3 Ways The EEOC Interfered With The Rearing Of My Daughter

After filing an EEOC charge, beware of your surroundings because they change drastically. I warn you of this because enduring a fact-finding investigation will alter your life and alter your relationships drastically. If I’d known that filing a workplace violation charge would negatively affect my relationship with my daughter, I would not have filed one because the relationship between my daughter and me is my most important relationship. Therefore, the effect my workplace violation charge had on my daughter is most regrettable. Here are 3 ways the EEOC and my employer, Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC), interfered with me raising my daughter:

• In retaliation for filing a charge against my employer, the Ohio Child Support Enforcement Agency routinely withheld child support checks for months. As a single mother, I needed those checks, but the Ohio agency would withhold the checks for as much as 6 months at a time as penalty for me filing a workplace violation charge against the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, my former employer. This increased my anxiety and plunged me further into major depression.
• Prior to receiving disability retirement from Ohio Public Employee Retirement System (OPERS), I filed for workers’ compensation. Since I worked there, I knew exactly what was required to receive payments. Yet, my employer delayed payments in spite of medical documentation. This increased my anxiety and plunged me further into depression. I was so overwhelmed, I found it difficult to get out of bed most mornings, and I found it difficult to explain my moods to my school age daughter. I can’t tell you how many times I tried cleaning my house but lacked the energy to do so. This was embarrassing to my daughter because I wouldn’t permit her friends to visit.
• As part of their harassment of me, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation approached my neighbors and friends in a bid to obtain dirt on me. One neighbor asked me if I really was a prostitute. This not only angered me, but it horrified me because he said he obtained the information from BWC investigators. Since I was no longer working for BWC, I had no understanding that this was continuous retaliation.

I blame the EEOC for dereliction of duty. Had the agency performed their due diligence, the state of Ohio would have failed in its efforts to destroy me. Even though I’ve now risen from the ashes, I still feel the burn. The EEOC should have known that my employer, the state of Ohio, was continuously retaliating against me.

In the years after filing that first charge, I learned that every employee should familiarize his or herself with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If the employee familiarizes his or herself with the laws, they would never endure what I’ve endured. Until the next time . . .

A Letter To My Senator

This complaint involves two different charges that were processed. In the first charge filed against my former employer, Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC), the charge was never closed even though I was sent a right-to-sue letter because I had hired an attorney after the bureau wrongfully terminated me. It did not take my attorney two years to file suit. It only took Jeffrie Lurie less than two months, but the magistrate dismissed the suit allegedly for expiration of the statute of limitations even though witnesses and one of my offenders admitted to sexually harassing me and making my workplace hostile. I dispute this because the last incident of continuous retaliation was the date of my termination.

Also, the EEOC ignored evidence that my former employer, BWC, in collusion with the state of Ohio conspired to interfere with and interrupt my child support checks as continuous retaliation. As a matter of fact, the Ohio Child Support Enforcement Agency withheld support for six months until I filed a complaint against the agency. The EEOC ignored the fact that the state of Ohio was continuously retaliating against me for more than a decade.

In 2006 I worked for Mercy HealthPlex and started experiencing a hostile work environment as well as sexual harassment. I learned later that the state of Ohio and Mercy HealthPlex colluded to undermine my credibility by working together and sending some of my former coworkers at BWC to harass me on my new job. I dual-filed a charge with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the EEOC in August 2009.

By September 2012, I started contacting Ohio Representative Margaret Conditt as well as the Colerain Police Department to cease the fact-finding investigation as I was not only being intimidated, but the process became a financial hardship for me. Conditt’s office made inquiries and told me the OCRC and EEOC was not trying to harass me, but they required additional medical information.

In retaliation for me contacting Conditt and Senator Sherrod Brown, an investigator for the Ohio Highway Patrol illegally detained me and had me committed to UC’s psychiatric facility for 8 days. My insurance company refused to pay for more than a 72 hour hold because I was no danger to myself or anyone else.

In mid January 2013, I went to the Dayton field office of the OCRC and tried withdrawing my charge. There was no incident, yet when the agencies learned I was leaving Ohio, an Ohio Highway Patrol investigator contacted me and stated if I failed to seek psychiatric help and take medicine, they will arrest me. Then they placed a summons in my mailbox. During a dangerous ice storm, I appeared in court in February 2012, and no one from the OCRC or EEOC appeared. The case was set for another court date for April 2012. Neither I nor the OCRC showed up for court, yet the case has haunted me.

In the fall of 2015, I was denied a substitute teaching position because the charge of aggravated menacing was still open. In the spring of 2016, an apartment community in Tucker, GA turned me down for an apartment because of the aggravated menacing charge. In April 2016 I returned to Ohio to defend myself. The case was continued until the beginning of May 2016. I appeared again, but no one from the OCRC or EEOC appeared. I hired a public defender who was surprised the case was not dismissed as no one from the other side appeared 3 years ago nor this year.

The EEOC has continuously denied that any charge I filed was open. I have the right to learn the status of my cases, and I have the right not to be retaliated against by employees at the EEOC and OCRC because I told other politicians and agencies they were not doing their job. Please help me. These agencies have interfered with my life enough!

This Is What I’m Gonna Do To You,” My Coworker Threatened After Hanging A Brown Teddy Bear From His Pod: A Shocking Example Of A Hostile Work Environment

5/18/2016

In 20 Seconds I shifted from anger to terror because I realized that my coworker at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) was responding to my rejection of his unwanted sexual advances. My supervisor chuckled and said my coworker was “just being ornery.” Ornery? Really? The man had just threatened me with bodily injury, and the supervisor only considered him ornery.

I reported him to BWC’s EEO office. Finally, my supervisor and the agency director told him to take down that teddy bear. But the damage was already done because he next publicly stated that he wanted to “go toe-to-toe” with me. My supervisor and the agency director deemed him crazy and told me to ignore him.

After many more incidents I filed workplace violation charges with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). The investigation took so long that I thought the agency had forgotten about me. Eventually the agency sent me a right-to-sue letter, effectively dismissing my charge. Or so I believed. Suffering from depression, I sought medical advice for the condition. Both my psychiatrist and my psychologist advised me not to return my place of employment.

With a school-age daughter to raise, a mortgage and a car note, I could not afford to take time off work. So I endured more sexual harassment, intimidation, hostile work environment and retaliation. I found myself ostracized and labeled crazy because I kept reporting sexual harassment to my employer’s EEO office.

Worse, the EEOC never actually ended the investigation. But they obviously sided with BWC, an agency within the state of Ohio. Suddenly my child support checks stop coming. When I filed an inquiry, I learned that my child’s father was current, but the state of Ohio withheld the support for six months. Talk about continuous retaliation! But I was ignorant of this term and how it could be used to make one’s life a living hell.

Eventually I took a medical leave of absence for major depression. I finally followed the advice of my shrink and my therapist. But BWC was not pleased. They demanded that I return to work, and when I cited my medical condition and no physician’s release, BWC wrongfully terminated me. I hired my coworker’s husband as my attorney—huge mistake. He allegedly failed to file suit prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

I nearly suffered a heart-attack; I was so distraught. But what I realize today but failed to realize then was the last incident occurred after I was wrongfully terminated. With my most conservative calculations, I now realize the state owes me at least $700K in back wages. Later I will explain what occurred next. Until the next time . . .

6 Ways to Adjusting to a Horrible Boss

1. Understand what makes your boss tick. If you can understand what sets him or her off, you may be able to avoid his or her tirades. This may or may not be easy, but it is worth a shot if you could sit across from your boss and query him or her about their pet peeves.
2. Figure out how to stroke your boss’s ego. Even false praise may keep you out of your boss’s dog house. If your boss is a huge Dallas Cowboy fan, engage him or her about professional football. In this way, you may be able to channel your boss’s aggression and grumpiness into a topic other than how lousy your boss thinks you are doing.
3. Network within the company. Try schmoozing with other department heads or HR personnel. You’d be surprised to learn that these employees not only like you, but they may possibly help you with your turmoil with your boss.
4. Recognize the difference between bullying and tough criticism. Are you a tad bit overemotional or sensitive? Approaching the situation in a dispassionate manner and only focusing on the Xs and Os may prevent upsetting feelings after dealing with your boss.
5. Cut your losses and start looking for another position either within the company or outside of it. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, the boss/employee relationship fails. However, please do not take this as your own personal failure because it is not.
6. File a complaint with your company’s EEO officer or with an outside agency like the EEOC when all else fails. It is important to note: Pay an attorney to file the workplace violation charge. Filing the charge yourself may present nightmares because you need to limit the scope of the investigation to your favor.

Why Would ‘He’ Want To Set Fire To My Tampon?

5/13/2016

I’m Tracey Lampley. Many apologies for not posting sooner, but I’m back now. Are you wondering about the title of this post? You should because a coworker stated he would set fire to my tampon if I continue being mean to him (by resisting his advances).

I must admit this personal trainer, who dabbled in karate, scared the crap out of me every time he undressed me with his eyes. He even ‘playfully’ punched me in my arm. Back in the day, it was called ‘frogging.’ Frogging me left me bewildered and in pain. Want to know the worst part about this? The assault was captured on camera.

In my days working the front desk at Mercy HealthPlex , I experienced many physical and verbal assaults. Sprinkle in a some psychological assaults, and you have yourself a hostile work environment stew!

But please do not think that you should go to fair employment practices agencies like the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and/or the OCRC (Ohio Civil Rights Commission) because they will drop you in hell first then supply the ladder–not the water–to bring you back up.

Speaking of ladders, at my gig with the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the former director stared at my breasts and told me he could school me in being promoted. He said this after I was turned down for promotion.

The entire time I thought I was passed over for promotion in favor of a white male when in fact sleeping with the agency director would have sealed the deal. No, I never slept with him nor did I realize he was violating a workplace rules and regulations. I blame myself for being ignorant of Title VII laws of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

As you know, I am blogging a book to inform and help victims of Title VII laws. Until the next time . . .