Like other Houstonians, Houston janitor Olga Jaimes wants to be able to work hard, pay the bills and mortgage, save for emergencies and retirement, and try to give her children a better life than she had.

But when Olga stood up for these things, she was fired.

Until November 19, Olga was employed by Pritchard Industries to clean a prestigious office building at 6363 Woodway Drive in Houston. Every day she worked hard to make sure that 22 bathrooms in the building sparkled.

“My husband and I bought a house last year and I took the job to be able to pay the mortgage,” says Olga. “It was hard work but we were both working for our dream.”

Olga’s dream, of course, includes her children. “My son Juan José studies airplane turbines,” she says. “He wants to be an engineer and we’re hoping that he makes it. My daughter is only in seventh grade but she’s already interested in cardiology. She knows all the parts of the human heart and she can explain all the functions. Her teachers have congratulated her on her knowledge. Imagine our pride if we had a doctor in the family!” 

Then Pritchard started turning Olga’s dream into a nightmare. 

“In May my supervisor started adding detail cleaning to my heavy workload—getting dust off the back of a handwash dispenser, bleaching the faucets—until there was no way I could complete the work. They told me that I had to finish though. I wanted to do a good job so I started staying after hours.”

“I worked an hour extra each day without pay until September,” she says. “I couldn’t take it anymore so I started to leave at the correct time.”

“Then the pressure started,” she says. “If you can’t do the work, there are other people who can,’ they told me. They moved the hands of the clock as I checked in. My supervisor yelled at me. They started ignoring me. My supervisor invited other workers for Thanksgiving but not me. Then my supervisor followed me around on my entire shift one day and then that continued for a whole week. I got a written warning about not finishing my work, then another, then another. They say I can’t have a representative from my union present. It’s been a nightmare.”

For those who have witnessed or suffered from workplace bullying, all the elements are there: invalid criticism, unjustified blame, being treated differently than others, social isolation, humiliation, being shouted at, threats, excessive monitoring, and increased disciplinary actions. 

And the effects on the victim—stress, reduced self-esteem, problems sleeping and eating—were there too. “I wasn’t eating like I used to and I wasn’t sleeping well,” says Olga.

Why didn’t she quit? “Because of necessity,” Olga says. “I needed this job.”

Olga tried to put an end to the bullying. She knew that that the bullying had nothing to do with job performance. It was all about control. She fought to regain control—and her self-esteem. By working with her union, she won six hours of work each night. But she was denied union representation on five occasions. The bullying continued.

While bullying may not be illegal, wage theft certainly is. Olga joined with workers in 40 U.S. cities for a national mobilization to combat wage theft. She also lodged a formal complaint against Pritchard with the Texas Workforce Commission to recover nearly $700 in lost wages.

But Pritchard fired Olga the next day.

“We’re worried about losing our house,” Olga says. “We’ve already talked about moving in with another family.”

Meanwhile, Olga will continue to speak out against Pritchard—trying to recover lost wages, a lost job, and a lost dream.