From Anonymous
Worked at the Center for X-Ray Optics at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Have a math degree and lab tech experience in analytical chemistry. Assumed everyone there would know more than me. There were four female scientists among the entire department of 38 scientists. The man I trained under, only six months my senior, had no degree. His previous experience was working at Zazzle.com’s printing department. He did not know basic algebra and would often say things like “Now we’re doing real math!” after such intimidating calculations as *adding two numbers.*
Sexual harassment from him from day one. Subtle stuff. Oversharing of personal information, interest in my backstory, lewd jokes, etc.
He told me while he was training me that “he wasn’t trying to crack a whip here” and often arranged for me meet up with him for training on the very late side of the morning. Then he reported to my boss I was coming in late and asking too many questions. Got warned and then fired in the probationary period for being late, not demonstrating understanding, not meeting expectations, not using Slack the right way, etc.
My team had the most women (two), so sometimes I think I am imagining the poor gender climate.
