the Post)

My Nearly Seven Years of Hell in Sadist VP’s Department

This Is the Story

Never Doubt Yourself

She Didn’t Care That Everyone in the Office Hated Her

Get It Over With, Judy Packer

Bullied in the Workplace: I’ve Had Enough!

This Was from William Johnson to His Attorney

Working at the Construction Company

Essay

This was an email I had sent to a reporter of a New York newspaper.

I Had to Share These

On Abuse and Being Reborn

On Abuse and Being Reborn: My Friend Chuck Responds (May He Be Resting in Peace)

Many Hats

An Email from My Buddy John in Florida

Complete this for William Johnson in 2021

This Was Inspired by James Baldwin’s Book No Name in the Street

You recently had a therapy session where you talked about betrayal or, to be more precise, you talked about what you called betrayal of trust. Could you elaborate on that a bit?

My Female Cat Angela and Other Things and People in the Mix

Homophobia: The Closet and Recollections of the Past

Homophobia: The Closet and Recollections of the Past (Part 2)

William Johnson Thinks Gay Men Can Learn from Stephen King

Hate and Orlando

Living a Daily Hell: Gay Teens in the United States

Some Heart to Heart Questions for the Author, William Johnson

Epilogue

To Rose, for helping me find my, well, you know.

To Walter, this one, at last, is for you! I’ll be your champion, and you will be mine.

To Joe, who always said, You really look like a William Johnson,

To Stanley, who truly understood me.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

—Edmund Burke

Introduction

THE LAWSUIT

I didn’t do what I did just for me.

True, what had been done to me by Mark (the company owner), a manager, and other coworkers over my two years employed there was totally abusive, anti-Semitic, and homophobic.

What they did to me caused my condition of clinical depression to escalate and to morph into uncontrollable anxiety attacks that my doctor needed to prescribe Xanax to me for.

So after being unjustly terminated from my employment at the company and terminated for being gay and for complaining to the company owner about how I was being treated homophobically by the company manager and other employees, my having brought a discrimination lawsuit was perfectly justified.

But I also did it so that I would be able to be a living example for other LGBTQ people out there who have been or are still being abused in the workplace and subjected to homophobia and other prejudices.

More than anything, though, and for more than anyone, I did it for a gentleman named Walter who I never knew but a gentleman that, when I came out as gay to my family, my father made sure I knew about.

Walter was a gentleman, who, many years ago, back in the late 1950s into the early 1960s—in other words, pre-Stonewall—worked with my father for a bank.

One weekend, while Walter was employed by the bank, he had gone to a gay bar in Manhattan; and just by chance, someone else who worked in the bank happened to see Walter entering the gay bar.

I’ve often asked myself, What are the chances of that? There had to be more to it than that.

On Monday morning, when Walter arrived at work, he was called into personnel. Personnel is what HR (human resources) was called back in the day.

When Walter arrived in the personnel manager’s office, he was asked point-blank if, over the past weekend, he had frequented an establishment of ill repute. At that time, they wouldn’t even have said the words gay bar in a personnel meeting. Rather, it was referred to as an establishment of ill repute. And what really reeks here is that they got away with calling a gay bar that.

Walter, rather than saying that what he had done and where he had gone over the weekend was none of the bank’s business, told the personnel manager the truth that he had indeed gone to a gay bar during the past weekend.

As soon as Walter told the personnel manager that, he was told in the same instant that he was fired and that the management of the bank did not want homosexuals working for the bank and possibly being a bad influence on other workers. They also told him that they knew that homosexual people recruited straight people to their repulsive way of life. Nowadays, telling a gay man that his way of life is repulsive would be grounds enough to bring a discrimination lawsuit against a company. But during the time of Walter’s expulsion from the bank that he worked for, these were the beliefs where LGBTQ people were concerned, and the majority of the heterosexual world agreed with it.

Was the bank’s management so backward and ignorant that they thought Walter was the only gay person employed at the bank?

At this point (as mentioned, pre-Stonewall), Walter did not have a leg to stand on. There was no HRC or NGLTF or Lambda Legal at this time; and even if Walter had attempted to retain a lawyer to sue the bank for unlawful termination, he would have been laughed out of the lawyer’s office. So Walter collected his few personal belongings, placed them in a cardboard box, and left the bank.

But it didn’t end there.

Walter was unable to find employment in another bank or any other sort of financial institution as that was where his skills and experience were.

So not only had the management of the bank terminated Walter’s employment because he was gay, but they had also blacklisted him. He was now not able to find decent a decent job.

As mentioned, I learned of Walter from my father. He related to me what had happened to Walter after I had come out as gay at the age of eighteen.

The reason, though, that my father told me about Walter was because he thought that if I had a boss someday who found out I was gay, he or she might fire me. My father also told me the story about Walter because he wanted to frighten me into remaining closeted, but my father’s plan worked in reverse because I became enraged. My response to my father was If any boss ever fires me for being gay, I’ll bring a lawsuit that will make their head spin.

And that was exactly what I did after I was unjustly terminated from my job at the company for being gay.

This was not the 1950s or 1960s or pre-Stonewall after all. This was the twenty-first century, WJ.

This is a story of workplace abuses in the glittering world of jewelry.

We are presently living in a time and culture of victim shaming and blaming. I have seen firsthand in the workplace how good, hardworking employees who were victims of many forms of abuse, harassment, and even mental torture had the tables turned on them when they came forward to report these atrocities.

And unbelievable as it may sound, it was company owners, upper management, managers, and VPs in the company themselves, including HR, who made these victims of many abuses into perpetrators simply by cleverly twisting and distorting the facts.

They are putting the responsibility on the people and employees who are not well enough to either somehow figure out how to heal themselves or to find the strength to even come forward to report abuses in the workplace because of retaliation. Yes, retaliation—an illegal practice that I have also witnessed firsthand for many years in the workplace.

We are blaming these victims for what has happened to them.

And when they break down in anguish or reach a point where they can no longer function normally, they are told to Move on, Snap out of it, It’s not about you, You brought this on yourself, You need to work on your image, and "The needs of the company are all that matters" and on and on and on and worse and worse.

In this book on the subject of bullying, a sinister specter that affects not just children and kids in school, as we have heard endlessly about over recent years…

…but rather on the subject of bullying, where adults are concerned…

…but I’m not speaking of domestic abuse/bullying here either…

…although I am not discounting domestic abuses.

What I am speaking about here is bullying in the workplace or, to state it even more precisely, workplace abuse.

At the time that it happened to me, I was very naïve and believed that this was happening only in the company that I was presently employed at. Nothing could have been further from the truth. When I learned of the many, many other employees out there who have suffered, and continue, to this day, to suffer workplace abuse, it did nothing short of blowing my mind.

And it blew my mind because I came to see how upper management in most companies put profits before people.

This book, at this point now, will focus 90 percent on the company that I worked for, for twenty-seven years of my life and also on one of the poorest, most vile excuses for a female VP who ever lived and commanded a seat of power in that company.

But the jewelry company that I will talk about in this book is not the only place where horrendous abuses happened to good, hardworking employees. I will also relate in this book how my friend John told me of how he was repeatedly raped by a male shipmate during his time serving in the United States Navy.

It was only recently that atrocities such as this were reported in the media where the armed forces and male-on-male rape is concerned.

I am also a writer of erotic fiction; and being a writer of erotic fiction, there are times when the ideas for stories and scenarios come to me so quickly that it can cause my head to spin, which is why I always carry pens and notebooks with me wherever I go.

Some days, the number of ideas for fictional erotic and even sinister stories can become overwhelming; and all this, I am truly grateful for. I see it as a special gift from God. However, when writing nonfiction, the subject of bullying is neither erotic nor sinister fun to write about, but it must be written about.

Being the victim of a bully (or bullies) is entirely disheartening and deeply demoralizing and can bring on severe bouts of depression and anxiety and panic attacks. Many victims of bullying also entertain thoughts of suicide; and in worst-case scenarios, some victims of bullying have committed suicide.

When most people think of bullying, what instantly comes to mind are kids being bullied in school or their neighborhoods by other kids or kids being bullied via the Internet (in other words, cyberbullying).

Nevertheless, the sort of bullying I am referring to here is workplace bullying, which sadly is a form of bullying that I was a victim of for many years while working for a jewelry company in New York City. It was in my last seven years while employed there that I suffered the worst bullying of my entire twenty-seven years with the company.

I was a male employee who was relentlessly, methodically, and sadistically bullied by a female VP.

I only bring up my birth gender because many people are of the ridiculous belief that a woman, even a woman in a position of power in a company, cannot bully a male employee. I am here to say that it does indeed happen where females in management will bully their male subordinates.

Actually, from what I have learned over the years, it happens more often than most people realize. But in this book, I am speaking of a female VP who bullied the employees who reported to her indiscriminately, both male and female.

My story is far from the comedic movie The Devil Wears Prada.

During the time of my final years employed by the jewelry company, after having been transferred to her department, a transfer I had not even requested, I reported to a female VP who made tyrants and dictators throughout history look like Mary Poppins.

This woman, who had clawed her way to the title of VP by destroying any employee who she believed stood in her way, was a bully beyond the meaning of the word. She was an outright sadist—and she was proud of herself for that.

I wrote this book with the hope that employees who have been, or who still are, being subjected to this type of workplace abuse that I will describe will find their voice and the courage to come forward and report it to the proper authorities.

One of my friends who I told about what it was like working for this sadist VP had this to say, My god, it sounds like she ran her departments like a Nazi concentration camp.

He wasn’t far from the truth.

Have You Ever Worked

for a Narcissist?

Sadly, yes, I worked for a narcissist for seven years—a sadist VP and a total tyrant named Judy Packer.

Everything in the workplace and everything that happened in the workplace revolved around this monster micromanager. It was always, always about her needs, never ever the needs of the employees who reported to her.

It was always all about her wants, never what her staff may have wanted. I will always remember that if an employee who reported to this crazy woman requested time off—and time off that they were entitled to at that—she had to see what she needed first, what her department needed first. She said to me many times, Just because someone has time off coming to them doesn’t mean they can just take it when they want to. The needs of my department and the company come first.

It was all about Judy Packer’s work life, the only life she had really.

No, an employee who reported to her didn’t have the right to ask for specific days off that they might have needed; but anytime she needed time off, she simply took the time without a thought for anyone else.

This soulless woman didn’t care if someone needed time off for their child’s bar mitzvah, (yes, she expected a manager to work on a Saturday for an inventory when it was that manager’s son’s bar mitzvah) or if an employee had a sick or dying relative in the hospital.

But let her cat get sick, and she would take the day off to get that cat to the vet no matter how busy we were at work. Not that I don’t care about cats or any animal for that matter. I do have three cats of my own after all. But if I needed a day off to get one of my cats to a vet, Judy Packer would have snidely asked me, Can’t your partner take care of that?

For a narcissist, nothing will ever be their fault. Even with evidence to the contrary, it still is never their fault.

Judy Packer was never wrong. Even if she was wrong, it was because of someone else, or it was someone else’s fault if she was wrong. And God help you if you disagreed with this woman where work was concerned.

A narcissist will neglect you; they will take you for granted and never make you feel important or valuable.

There are sections here that define Judy Packer to a T, and she took pride in these narcissistic characteristics. FUCK, she wore them like badges of honor.

Any employee who reported to her, she took for granted and believed they could easily be replaced. Any employee who did not have a title of supervisor, manager, or VP, she would have little to nothing to do with.

Judy Packer believed that anyone with the title of clerk or assistant was not worthy of her time.

She told me this herself. And the worst part of it was that she referred to clerical staff as the losers.

As for making people feel valuable or important, Judy Packer was the total opposite. She instead thrived on demeaning employees, dragging them down, and, at worst, intimidating them all in the interest of making sure that she looked good.

Selfish is an understatement when dealing with a narcissist, especially a narcissist of Judy Packer’s caliber.

I NEED! was something she roared at me during one of our closed-door meetings in her office. What she meant by I NEED! was that when she needed something from an employee in the company. Even if that employee didn’t work for her or in her department, she didn’t care. She didn’t care how busy that person she had called with something she needed was. What this narcissist expected—and that was from anyone in the company—was that they drop whatever they were working on, no matter how important it might have been, and take care of her I NEED! demand. She once said that if she was demanding something from someone in another department, even if they did not work directly for her, it had to be very important and even more important than whatever the person she had called with her I NEED! demand was working on. The bottom line on that is she was full of shit. In this instance, it was her overinflated ego talking.

And may God help you if you didn’t instantly cater to her I NEED! demand.

A narcissist lacks empathy and compassion, and the only feelings they care about is their own. If anything about being a narcissist describes Judy Packer, this most definitely does! If an employee called out sick or, worse, was in a car accident (as did happen to a friend of mine who I worked with while under this tyrant’s command), Judy Packer could not have cared less. She made that blatantly clear to me on more than one occasion.

Everyone around a narcissist are objects to them to be used for their gratification and needs.

This was exactly how Judy Packer viewed her employees—not as people but rather as tools she used to make sure that the departments she was in charge of ran as smoothly as possible. And she did this not with encouragement and reinforcement, rather with intimidation. She insanely believed that any employee could be trained to do any job, and if that employee could not do the job, it was not their fault. Rather, it was the fault of the person who was training them. So yes, unfortunately, I did work for a narcissist and one of the most classic examples of one at that.

In this book, I will show that not only was Judy Packer a narcissist, but that she was the worst and most reprehensible excuses for a company VP that there ever was.

This Is to Anyone Who Will Listen

As an employee, I sat quietly furious for some time about how the absolutely disgusting show of ignorance, intolerance, homophobia, and bullying, and mental torture took place against me during my time employed at a jewelry company.

In trying to look for a silver lining of some kind here, the only positive thing all the harassment and bullying of me have accomplished is to serve as the most perfect example for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees of how not to conduct themselves.

This had spurred many, many meetings in the Human Resources Department about human kindness, something that the human resources directors such as Lillian, Marlon, Rosa, Harry, and finally, the worst viper of them all, Beth know nothing about.

These HR directors had no idea how to treat gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender employees. They did not realize that someone such as me had real value. They did not know what to do when I reported the bullying I was subjected to on a nearly regular basis.

I spoke frankly with the abovementioned HR directors during their tenure at the jewelry company. I stood up for other employees who were also being mistreated, and these HR directors chose to look the other way.

From these HR directors, I have truly learned a lot; and what I have learned is that the jewelry company I worked for has a long, long way to go when it comes to treating LGBTQ employees fairly.

Lillian had told me that had I not come out of the closet in the workplace, I would not be enduring hearing the gay slurs that other employees were making about me—within my earshot at that.

Marlon told me that I needed to change my image at work and that he was going to help me to accomplish that.

Rosa took nearly a year to complete a bogus investigation on a homophobic security guard named Boris when he had made a gay joke about me and a security guard named Rafael. Boris had made fun of the way I said Rafael’s name, calling it a mating call between me and Rafael. In the end, Rosa had me and Boris in her office and stupidly told me that Boris does not hate anyone who is gay, which was an outright lie; but it was known throughout the company that Boris and Rosa were really good friends, and I was forced to swallow this conclusion to Rosa’s so-called investigation.

When I reported to Harry, the VP of HR at the time, the bullying I was being relentlessly subjected to by two bosses of mine—Judy Packer, a vice president, and Maryann, a manager who reported to Judy Packer—Harry said to me, Well, William, your definition of bullying and ours are very different.

Beth, who turned out to be the most notorious and evil of all the HR directors I had the misfortune to have to deal with in the so-called professional arena, turned into a total Judas when I had gone to her about the constant and unrelenting bullying and psychological torture I was still enduring from Judy Packer and Maryann. In the end, Beth went along with the owners of the company to have me terminated on ridiculous charges even after I had totally trusted her. I never before felt such a sense of betrayal from anyone in my life.

I realize that a lot of what I am reporting here happened a long time ago; but through the years, I have suffered from crippling depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and fear of retaliation if I reported these offenses to anyone in a position of authority.

Being gay never bothered me. It was the way I had been treated because of being gay that has bothered me. In other words, why was it such a big deal to the upper management at the jewelry company when I came out? They made it their business to go out of their way to make my life miserable, a total living hell. Why was it such a big deal to upper management who I slept with and what I did in my time?

It seems to me that this is the same argument we have been having for many years. First, it was Jewish people, then women, then African Americans, and now the LGBTQ community.

Judy Packer and Maryann, the vice president and manager I spoke of earlier, forced out an employee because they did not like him. Judy Packer told me herself after I had been transferred to her department. She told me, Maryann and I didn’t like him, so we drove him to quit. In other words, Judy Packer and Maryann relentlessly bullied and mentally tortured this employee until he resigned. Judy Packer told me this to show me just how much power she wielded within the company.

Many times I heard Maryann spew vulgar bile at employees. In a meeting with Maryann, Judy Packer, and the billing supervisor at the time, Tom, I was complaining about the way a FedEx courier named Alonzo had been treating me.

Maryann made it clear how much the company needed this particular courier as other FedEx couriers did not want to come to our location. Maryann then spat at me, I don’t care how big his dick is!

Judy Packer totally ignored Maryann’s hateful and outright vulgar rant.

Over time, the jewelry company I worked for has engaged in patterns and practices of discrimination and retaliation by coddling upper-management team members such as Judy Packer and Maryann.

And through their time of being bullies and outright sadists to other employees, they remained on the payroll even after having called other employees stupid, terrorized employees over the most minuscule of errors (I was witness to this numerous times where an employee named Alex was concerned), and intruded into other people’s private lives (as an example of this, it was told to me that Judy Packer once asked a pregnant employee if she and her husband did not believe in birth control when the employee told Judy that she was pregnant). One time, Judy Packer told me that I had wasted HR’s time when I had gone there to report yet another gay slur made about me, Judy Packer adding that I needed to grow a thicker fucking skin.

That Judy Packer and Maryann were able to maintain their high salaries while other good, hardworking employees were routinely bullied and forced out by them was a slap in the face to all other workers there. In my opinion, these two women had no business being managers. They were never managers by any stretch of the word. Instead, they were bullies masquerading as managers.

Another instance of ridiculous management practices that comes to mind was one year during the Christmas season. When business was very high and we had many orders to ship out, I was forced to have to stay late to ensure that the orders went out. By eight one evening, after Judy Packer and Maryann had gone home, I was told by the FedEx courier who was on the premises that he had to get going because the plane that takes our shipments to Mexico would be leaving within an hour. There were still many orders to be shipped that were not yet packaged to go. I called Judy Packer at home (which was the procedure in instances such as this) and told her what the courier had just related to me.

When I told Judy what the courier had just told me, her response was Call the airport and tell them to hold that plane. I nearly dropped the cell phone in disbelief over what Judy had just ordered me to do. Obviously, I did not call the airport with that asinine request. Didn’t Judy Packer realize that our shipments were not the only ones on that plane? The next morning, Judy Packer blamed me totally that more orders had not gone out. When I tried to explain to her that the other staff and I had stayed three to four hours late to ensure that as many orders as possible went out, Judy Packer cut me off and said, Just get out of my office. I have a company to run. Yes, this crazy woman was under the impression that she herself ran the company.

It is nearly unthinkable that, in this day and age, one of the largest jewelry companies in the United States would allow this sort of behavior from their upper management and treatments of good, hardworking employees.

During the time of Judy Packer’s relentless and out-of-control bullying of employees, her boss, Senior Vice President Phil, remained on the job as well despite his defenses for her. I recall once saying to Phil, Judy is a bitch; and his response to me, instead of asking me why I was saying such a thing about a company vice president, was And then some.

It was blatantly obvious that Phil took orders from Judy Packer rather than it being the other way around. Another incident that stands out in memory was a time when I was having a problem shipping an order, and Phil was in the office with me. I told him I would call Judy and ask her for assistance. Phil said to me, No, don’t call her. She is in a bad mood right now, and you don’t want to deal with her when she’s like this. In my opinion, Phil should have curtailed Judy’s heinous behavior a long time ago; instead, he nurtured it.

After I could not take the bullying anymore, and because I was making too many mistakes on my work because of the bullying, I was forced into a performance improvement plan (PIP); and when I could not meet the criteria of that contrived plan, Judy arranged to have me demoted and she cut my salary as well. This she had done to Alex as well, the employee I mentioned earlier, who she and Maryann used to terrorize to within nearly within an inch of his life.

As I said, a lot of this happened a long time ago, but I would still be thrilled if it could somehow be pursued at this point.

Judyisms

The ridiculous things that the VP I used to work for named Judy Packer used to say to me and other people in the company, I came to call these tidbits of hers Judyisms:

You will be written up!—this was something Judy used to say routinely to strike fear in employees’ hearts and souls. She would say this with such loathing, venom, and hatred in her voice; and the expressions on her face were filled with such malice that it was deplorable.

When you’re done filling your face, call me!—this was an email Judy had sent me one day while I was out to lunch.

I hate emails! Pick up a phone and have a goddamned conversation!—this Judy spewed at me when I told her I had sent her an email about an order we were having problems with.

One morning, I went into Judy’s office concerning our incoming shipments from our Mexico location, saying to her, Judy, there’s a hurricane in Mexico, and FedEx can’t fly their planes, so we won’t be getting our shipment delivered. Judy looked at me as if I were the stupidest person on the planet; and instead of thanking me for the information, she said, Is that acceptable? I tried to tell her that it was neither acceptable nor unacceptable but the reality of the situation. Judy then snidely asked me if there was another way that FedEx could get our work to us. I wanted to tell her that that was the most ridiculous question she could have asked me, seeing as, no, there was no other way except on a plane that FedEx could get our work to us. This is what I dealt with daily while working for this crazy woman.

Another time, Judy said to me, You went to HR and wasted their time reporting that Boris made those antigay slurs against you. Learn to grow a fucking thicker skin!

When it came to vacation time and requests for time off for vacation time, Judy said to me, Just because you have time off coming to you and just because you filled out a form for time off does not mean you will get that time. The needs of the company come first!

When I was first transferred to her department and placed under her jurisdiction, I learned that a good amount of my work would entail me dealing with a former manager of mine in the company, Alan. I explained to Judy that I was reluctant to work with him. I told her how Alan had always been very abusive to me when he was my direct manager and how he had made it clear to me how he did not like working with gay men. Judy said to me in a snippy and nasty tone of voice, You will work with him. And if he is abusive to you, you’ll come and tell me. And I’ll decide if you’re being too sensitive.

Of a coworker named Roberto, Judy once said to me, Roberto isn’t capable of making decisions. He needed Luisa to tell him to wipe his ass and then pull up his pants.

When it came to setting priorities for work orders, something that I had not been properly trained in, Judy spat at me, Your judgment sucks!

Concerning the scanning system and errors that could occur when using it, Judy screamed at me over the phone, If you scan something to the wrong location, it’s the end of the fucking world!

One morning, I went to Judy’s office and said to her, Judy, Doris from the shipping department called in sick. It seems she has a problem with her shoulder. Judy looked at me with total hatred showing in her eyes and said, So how long is she going to be out? Do we need to hire someone new for her spot? You see, I don’t give a shit about Doris! It’s the company and only the company that matters to me!

This was the sort of VP I dealt with daily.

Seeking Compensation for

Jewelry Company’s Homophobia,

Discrimination, Bullying,

and Outright Abuse

A former employee of a jewelry company, William Johnson, is seeking a settlement of at least $10 million in damages for the constant homophobia, discrimination, bullying, mental torture, and various forms of abuse heaped on him during his time of employment there for twenty-seven years. These abuses resulted in panic attacks, anxiety attacks, and clinical depression, which brought on thoughts of suicide. Mr. Johnson needed to be placed on two kinds of antidepressants by his therapist because of the treatment he endured over time.

"And when I reported these abuses and named names to upper management—notably, Beth, the vice president of human resources, and Karen B., my direct manager at the time—I was terminated over a most ludicrous reason and then later found out, because of a statement made by a manager, Maryann, that the true reason for my termination was because of a book I had written on the subject of bullying, William Johnson states. And that is the truth, and I would swear to it on any stack of Bibles."

I’m looking for justice, not revenge, said William Johnson. I want to be an example to other employees in other companies who may be experiencing the kind of abuses I endured, and endured from management at that, not just from fellow employees.

The Spanish-speaking factory workers in the company would call him maricon as he passed by their work areas; another former employee, Cynthia, called him an abomination in the eyes of God right to his face; Lillian, the human resources manager at the time of Mr. Johnson’s hiring, after she learned he was openly gay, went out of her way to make his life a living hell, calling him repeatedly into her office to berate him over and over for being out at work; a fellow former employee, Steven P., told William that he believed all gay people should be put to death and that he could not believe he was permitted to live in Bensonhurst, a section of Brooklyn, New York. When Mr. Johnson reported Mr. Steven P. to Lillian in human resources, he was told by her that he had to understand that Steven P. was a very religious man.

She told me that if I chose to be out at work as gay, then I had to expect to be teased and made fun of, Mr. Johnson states of his meetings with Lillian when he would report his grievances to her. She turned it around and made me out to be the instigator rather than the victim. Lillian even went so far as to tell me that had I not come out at work none of this would be happening to me. She also said that old-fashioned Spanish people work at the jewelry company, and they fear the unknown, adding that I was the unknown.

Former security chief of the company Ken also said the same thing to Mr. Johnson’s manager at the time, Larry, that if William chose to be out at work, then he had to expect to be teased for being gay. This is when Mr. Johnson had complained about a security guard named Boris G. for making antigay remarks to him regularly.

"Everybody thought all this was very funny, and no one—not one person in the company—stood by me, Mr. Johnson attests, not even one of the company owners, Richard, who made a joke about being gay in a meeting that Mr. Johnson was present at. When Mr. Johnson told Richard that he found his joke to be offensive and mean, Richard replied, I don’t need the alternative lifestyle, William," saying it in a manner of outright disgust.

"I would gladly report to the members of any jury of how I was constantly verbally and mentally tortured by a vice president and manager I later reported to, Judy Packer and Maryann.

I would, under oath if I had to, tell of how they used bullying and intimidation on me, and Maryann even went so far once as to physically accost me by trying to haul me out of my chair by my arm when I didn’t want to go into her office with her for fear of her, and nothing was done to her for this, William says. Because of Vice President Judy Packer’s constant abuses and mental torture, I was not able to function properly or learn my new responsibilities when I was transferred to her department. Because of this, Judy Packer used human resources—at the time Vice President of Human Resources Harry and manager Rosa—as her accomplices to have me demoted. I lost thousands in pay.

I have come to realize that these atrocities must be reported to anyone who might listen and help me to make my story public, even though, as was told to me numerous times by Beth, the present vice president of human resources, that the people I am reporting are no longer there. However, the owners are still there, and they continue to employ people of the nature I am describing here, Mr. Johnson said. "I do not care what the consequences for me might be, if any. I simply feel that this is a story that must be told.

Another supervisor I had for a short time, Joe Tanna, verbally sexually harassed me, making jokes about my being gay, turning everything I said into a sexual innuendo, and when I asked him to stop, he did it more and more. When I reported this to a vice president, John Orica, Joe Hanna’s direct manager, he laughed about it and said I was being ridiculous, Mr. Johnson says.

William Johnson worked at the jewelry company from 1987 to 2014, staying despite the constant abuses.

"I needed a paycheck and was afraid that they would give me demeaning references if I decided to leave. Plus, one time in the past, when I was job searching, it was somehow found out by my present manager at the time, and he reported it to the then human resources manager Lillian, Mr. Johnson says. When Lillian called me to her office and interrogated me over the fact that I had been job searching, I lied and denied it. Instead of letting it go, Lillian told me that she planned to go after the gentleman at the agency that I had sent my résumé to and that she planned to cause him to lose his job. When I asked Lillian why she planned to do this, she said it appeared as if he was trying to steal the jewelry company’s employees, and she added, ‘When I go after him, he is not going to know what hit him.’"

I would see this as a victory of justice being served if I were to win this case, Mr. Johnson states emphatically.

This was an email I sent to Maryann, based on the assault she visited upon me, which was mentioned in the previous narrative. At the time, I had also sent a copy to Maryann’s new boss Karen B. and the new senior VP John Orica.

Maryann,

As you can see the reason for this email is detailed in the emails below that I have already sent to Karen B. and Beth. Yesterday, when we were in Karen’s office you said to me that when you ask me to come to your office I have to come. You stated that you are a manager and because of that I have to obey you; that I may not like that, but that is how it is. You then said that if I do not obey you it is insubordination. Is it insubordination if the person you are ordering into your office is afraid of you and that is the reason he does not want to go into your office with you? When I had refused to go with you into your office you said that you merely wanted to explain something to me. Many, many times over the years since I came to work for you on the 6th floor you called me into your office, to explain something to me as you called it, and then verbally abused me, yelled at me in loud tones, and even went so far as to use vulgar language, ridiculing me for emailing you with stupid questions and things you claimed that I had come to you a few times for, which was a blatant lie on your part. And then after you were done with me in your office you would copy many, many people on emails where I had asked you a question and make it out to look like I was a total fool. When I reported this over time you told me that I take things too personally, or that you were under a lot of pressure, or that I misunderstood you. You can call it what you want Maryann, but abuse is abuse, no matter what you call it. And your responses to me on this, as I have come to learn over the years, are exactly the sort of responses any kind of abuser will make when they are called to task for their actions against those that cannot defend themselves against the abuser, for whatever the reason. So in this case I do not see my behavior as being insubordinate, rather my behavior was born of fear, a fear I have come to feel for you quite strongly over the years. If I was insubordinate for disobeying a manager then you are correct, but I see it more as my fearing you. And standing there at my desk as you were demanding of me to come into your office and I was telling you that I would rather not, it was blatantly obvious to you (and to Diana) that what I was feeling at that moment was fear. But instead you chose to continue in your tirade.

When I refused to come into your office you did indeed grab my arm in an attempt to get me out of my chair. You can say that you merely touched my arm, but even that in itself was wrong and inappropriate. You yourself told me years ago when I had reported seeing another employee touch another employee that that was assault. You had no right to put your hand on me, whether if it was to simply touch me, or to grab me. In either case it was inappropriate, and yes, I do have an issue where people touching me is concerned. When I refused again to come into your office you picked up my phone and called security to try to have me removed from my work area, treating me like I was some sort of common criminal. I have to say that up until that point of the day I had been having a very good day at work.

When I went into Karen’s office and was explaining to her what happened you did your usual routine of twisting my words around, distorting the truth and trying to make it appear as if I was the one who had caused the trouble, when in reality it was you. I believe that a lot of this yesterday was born of the fact that you learned that Leon had taught me how to do non-P.O. receives when Diana had been absent for the last three days.

When I had told you in your office earlier that I had been doing non-P.O. receives you meanly asked me, What are non-P.O. receives? right in front of Diana.

When I tried to explain to you how Leon had taught me to do them and that I had run it past John Orica and that he had said it was okay, you harshly stated, NO, you can’t do that! When I tried to explain to you again that it was told to me that it was okay to do it, and told that it was okay by a VP, someone who totally outranks you, you again yelled that I could not do non-P.O. receives because it screws up accounting. Later on you called me over to you again and you said that you had spoken to Leon about the fact that he had showed me how to do the non-P.O. Receives you said that he told you that he had showed me how to do only one. That was not true at all, seeing as I had spent a good amount of time with him on the phone that night and he had talked me through various jobs where I did non-P.O. receives, because I was unable to receive them from the seventh floor in the regular manner.

Also, in Karen’s office when I said that I had suffered abuse from you over the years you mockingly said, Well, that’s really funny; too bad none of it was ever documented. When I told you that I had documented all of it and that I had it written down at home you chose again to make it sound as if what I said was not all that important at all. You went on to say that this was a strange way of talking about a person that I had called a mentor over the years. Yes, you were a mentor to me, up until the time I came to work for you and Judy Packer on the sixth floor. It was at that point that I was met with your (and her) constant and unending abuses. Why I was subjected to that treatment from you and her I will probably never know. From the time I came to work on the sixth floor I was met with being terrorized, demeaned and dehumanized by you and Judy Packer. When I told Karen B. that she did not know the history between you and me she said that she agreed, she did not know the history, but she wanted instead to look forward. Sometimes the past effects the present though, as it seems to be doing now Maryann.

Once more you tried to make it sound as if I was the bad guy in all this when you said that the way I responded to you back at my desk was loud and disrespectful. That was a blatant lie, something I have noticed about you many times over the years. Luckily I was able to find an email you had sent me a short while back where you did indeed lie about things, distort the truth and tried to make me out to be the bad guy in the given situation. I will share this email with Karen B. and Beth. AND John Orica when the time comes. Other lies that have been brought to my attention over the years where you tried to discredit me I have made records of for myself. The time when I had first come to work on the sixth floor and I was teaching Aurea how to scan in the Mexico product you asked me how she was doing. I told you that Aurea did not seem happy at all having to learn this particular job function. You looked at me, sneered, pounded a fist on your desk and yelled at me, Well, happiness is not an option!! Soon after that, for whatever the reason you brought Aurea down to HR to Rosa. When Aurea told you that I had told her what you had said about happiness not being an option you told her that you had never said that. I could not believe what I heard. As I had said yesterday in Karen’s office about the past abuses I have suffered from you, I would swear that you said that on any stack of Bibles and in any court of law.

Other things you said to me in vulgar and derogatory and belittling ways I do have witnesses to and they have told me that they would be willing to come forward if it ever came down to that.

There is much, much more I can say where all of this is concerned, but I will leave it here for now and see where this goes after today. But for the most part I would prefer not to come to you with any problems I may have going forward with Navision.

I would prefer to work with Brooke, Evan, Leon and Diana, seeing as I am not afraid to approach them and they have all been very supportive where this new system is concerned.

From: William Johnson

Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 6:59 PM

To: Karen B.

Subject: For Tomorrow’s Meeting

Karen, I did not mean to disobey Maryann or be insubordinate in any way when she asked me to come into her office. That is not my style at all. The reason I really did not want to go into her office is detailed below, in the email that I had sent to Diana, based on what happened last week during Diana’s absence. I had briefly told you about this incident last week, before I went on record with Beth. What Beth told me is also documented in the email below to Diana. What I told you is very true, that I am scared of Maryann, have been for more than a few years now, and most times when she would call me into her office she routinely yelled at me, ridiculed me, derided me, twisted my words around and made it appear as if I did not know what I was doing. In the past she actually did say to me one time, After all your years here you really do not know anything!!! which was not true at all. She can deny these things all she wants, but as I said, I would swear to it on any stack of Bibles or in any court room. And yes, I did document the things that her and Judy Packer did to me that was beyond abusive. In my opinion, looking back on it, some of the things I was subjected to were inhuman. Some of the incidents thankfully, I have witnesses to who either overheard or who were directly involved with the things that went on.

In my opinion, the way that she did grab my arm and tried to pull me out of my chair was totally inappropriate, no matter how it is described. She had no right to put her hands on me at all.

Hi Diana, I am sending this to you because I want a record of it on file. Last week I had sent out the email below in the hope of finally rectifying some of these issues where I cannot receive product properly. As you can see Maryann responded (and copied everyone else as well), asking me for a communication before this one. I verbally told Maryann that I was under the impression that you had sent out a communication because I had been alerting you to all these issues since before I had gone on vacation for three days. I also politely asked Maryann not to copy everyone else in the email because I feel that it makes me look bad.

When I said this to her she sneered meanly at me and shouted NO!! I then asked her the same question again in a polite manner and this time she said, NO!!! YOU DON’T GET TO SAY THAT!!! I asked her why she was being so defensive, seeing as I had approached her quietly and politely. She then meanly spat at me, Go back to your desk, now!!! Copying many people on