jennifer0820
11-03-2004, 12:08 PM
ILLINOIS-HERE IS A COPY OF A LETTER I FILED TODAY W/ EEOC:
When I began working with my company, there were no policies against smoking in the office (which I was NOT made aware of before I accepted employment). On my 3rd day here, I was coughing up a lung and went out and bought a fan. I thought that my coworkers would get a hint and show some common courtesy. We are all at desks with no cubicle dividers or anything here. The office gets completely filled with smoke. After a week and a half, I went into the owners wife’s (the VP of the company) office and told her about my frustration and that Illinois does have a Clean Air Act. She wasn’t too happy about it and walked out of the office and yelled out that this was now a non smoking office. To make a long story short, since that time there has been smoking in the office and I have complained about it on 5 occasions. Please see my date log with specific incidences of treatment I have received. Besides those specific dates, the treatment I have endured from the VP has become unbearable. She is very mean to me. She talks to me like I am some sort of “pissant”, uses foul language, and yells. She gets upset about things after she tells me to do them. I am being told by other employees that she and 2 other women talk about me after I leave and that all the smokers get together as soon as I walk out the door and smoke in the office. In the midst of all of this, I have become pregnant and have expressed my concerns about the smoke and mine and my child’s health. Since I announced my pregnancy, the treatment has gotten worse.
I would like to resign, but feel I can not because I am pregnant and no one will hire me. I am also concerned about the time frame of finding new employment and not having any income for that duration. But I am very concerned about continuing to work here. It is borderline unbearable, physically and emotionally.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Please let me know, either way, if I have any options here.
When I began working with my company, there were no policies against smoking in the office (which I was NOT made aware of before I accepted employment). On my 3rd day here, I was coughing up a lung and went out and bought a fan. I thought that my coworkers would get a hint and show some common courtesy. We are all at desks with no cubicle dividers or anything here. The office gets completely filled with smoke. After a week and a half, I went into the owners wife’s (the VP of the company) office and told her about my frustration and that Illinois does have a Clean Air Act. She wasn’t too happy about it and walked out of the office and yelled out that this was now a non smoking office. To make a long story short, since that time there has been smoking in the office and I have complained about it on 5 occasions. Please see my date log with specific incidences of treatment I have received. Besides those specific dates, the treatment I have endured from the VP has become unbearable. She is very mean to me. She talks to me like I am some sort of “pissant”, uses foul language, and yells. She gets upset about things after she tells me to do them. I am being told by other employees that she and 2 other women talk about me after I leave and that all the smokers get together as soon as I walk out the door and smoke in the office. In the midst of all of this, I have become pregnant and have expressed my concerns about the smoke and mine and my child’s health. Since I announced my pregnancy, the treatment has gotten worse.
I would like to resign, but feel I can not because I am pregnant and no one will hire me. I am also concerned about the time frame of finding new employment and not having any income for that duration. But I am very concerned about continuing to work here. It is borderline unbearable, physically and emotionally.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Please let me know, either way, if I have any options here.
