Purpose in the harassment.

After Darth left my office, I sat there debating what to do. If I accepted the “promotion and the title, I would be lending credence to their story that they had treated me well and given me all that they had promised while at the same time if I rejected the promotion, they would have more reason to jump all over me and create more guilt and negative feelings.

I decided I would not decline the offer, but that I would ignore the whole thing. Besides, the "promotion" would enhance my chances of getting a better job in the future. Refusal to accept the promotion would also put me in a position of having to defend myself and my views and by now I was avoiding as much confrontation a possible. I also decided not to inform my wife because I did not want to get her hopes up especially since she had just quit her job and was beginning to get ready to go to school to become a nurse.

After Darth informed me of my pending promotion, a couple of peculiar
incidences occurred. Ben Kenholz, from the quality control laboratory started
coming to my office and kidding me about changing offices and moving into Ravi's
old office which was adjacent to my mine. Ben's timing and his almost daily
presence at my office door told me he knew of the impending announcement, but
every time I asked him if he knew something I didn't know, he would profess
ignorance. I kept wondering how a laboratory worker from quality control knew
about my “promotion” to Technical Director, but all he would ever say was “when
are you moving into your new office?” I never did consider changing offices, but I
often wondered who would move into the now vacant office.

Another implication involved the use of a company car. One late afternoon,
Darth asked me to join him, Josh Rilley, Dave Lipton and Ralph Sampson for drinks
at a near-by tavern. I reluctantly agreed to stop by for a few minutes. When I
arrived Darth was there and we began to chat. Shortly afterwards, Josh joined us.
As the three of us sat there talking, Ralph Sampson and Dave Lipton came in and
started kidding me about driving a “purple Lincoln”. I asked them and Josh, to
whom Ralph reported, what they were talking about. Josh just shrugged
his shoulders and the other two just went silent. I left that night wondering what all the talk about a “purple Lincoln” was all about.

After that, just about everyday at work someone at work would come up to
me and say, "Gee, I wish I had a 'purple Lincoln'”. As soon as I tried to question
someone about what they had said, they would ignore me. The only purple Lincoln
that I knew of in Gamma Supplies was the one driven by Joel Gitz who was the original
owner of Delta Oil. Joe was now retained as a consultant and adviser, and he drove
a deep plumb colored Lincoln.

The suggestions were made to imply that I was going to get a company car. I did not expect a company car, and I assumed the comments and suggestions were just
another form of harassment to drive me out of the company. But what I didn't fully
appreciate was that I had been abused so badly that I was loosing control of my
rational thought processes. I also didn't realize at that moment that causing me to
loose control of my rational thought process was the exact purpose of all of the
harassment.