Sexual Harrassment in Advertising/Tech

Out of context: Reply #26

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  • cannonball19782

    One think I'd be careful about is to be certain that his behavior falls firmly in the workplace harassment bucket before taking him to the mat. That means that you have already communicated CLEARLY to him that you don't want the attention he is giving you, and that he is persisting after you have given him warnings.

    Certainy, his behavior is unprofessional in a work place, but if this isn't happening in the work place then make sure you aren't bleeding personal life and professinal life. That means it would be harder for you to repremand him through work if his behavior isn't occurring at work.

    I re-read your post and you insinuate two things without providing any information:

    1) That his string of messages was gross. Sure. Guys sometimes say gross stuff thinking that it would be recieved well, and it isn't clear that this happened AFTER you told him to stop. Being gross doesn't necessarily mean harassment if he has no notion of how you are taking his advances. Be clear that he belongs in the harassment bucket ABOVE AND BEYOND the "all girls think he is gross" bucket. Although it's slight, there is a difference.

    2) You mention that you took steps to protect yourself from physical abuse. Why? Did he physically harm you? Did he cause you to feel you need to do that by saying somethign menacing? Obviously safety is paramount in any situation, but it would be unfair to insinuate that you need to protect yourself from physical harm in the same breath as accusing him of being creepy if the guy isn't actually a physical threat. Be real about this, because if you aren't, you are painting a person as a physical threat when they aren't, and you get things like this thread where you have 20 responses of "OMG are you okay?" When you are clearly a woman capable of handling your shit.

    Now, go forth and dish out justice.

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