Lisa is an engineering subcontractor working in a federal office. She works toward solving a problem that Congress deems critical. But with management's lack of priorities, can she get buy-in from the rest of the staff to work toward a solution?

> Date:    Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:25:36 -0400

> From:    nph <nph@INCIID.ORG>

> Subject: Fertility Rescue Program - for Cancer patients to freeze eggs (FREE)

The real problem with New York delays. And why does this guy keep barging into my office talking about sexual harassment?

Interesting that Tim brought sexual harassment up within the context of management taking away all perks, leaving employees to seek enjoyment in other ways. Hooters. Especially since the staff in our department also feel that all their perks are taken away one by one. And that creates an atmosphere where the staff wants to get away with things behind management's backs.

Also interesting that he called it entertainment. Does he think the purpose of the women in the office is for the men's entertainment? Or is he trying to be funny, trying to entertain me. Part of me does see entertainment value for myself by observing, but not necessarily participating in, Charlie's games. I don't always run when I might be better off if I left the office for a moment. I'm curious about what silly thing he's going to do or say next. I laugh at him, not with him.

And why did Tim connect an obscenity in an article to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment hadn't crossed my mind. Why does he keep talking about it? Guilty conscience? Does he know someone in the office may have a history of sexual harassment?

He could be trying to gradually desensitize me to behavior that could be construed as sexual harassment. And maybe he is trying to get my promise not to tattle on him for any future sexual harassment. But honestly, I don't think he's plotting a sexual harassment campaign on me. Too weird. Maybe he knows what Charlie is like around new women and trying to warn me not to get Charlie fired.

An obscenity in a forwarded email doesn't bring to mind sexual harassment. Poor taste, bad writing, but not sexual harassment. In fact, when I read it, I wasn't surprised to see it there. The article was full of quotes from the controllers, saying they all go out to Hooters after work. Now that's an institution that hires women specifically to get harassed.

Episode 3: Copy Man

Episode 4: Flaming Heterosexual  

Lisa got a Ph.D. in engineering to get a job making copies.

Is this the kind of societal environment we want to cultivate for our children’s future?

Get your friends to become Facebook fans! We’ll release Episode 3 when we get 1000 fans.

I'm the new woman at work. I’ve been here a little over a month. I'm in my thirties and this is my second job since completing grad school and moving my husband of well over a decade across the country. In both of these jobs, within a few weeks of my arrival, a male co-worker has taken my hand and put it somewhere it doesn't belong.

Surely I couldn’t be the only one the Charlie has been sticking his fingers on. The whole game came way too quickly and easily for him. So I’m hiding a camera in a box on my shelf. To keep a video diary of what’s going on.

It looks like Charlie’s not the only one looking for action. He’s just following the lead of management. Interesting that Barry and Jane came in to work all cozy together this morning. Barry’s behavior makes it seem like a little cozying is what management not only condones, but encourages, in order for women to get ahead. Jane has a masters degree in engineering. It disgusts me that this is the level to which she has to stoop to gain favor from management. And thanks Jane, for perpetuating bad stereotypes about women.

On my first day of work, one of the contractors told me that the wife of one of the bosses is hot. I thought that was a very strange topic to bring up. Looks like the guys around here think that’s something normal to say to the new woman. Groom the women to expect a pat on the ass.

As the new woman, I don't know a whole lot of people in the organization and they don't know anything about me. I don't have a network of colleagues to interact with. My official government boss hasn't spoken to me more than once since I started because he's transferring to a different department in a few weeks and doesn't care what I do. I have several other bosses, but none in charge of my work.

So I hung out with the most fun guy who paid me any attention, told me the gossip of the office. Now the person I enjoy talking to the most is the person I need to be wary of.

Luckily at my previous job, the male co-worker with wandering hands quit within a few months. I'm not betting on being so lucky with the current one. So I'm documenting this to help me understand what's really going on, to analyze how my perception of the situation changes from day to day, and to help any other co-workers who may be affected by this problem.

There are a total of 50 webisodes that comprise Budget Justified, each lasting between two and four minutes. The first few webisodes can be viewed below. Lisa’s character blog from each episode is included to the left of the video.