@importantdogimages

You did not deserve to be sexually harassed. This is true no matter what you wear, how you look, how much money you make, where you work, what you do, or anything else.

To Anyone Who’s Still Carrying It

You don’t get over it in a straight line. You just don’t. And anyone who tells you different hasn’t been through it or hasn’t faced it yet.

Harassment doesn’t always leave bruises you can point to. It gets under the skin in quieter ways. It makes you second-guess what you heard, how you felt, what you wore, what you said. It can turn a job into a minefield and your own instincts into something you stop trusting.

And it doesn’t end the day you leave the job, or file the report, or speak the truth out loud. Sometimes it lingers. In your body. In your sleep. In how you walk into new rooms.

But here’s what I know: healing doesn’t have to look heroic. It’s not always confrontation or closure. Sometimes it’s just getting through the day without that weight taking over. Sometimes it’s finding one person who listens. Sometimes it’s deciding to stay. Or leave. Or try again.

Whatever it looks like --- that’s valid. You’re allowed to move forward without explaining why it hurt or proving that it did.

It was real. You’re not imagining it. And you are absolutely not alone.

“You’re so calm during conflict.”

No babe, that’s dissociation. We all bring our talents to the table...

Sometimes things happen for a reason…and sometimes your place of work is just full of mean girls.

I got fired for not “fitting in” and there was zero explanation on what that even means. I did my job well, constantly got praise, helped my team and encouraged them when they were discouraged. Over the past few months there were a few comments about my appearance and I asked what my boss meant by that and she couldn’t give me an answer. So I started to try to dress more similar to the girls in the office and wear perfumes and lotions that I knew they liked and even styled my hair in the mornings and put on makeup. Even then, I wasn’t welcome to sit with my department at the Christmas Party we were invited to. All of it was never enough and HR got involved because my boss wanted to write me up for my appearance despite all of my efforts. “Retaliation is unacceptable” is what every workplace will tell you. But the bad ones will find a way to retaliate if they don’t like what you said.

Sunday night I opened up to my fiancée about wanting to open up an online shop for readings and spells. The next day I was let go. Feels like a sign to me. They can think it hurt my feelings, but it only encouraged me more. I’m just gonna be myself and know that I am more than enough, just the way I am 🔮🖤✨

While I wish them well, Hekate knows all the details too 😉

Don’t just sit there and take what they’re saying about you. Stand up and prove them all wrong! You are more than enough, just as you are 💜

Women In Tech: A Relatable Story?

Hey everyone, 

I'm a 31 F, working at an architectural design firm. I will keep this short because I am pretty upset and I know it will just turn into a big rant if I don't.  

I am newer there and lower level - junior designer slash BIM tech. But I have a degree and am frankly overqualified based on past experience and my skill set. We have a few Slack groups divided up by project, job and client. I'm on most of them because I am a newb, they have me bouncing all the time from thing to thing. So I get to see most of the messages across the company. 

It's almost all men. 30s to 50s. I am one of two women in the entire place other than cleaning staff. I almost didn't take the job because of that but I have a kid and student loans and can't not keep my pay at the level it was. 

My secondary work computer is a laptop and it was stolen a few weeks ago. It wasn't backed up so I lost a lot ofwork and had to redo it. It took a lot of extra time. This caused delays and a headache with two big clients and my project leads and boss have treated me like absolute shit ever since. 

After that the running joke on Slack about “diversity hires” has been getting out of control.Nobody has said they mean women specifically but all the details about what happened with me have been mentioned very clearly. The have gone as far as saying it's so sad how the company is “lowering the bar", that this is why the economy is so bad. 

The supervisors are on these threads too. They steer clear of that stuff but they don't stop the constant jabs either. Based on their treatment around the office I feel like they actually hate me. I can't go to them. The owner is the biggest douchebeg of them all. 

We are all contractors I think so there is no HR. It's "in the works" they tell me. 

The other woman I work with has become an ally and a friend through this and we want to get out of there but yeah we can't afford it. We want to resist. But there is nothing to do about it. Sick to my stomach of the backward slide things are taking, women are becoming second class citizens again.

Want to burn the place down. Nowhere else is hiring where I am.

Sorry if there are men on this thread I know you are not all the same but sorry sometimes it feels like you are.

I am so frustrated I want to scream.

Harassment doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it whispers. Sometimes it laughs. And sometimes it just watches to see if you’ll flinch...

“Justice," she said. "I've heard that word. It's a cold world. I tried it out," she said, still speaking in that low voice. "I wrote it down. I wrote it down several times and always it looked like a damn cold lie to me. There is no justice.” — Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

From the series "Civilizations", 1983 - by Vitaly Butyrin (1947 - 2020), Lithuanian

“It’s not brave to have boundaries

it’s just basic hygiene for your soul.”

-Jenny Slate

Some things you carry.

Some things carry you.

Ba Ghi Ri E De, Pueblo Indian woman carrying a water pot on her head. - Porter - 1907