Storytime: The Worst Thing My Boss Ever Did To Me

I still can't believe what happened.

**Storytime Submission by Chinaza from Facebook. Story was slightly edited and reworked for grammar and clarity.

THE STORY

My name is Chinaza and this story is about the worst thing my oga at the office ever did to me.

So, I had just started working at this office in Abuja barely even three weeks. When I did my interview with the HR person, everything went well. They said they liked me for the job. I was hired.

They put me in the testing department. It was one of those ICT/computer firm places. I liked the job. It was simple, the pay wasn’t bad. Everything was okay.

Except for the head of my department.

All of us in the testing department, we weren’t much, like only three of us…me, my co-worker, and the oga. We all stayed in a very small closed office. My co-worker was a guy. He and my oga used to always argue and fight, but till today, I wish I was him instead of me. Because to be a woman in this Nigeria…na wa!

When I would give a suggestion or say anything about the work, before he will answer, he will say something inappropriate like, “See her fine lips”, or “This your top is dangerous” or “Beautiful girl, what did you say you saw?”. It was always some kind of inappropriate remark. But when my co-worker talked, my oga would just answer him straight to the point.

One day I asked my coworker if he had noticed how the oga had been treating me and he told me to just ignore it, that the salary was okay and at least he was not touching me. So I kept quiet. And things continued as they had been, until one Friday, things escalated!

It was a casual Friday so I put on a checkered shirt and work skirt. This skirt went below my knees stopping somewhere around my shin. It was a flay skirt though not one of those tight ones. Maybe that’s where I messed up, I should have worn a tight skirt.

Anyway, after our usual prayer in the meeting room, we all went into our different department offices and my co-worker hadn’t yet come up so it was just me and the oga in the room. There was some trash from the day before, paper here and there, so he told me to clean up. I started cleaning and as I would pick the trash, I would throw it into the waste paper basket that was by the fan. This office was not big at all, it was like 20 feet length and width. The waste paper basket from where my oga was sitting was maybe seven feet. I went about picking the trash and my oga seemed to be busy on his laptop.

I picked up some more trash and I went to throw it away. That was when it happened. I can never forget it. I was slightly bent over throwing the trash into the basket when I felt his hand under my skirt, on the back of my thigh.

I immediately jumped and turned around to see him smiling. He said, “This your skirt is dangerous oh!”, giggled, and continued on with his work.

I was mortified.

I immediately ran out of the office and went straight to the HR manager because I’d talked to him in the past and he seemed like a decent man.

When I started talking about what my oga had done, the expression on the HR man’s face was as though he had seen this happen before. As I was talking he kept on nodding, closing his eye, and shaking his head. After I finished, he said, “I’m sorry that happened to you. That’s just how he is. He likes to play like that. Is there anyway you can just endure?” ...or something to the effect of that.

I couldn’t believe it. I told him that I was too uncomfortable, that he should please do something. He responded that my oga was very experienced at his job and one of the biggest assets at the company, there’s nothing he could do.

I simply couldn’t believe it. Forget oh, no amount of films or documentaries or stories or anything you see about something like this prepares you for how to actually deal with it when it happens.

Then my HR manager asked me if I wanted to quit. Omo, that was when I knew that sometimes the part they don’t show in films and documentaries is how much was in the victim’s bank account at the time of the incident. Because in all those films when they walk out and quit their jobs, I'm guessing they have enough money to fall back on. Me I didn’t. I told him I had no choice but to endure. That day I told my co-worker about it, he sympathized with me and after that day every time after prayer, if he was around, we would go together to the office and if he wasn’t, I’d circle the area until he came and then we would go in together.

Thank God I didn’t have to deal with it for too long though because some months later, another job opportunity presented itself and with a quickness, I bolted from that slimy man.

That's the end of my storytime. I really love reading the storytimes on your page so I just thought I’d share one of mine with you too. I hope you like it.

That’s All!

To answer your question in public Chinaza, I LOVE your story. Thank you for sending in this story and thank God for the happy ending and your escape. Sexual harassment is horrible. I’m just so happy you’re out of that situation now. Thank you for your story and thank you for being such a delight to chat with.

If you have a storytime of your own, send it to me via DM through my Facebook page. I'd love to hear your stories. Please bear in mind though that I have A LOT of messages in the backlog so it might take me some time to get to yours. Thank you and I look forward to hearing your story.

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