By Josh Resnek
An employee who left her job at the Wellness Center recently said she was mistreated, retaliated against, picked on, insulted and made to feel uncomfortable by her superiors for months until she was forced to leave.
“The place is out of control,” she told the Leader Herald.
She asked that her name be withheld for fear of retaliation.
She said she informed the mayor of the problems and Dr. Omar Easy. She said she
reached out to both the mayor and Easy, and to the head of human resources as well.
She said she told them all what she was experiencing and asked them to make things right at the Wellness Center.
“The people who run it are the mayor’s friends. They go away together. They party together. They know they can do whatever they want. They tormented me. I reported it. I wrote a letter to the mayor,” she said.
She detailed deplorable workplace conditions.
“What did the mayor do? He took my letter to be a resignation. But I didn’t resign,” she said.
The woman, a 42-year old Everett resident and homeowner here said she was going to sue the city.
“How could they treat me like this?” she asked.
She said her poor treatment is an extension of her being a witness to the sexual harassment and bullying claims lodged against the Wellness Center by a former colleague, who she called her friend and a gentle, kind person.
She said she was ordered around like a piece of chattel by her bosses. She said they demanded she do as they say exactly ore leave.
Fighting the mayor’s friends and standing up for her rights as a woman and a decent
hardworking employee were all futile, she said.
“It is impossible to fight the mayor’s friends,” she repeated. “They do as they want without fear. What’s wrong with those people?” she asked.
“They wanted me out of here and I can’t imagine why. I came to work every day. I loved my job (she worked in the gymnasium instructing in dance and health aerobics, tutoring and a variety of other tasks).”
This is the second reported incidence of bullying, and harassment at the Wellness Center.
The mayor has trotted out a bevy of city officials who denied having any knowledge of sexual harassment, bullying, and retaliation at the Wellness Center.
The mayor’s office referred to the claims as “fake news.”
“How I was mistreated and degraded…this is not fake news. It is a real and it is depressing. I have suffered,” she said. “All I want to be is respected,” said the woman.
‘What they did to my friend and to me is disgusting. I am disgusted and I won’t be silenced,” she added. “The mayor can’t threaten me or call me a liar without being labelled a liar himself,” she added.
She said she detailed to Dr. Easy a long list of complaints.
“How can they do this to me?” she asked him.
Easy asked her what she wanted to come of her complaints.
“I want my job back,” she said she told him. “I want to work in a healthy environment. The environment at the Wellness Center is unhealthy for women,” she said she told Easy.
A short time later she was informed she had resigned and that her resignation had been accepted and that that was the end of the discussion.
“It isn’t the end for me. I am meeting with my lawyer Friday to make final decisions about exactly what we are going to do,” she said.
She alleged that many positive comments from those using the Wellness Center that appeared on the center’s Facebook site have been erased.
“I have photographs of the comments before they were erased,” she said.
“The environment at the Wellness Center for its employees other than those running the place is hostile and dangerous. What was done to me will be done to others. That’s why I am speaking out. I won’t be silenced,” she said.
The mayor’s office refused to comment other than to say his office will not comment on personnel issues.