Sexual Harassment

I had to take a training course at work about Sexual Harassment and preventing it in the workplace. If you read my site often you might remember me talking about a person who was sort of harassing me. The occassional shoulder massage turned into near caressing and the audible sounds that she made while doing it were down right obscene. I had to ask her to stop because I knew if someone were to walk by my cubicle and over-hear they would think, with good reason, that something was going on.

It is so bizarre when you are made to feel uncomfortable in a sexual way at work. I have had several women in the past, mostly older, make comments sexual comments to me that lacked any innuendo. When I worked for Boeing this woman sat in a workstation across from mine and she would look under the desk at my crotch and make comments about how she wanted to “see it”. Of course she was just joking, but I could definitely tell there was a little bit of truth to her joke.

When I think about how often this has happened to me it made me wonder how often it has happened to others. There are so many things that go on around us on a daily basis that we are oblivious to – like co-workers or friends that do drugs or have affairs, or beat their wives. It happens, but we don’t really think about it until it happens to us.

So has it happened to you? Have you ever been harassed? And if so, what did you do?