In late September of 2016, Seattle City Light conducted an online department-wide employee survey. It ended with a question asking employees if they had anything additional to say.
An employee we’ll call Jasmine (she and other employees quoted in this story asked The Stranger not to use their real names for fear of retaliation) had worked at Seattle’s public electric utility, part-time and eventually full-time, since 2009. She says she dealt with inappropriate touching and remarks from men. For years, she had never filed a formal complaint. Never complained about the time, she claims, a male coworker brushed his hand against her ass, or all the times men made comments about her appearance. Never complained about when, she says, a colleague asked her if she ever considered “jumping on the pole” at a strip joint or about the time she says a supervisor asked her what color panties she was wearing.
But staring at the last question on the online employee satisfaction survey, Jasmine decided to say something.
“Training plans for employees, promotional opportunities, clear path for career progression,” she first wrote carefully.
But then she kept writing.
