From the morning to the afternoon:
-I got to the men's side. A homeless man coughed at me.
-I put my things on the scanner belt and walked through the scanner. When I got through security, a female employee coughed at me.
-I was brought to the cafeteria by Jason, a supervisor. Some normal conversation, people around and out of the room. Window to the dish room was open; it was directly to my left, across the room. A man was in the dish room; he started coughing right away and did it for several minutes. Note written @ 9:01 a.m.
-Joseph, a supervisor, in a white coat and baseball hat, coughed loudly, twice within a few minutes, while talking to Jason, but it was directed at me. There are a few Joes who work at the Pine Street Inn.
-Trainees moved to the kitchen area. A male trainee who coughed at me yesterday coughed at me right away today.
-I heard another cough. It seemed to be Joseph.
-Male trainee walked past me and coughed
-10:35 a.m. I was at the register studying the notes about procedure that I took today while being trained by a trainee who has been in the program for 4 months. A few employees and trainees walked by. I heard a loud cough.
-Trainee named Louis coughed at me several times
-Louis; every time he saw me, he coughed at me.
-Another trainee walked past me and cleared his throat.
-I asked Joe if I could speak with him. We stepped into the cafeteria, apart from other people. Another Pine Street Inn employee with whom I have always been friendly walked over to us; Joe said "He can listen to what we're saying." I told Joe "I can't take being coughed at." He pretended not to know what I was talking about. I said "People deliberately coughing around someone; it means 'your vagina smells.'" The employee who was listening to the conversation nodded, confirming what I was saying. Joe lied, saying, "I never heard of that before." I said "I would never tell people that they can never cough around me; what I'm saying is that I don't want to be harassed by deliberate coughing and gestures like it." Joe told me that we should go to Jason's office. I said, "I can't get through the program like this; someone's face is going to end up in hot soup." I didn't say that as a real threat, and they both laughed. It's certainly possible that I could hit someone after being harassed more than I can deal with, WHICH EVERYONE WHO WORKS OR LIVES IN A SHELTER UNDERSTANDS. Everyone who has spent time in a shelter knows that there are always people who try to upset bullied targets enough that the targets do something that results in the targets being barred or otherwise losing privileges. There are people who do that to each other, also; it is a form of entertainment for many homeless guests and employees. When I felt that I was about to raise my voice to a harasser during the training today, I asked Joe, a supervisor, for help. I did what I was supposed to do, even though I knew there wasn't much chance that I would get help because he and the other two supervisors for the program, Jason and Frank, had already all harassed me. There are people in the training program who haven't even gotten out of jail yet; they are in prerelease. A lot of people who have been in jail are in homeless shelters; what I said wasn't that bad.
Joe walked me to the kitchen downstairs, which is where Jason's office is. In the stairway on the way, he said again "This is the first time that I have ever heard of coughing having that meaning." I didn't think it would help my situation if I called him a liar, so I stopped walking and said "I think about killing myself all the time. I get barred from everywhere, fired from everywhere." That wasn't a joke.
-I would not be surprised at all if Joe later told everyone who would listen that I had made physical threats to other people and threatened to kill myself, lying throughout everything he said to people who knew he was lying and who were just looking for a reason to make me leave the program.
-Joe brought me to Jason's office. I told Jason "I have done everything that I'm asked to do. I took 50 pages of notes during the orientation. I'm just here to try to improve my life." I could tell that Jason was listening better than Joe had wanted to listen; he looked serious and he didn't just deny everything I said. He said he'd talk to someone about it so they could decide what to do. Jason said he would understand if I had to leave for the rest of the day. I said "I don't want to leave; it's 11:00! The program started at 9 this morning; they win after two hours?! I get forced out after 2 hours?" He said that no, I shouldn't have to be forced out. I said that Louis was coughing at me every time he was around me. Joe said "He has asthma," which is a frequent lie told by harassers and to protect harassers.
-I went back upstairs to the cafeteria. I got coughed at a few times every minute by various people until I went back to Jason's office and said "Something has to be done today." He said he would talk to Frank immediately.
-When I got upstairs again, a female trainee who just started the program this week and with whom I had been working today walked past me and coughed loudly.
-The lunch break for the trainees is supposed to be from 11 to 11:30 a.m. I missed the first 10 minutes of it, asking for help to stop the harassment. I knew that I had to take notes about what had happened, so I had to spend more of my break time doing that. A female trainee who has been in the program for 4 months told me "You have 15 minutes to eat, so you'd better do that instead of taking notes." I ignored her, finished my notes, and had 10 minutes to eat, use the restroom and be in the cafeteria by 11:25 a.m. I did not get enough to eat.
That's a picture from today of the fire alarm in the women's restroom in the hallway next to the cafeteria.
-When I was at the register after the break, Joe coughed at me from the hot food line. I thought that probably meant that I was going to get told to leave the program. I hoped that wasn't what it meant.
-Joe walked past me and coughed again.
-Another female trainee who has been in the program for 4 months walked past me and coughed.
-Another male trainee, who coughed at me on the first day of orientation, walked past me and coughed.
-I got through helping during lunch; the harassment wasn't as bad then because the trainees and employees had to try to be working and the people who wanted to harass me didn't have time. After lunch, Frank brought me to the office of Roger Wellington, who oversees the Food Services Training Program. Mr. Wellington said "I'm a bit perturbed. During the orientation, you told me that you thought you were going to be harassed while in the program." I had told him that. He was the presenter who lectured the trainees about sexual harassment prevention and diversity in the workplace.
In his office today, the next thing he said was "I've been hearing some things about you today. I think we should take a few steps back. I don't think this is the time for you to be in this program." I asked him why. He said "First, you talked to someone, saying that people were coughing around you. I'll let Frank talk about it."
I looked at Frank and said "Kick me out. You're going to anyway; you know I'm telling the truth."
I left Mr. Wellington's office. I went to the kitchen and put the identification badge with my picture, that I got yesterday, on Jason's desk, in front of Jason. Then I went to the women's side of the shelter.
I was totally set up for failure in that program; I was hoping that I wouldn't be, and I didn't think it would be over in less than a day.
Copyright L. Kochman, July 2, 2015 @ 4:30 p.m.
