Latest Posts by makingsenseofwhathappened - Page 2

You don’t have to be perfect to be harmed.

Maybe you’d had a drink. Maybe you laughed along. Maybe you told them they were cute once. Maybe you texted back. Maybe you said yes to one thing, but not to what happened next.

Maybe you tried to be polite when you should have run. Maybe you didn’t run because you were scared. Or tired. Or frozen.

None of that means it wasn’t harassment. None of that means it was your fault.

The performance review said you were “pleasant under pressure.” You thought about telling them it was acting. But why ruin a standing ovation?

“It’s not brave to have boundaries

it’s just basic hygiene for your soul.”

-Jenny Slate

THIS

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.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

He said I was a real asset to the team but the way he said “asset” made me want to wash my hands.

Twice.

You said thank you.

With a smile so dry it might’ve caught fire.

My body is not your debate.

“You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding.”

4th thing maybe: who did you 'work for' and why?

"You are your best thing."

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Falling Through The Floor

I took the cheque home and folded it in half. Then again. Then again. Until it was a sharp little square I could press into my palm. It didn’t feel like money. It felt like silence.

The job was good. Rare these days for someone like me. And when he leaned too close and said too much - breath hot and stale with knowing - I only smiled.

Afterward, I kept working. Of course I did.

At the end of the week the cheque came, same as always. it felt heavier this time. Like hush money.

And I took it anyway. Because that’s what you do when the alternative is falling through the floor.

Boss: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We'll circle back..."

Me:

“There is nothing you can throw at me that I cannot metabolize, no matter how painful or unfair or unjust."

-Maggie Nelson

Fred "touch me not" Gruber finally got let go after his third reprimand.

Dance of the Forest Nymphs by Warren B Davis

When she reported it they told her she was brave

Then they made her remote

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 💜

You don’t owe anyone a perfect story.

Maybe you forgot the exact date. Maybe your memory skips or rewinds. Maybe you didn’t document it. Maybe you didn’t tell anyone right away. Maybe you still don’t know what words to use.

That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean you’re lying. That doesn’t mean your story doesn’t count.

What happened is real. Even if it’s messy. Especially if it’s messy.

HR calmly studying "the policy"...

Me (the cat) making sense of what happened

Notice me (fraidy cat) still perched on the company's shoulders

(I need money to be fed)

((ugh / rearr))

Clémentine Dondey (French, Unknown Birth Date, c. Early 19th Century) - A Soothsayer studying a Book of Necromancy, 1847, Paintings: Oil on Canvas

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

Corporate says we're family!!

...that famous Einstein quote about repeating stuff = insanity

slowly spiraling

Fish outta water....

We need more walkable cities. I am so tired of my transportation turning to aquatic life. It’s so inconvenient.

If you’re wondering if it ‘counts’ as harassment...that’s the problem