Steamed

it! You’re ready!” Then she returned to her own call.
    “Naomi is on another line,” I told Ellen. “But she asked me to try to help you.” Feeling a little panicky, I scrambled to find my oversized binder with its hotline-call instructions. “Um, can you tell me what’s wrong at your workplace?”
    Ellen proceeded to tell me about her job as an office assistant for a small private law firm in Needham. There were three male lawyers, and Ellen was the assistant to one of them. Although she loved her work, got along well with the two other lawyers and their female assistants, and wanted to keep her job, her boss was a dirtbag. He made passes at her, told offensive jokes, and showed her his favorite pictures from the latest Penthouse.
    “I did everything Naomi told me to do. I documented every incident on my computer and then printed it out and mailed a copy to myself. I told him clearly that his actions made me uncomfortable and that he needed to stop. But then he tried to make me sit on his lap while he dictated a letter, and that was the last straw. The firm is so tiny that we don’t have a human resources department I can turn to for help. And the other girls don’t want to help because they like their jobs and their bosses. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to go to the police, because I don’t have any real proof. Besides, he says he’s just joking around and doesn’t mean any harm.”
    Oh God, how could I help this poor woman? I flipped to the appropriate section of instructions in my binder and desperately tried to imagine what Braids would say. “Well, okay. Ellen, my name is Chloe, and I work with Naomi,” I said as I scanned the page for advice. “Have you thought about trying to get together with the other women from the firm outside of the office?” Ellen used the word girls, but I wanted to spare Naomi a fit of feminist apoplexy. “Maybe you could meet in a neutral setting so you could explain how truly upsetting your boss’s actions are to you. See if you can elicit some help from your coworkers. Maybe they could talk to the other lawyers in the practice?”
    “I can try, but to be honest, I just don’t think that’s going to help,” Ellen said sadly.
    Naomi walked by me, gave me the thumbs-up sign, and headed out the door.
    “All right, look,” I said to the harassed Ellen, “Naomi would kill me if she heard me, but I don’t think that’s going to work either. So, as I see it, you have two choices. The first is to tell this idiot off, quit, and get the hell out of there. There’s no reason you should have to put up with him.”
    “Yeah, except the pay is good, and I don’t have that much work experience, so I don’t think I could get another job like this.”
    “Got it. Well, then, if I were you, the next time he makes a pass at you or whatever, you accidentally-on-purpose kick him solidly in the crotch, apologize profusely, and go about your business. If he says anything, you insist that you didn’t mean any harm. Do that two or three times, and I’ll bet he backs off. It’s simple behavioral conditioning. Punish bad behavior!”
    “You think that will work?” Ellen asked.
    “Good chance it will. Call me back and let me know how it goes.”
    “I definitely will! Thank you so much for all your help and for listening to me. It feels good just being able to talk about it with someone who understands.”
    As I hung up, I felt more than pleased with myself. Finally, this poor woman had been given some sensible advice!
    Naomi returned a few minutes later. “Chloe, I am so proud of you. You handled that call like a real professional,” she gushed. “Doesn’t it feel wonderful to help someone?”
    “Yes. I really think I did help,” I agreed.
    I worked on my field placement journal by faking some new entries. “Am in charge of all harassment hotline calls now and am struggling to maintain professional distance while providing empathic ear to distressed callers. Am following guidelines well and developing more confidence in own abilities to handle calls independently. Also working on defining own personal counseling style as advised in General Practice class. Building strong relationship with wonderful supervisor.”
    While Naomi was on a bathroom break, I also put in a call to Detective Hurley. I got his voice mail and left a message to inform him that Eric Rafferty had been horribly in debt and would not have been in a position to invest in a hot dog