Sarah Russell, Staff Accountant

988 Words4 Pages
Synopsis Sarah Russell grew up in western Kansas and attended the University of Kansas where she majored in accounting with a stellar academic record. Upon graduation, she accepted a position with one of the big eight accounting firms with high hopes of one day becoming partner. During her first year of employment she served on six audit engagements and passed the CPA exam on her first attempt. She was well received in the office. Over the first year she developed a good working relationship with one of the audit partners, R.J. Bell. He was known in the office for being receptive to the new staff accountants and would often invite them to his house for dinner and even went as far as to help her obtain a car loan. After her first year with the firm, Bell began to call her at home for non-business related reasons and even showed up on her morning run a few times to ask her out for a drink. This made Sarah uncomfortable and she always found a reason to excuse herself out of the activity. His calls became more frequent and persistent and she agreed to a drink a few times in hopes that it would help smooth over what she felt had become a stressful relationship, but it only served to exacerbate things further, with Bell showing up at her apartment twice unannounced. She refused to answer the door and pretended to not be home. Sarah was feeling increasing levels of stress and powerlessness in her relationship with Bell and she struggled with how to properly handle it. She wasn’t sure whom she should turn to without disrupting the office environment or causing herself more problems. She decided to have a private meeting with him to make sure he understood that she wanted a strictly professional relationship. Bell reacted by telling her that she must have mistaken his kindness for something more sinister and that he treated all the new employees the same way. He
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