This book left a deep impression that is depressing, uplifting, and scary all at the same time.
It is a story about a man named Tom Sanders, who stands up for his dignity and workplace civility after facing a sexual harassment by his new female boss Meredith Johnson.
Similar to most harassers, she denies the allegation. On the contrary to the denial, as Sanders's attorney says, with harassers, there is always a pattern. It's never the first time. In fact, as many as ten men who had worked for her for the previous three years either resigned or transferred.
Sanders tried to know what happened to them, and managed to contact some. But because Johnson is an executive, they were too scared to tell the truth or did not even want to remember and detail the traumatic experience.
After Sanders decided to sue Johnson, the company's counsel Philip Blackburn was upset and proposed mediation. In the mediation session, shameless Johnson told outright lies, but Sanders's attorney revealed discrepancies and contradictions of her statements and finally Johnson admitted she was not telling the truth.
The company's CEO Robert Garvin, Blackburn and Johnson became determined to kick out Sanders and used all kinds of dirty methods in order to fire him. Most colleagues did not want to get involved and started to keep distance with Sanders. He felt isolated and confused, but he kept determined to prevail.
As one of these mean schemes by the management, they excluded Sanders from the company's database and Johnson intentionally created a mess in a factory in Malaysia so that she could claim it was Sanders's fault and he could not make a case that needed information available only in the database.
Nonetheless, this conspiracy fell through -- a locally employed staffer in Malaysia and a longtime colleague of Sanders sent him documents on all the developments. At a press conference where Johnson had originally intended to corner Sanders, he revealed the plot. Consequently, Johnson left the company, whereas Sanders stayed and recovered his reputation.
