Mansi Rohilla

My drunk senior called me late night & said “You need to compromise if you want to move ahead in your career”. I was facing harassment for a very long time at my organization & it had mentally drained me completely. I was not able to speak up about it to my family or anyone & was left with no other option than to take that one step.

It was the year 2020, I had completed almost 18 months on a project at my company & was very close to switching my team as I was looking for a different project. It was then when a new team lead joined my project. He told everyone that he wanted to talk with every individual personally. I used to work in night shift so he called me at 8:30 PM & it went on for 2 hours. He barely talked about work & spoke mostly about his personal life. It felt weird. He then started calling me regularly & from there, things started becoming uncomfortable. One day he called me & said that he likes talking to me since only we both are from North India in our project. He used to talk about his girlfriend & very personal stuff. I couldn’t confront him that it was making me uncomfortable because switching my project & team was completely on his hands & appraisal systems were up which I didn’t want to mess up.

When COVID hit, we all started WFH. One night he called me & said that “He has cancer with only 7 months left to live”. I was shocked, visibly shaking & no idea how to respond. He kept on asking me “How would you feel if I die?”. I politely told him that obviously, I won’t feel good about it. He then disconnected the call & for 45 minutes I was sitting in my room trying to process everything he said. My brain went numb when he called me again & said “I was joking. I am alright. I just wanted to see your reaction”. The next day he called me again at 11 PM & was sounding drunk. I just couldn’t take it anymore so I started recording his phone call. He said he wanted to travel with me all alone & wants my mobile phone to be switched off so that my family won’t disturb us. I told him that I wanted to change my team & project, he said “If you want something from me, you will have to compromise”. I asked him what do you mean by compromise? He said, of course, you know what compromise means in the IT industry. I was sweating very badly. I can never forget how anxious & scared I felt that night. I hung up the phone & told everything to my friend. When he listened to that recording. He immediately said that I needed to report this. We reached out to my company’s harassment department. My friend found that the guy was 30+ & married. The next day they changed my team in the same project while that guy was still in that team. Everyday people from the harassment team would reach out & question me about the incident. I had to repeat the same story again & again to each & everyone. On one hand I was going through this & on the other hand my entire family of 7 was suffering from COVID. I couldn’t even tell them what I was going through, I felt so helpless. That guy had put false allegations under me which was again traumatizing. My company gave me contacts for counseling sessions with doctors, I knew I would never get the justice & they will probably throw me into a different team completely. It was until one day when I got a call from my company & they told me that after the entire investigation they have found that man to be guilty. They have removed him from that project & changed his location as well. I can’t forget that moment in my entire life, I felt so powerful, it felt like my voice was being heard. He was asked to send an apology to the company & me. I realized if my friend wouldn’t have supported me into taking the action, this day would have never come. I owe him a lot for taking me out of that hell.  

3 months after that incident, I got to know that the company gave that guy two options; either he resign or they will terminate him. This time he was left with no option other than to resign the very next day.

Total Work Experience : 3.5 Years (Anonymous, Enquero )