moon_custafer | Workplace Rant

So, there’s this guy at work who started out by making comments that were annoying and unfunny, but not actually offensive. He’s since escalated to crass, and is now edging into creepy.

I’m not sure who to complain to, or how, as he doesn’t make them to me; possibly because I try to keep all communications with him brief, work-related, and in my most low-pitched and unfeminine voice. Also we can’t afford to lose the guy; he’s also the brother-in-law of one of the owners; and he doesn’t usually say any of these things in front of them or the male employees (which convinces me that he knows exactly what he’s doing and that he shouldn’t be doing it.)

However, I’m constantly cringing at the things he says to my female co-workers, especially the one who joined a few months ago. She talks back to him, and I can’t tell her to be offended if she’s not. Actually, from the whispered conversations she has with my other female co-worker, I think she is bothered by him, but believes in handling it by “giving as good as she gets.” Based on past experience, that doesn’t work with trolls, and I suspect the guy’s reaction is to think “Good – she’s playing along – that means I have her permission to keep talking like this.”