Sexual Harassment in one of the biggest companies in India

I was working in Asian Paints- the largest paint company in India, fresh after my earlier job stints for 2 years after completing my MBA from one of the top 15 colleges in India. I took over as a sales manager of a unit which had never had a woman sales manager in its 50+ years history. The unease of my subordinates and my boss with me was clear from day one. One of my subordinates started the practice of screaming, shouting and abusing me from day one in front of everyone. Another subordinate went around telling the organisation that I did not know “what is the working culture of the organisation”. My reporting manager -my boss preferred speaking to them directly to get the work done and never once spoke to me properly. My two junior subordinates then started making a point of talking to my boss directly about how “I was mistreating the men in the team”. My boss instead of supporting me asked me “To give enough respect to all the men in my team”. We were expected to as part of our work to attend dealer celebrations where a 100+ drunk men celebrated and revelled in parties. I attended one such event where I was one of only 2 women in the party. During this event, my subordinate who constantly abused me, grabbed hold of me and forced a drink into my mouth- an entire bottle of it. I blacked out and I believe he attacked me physically along with another of my subordinate. Meanwhile my boss continued his own brand of sexual harassment. There was one very beautiful young colleague of mine who received all of my boss’es attention and admiration. She was the one who got the best performance appraisal ratings despite dismal performance. There were a few others who got such encouragement in the team — mostly women. My boss completely sidelined me and treated me like a dog- most often calling me every single day including Sundays and abusing me on the phone. He also went ahead and told the Asian Paints leadership that I am a non performing manager, who harasses the team and that I should be dismissed from the company. He also denied me opportunities to advance in the company.

There was a mentorship program going on in the company where we could choose a mentor secretly, tell him/her all our problems and seek solutions. I choose one of the senior managers in the company as my mentor. Alas, he got all the information from me and sent this information to the company leadership to dismiss me from the company saying that “I was torturing my team and harassing my team” instead of the other way round.

During my market visits with my team of men, these “amazing men” repeatedly tried touching me and harassing me in various ways and this went on for 1.6 years.

Finally, my boss and the senior manager who was my mentor recommended my dismissal from the company. While telling me this he repeatedly pointed his hand at my face and laughed at me and told me “ Take your mom and go wherever you want” referring to my single divorced mother who was staying with me. The HR head of the company told me when I told her about sexual harassment that “ I am making up all these charges to extend my employment with the company”. The Chief Manager HR of the company told me “Do whatever you want, we have done whatever we have to”. The HR head called my mother and told her to take me “for mental treatment” as “I had lost my mind”.

This is what you get in India for being highly educated and trying to break the glass ceiling for women in the corporate world. Even Hillary Clinton could not defeat Donald Trump. I was only a poor single divorced mother’s daughter.