There's a guy at work who likes to get physical. Phy-si-cal! You talk to him and he wants to nudge you and touch you and poke you and it's never in a casual way. Always a creepy way. Like a True blood meets Hitchcock kinda way. Females are the majority at my work place and quite a few of them are always telling me how they hate being around the guy, because they know he's going to touch them. I laughed and cracked jokes about...until it happened to me.
I rarely talk to this guy. To be blunt, he gets on my nerves and I think he's a bit of a plum. There are days at work I go the day without really saying anything to him. So there's never really a window for him to get all friendly with me and then touch me. But on one occasion he opened up to me about something personal and we had a long conversation, which busted the window WIDE open. He than switched the subject to something fun and light hearted and then came the touching. As far as I know I wasn't singing Mariah's "Touch my body" as an invitation, but he felt the need to be touching mine. After the hands on approach, I had to close the hell out of the window and shut him down. The physicality was just too much.
I don't mind nudges, pats and arms round my shoulder and that shit if it's a friend, somebody I really get along with and don't mind that threshold being crossed. But this guy is a work colleague to me, and not one I really talk to. Yet he seems to think it's okay to be getting physical with me. And then the poor ladies. They actually wince and cringe when he's near them, yet he can't read the signs and proceeds to get his hands dirty. Dude wears glasses too. He clearly has a problem.
I actually don't blame him. I blame myself and every other victim of his touching. We should tell him. But it's hard. I work in a small place. So it's not like you can have it out or say something uncomfortable to somebody and then roll to another department and avoid that person for the rest of the day until the air is cleared. You have to be in that space with that person and let the uncomfortable ride out. Which is never fun. Trust me. I know. I've put myself in that situation too many times and am in no rush to be back there. I'll let somebody else make shit uncomfortable. It's only a matter of time. A couple of the ladies at work are really at boiling point with it. The day one of them erupts and outbursts at Mr. Physical should be fun. As long as it's not me...
I rarely talk to this guy. To be blunt, he gets on my nerves and I think he's a bit of a plum. There are days at work I go the day without really saying anything to him. So there's never really a window for him to get all friendly with me and then touch me. But on one occasion he opened up to me about something personal and we had a long conversation, which busted the window WIDE open. He than switched the subject to something fun and light hearted and then came the touching. As far as I know I wasn't singing Mariah's "Touch my body" as an invitation, but he felt the need to be touching mine. After the hands on approach, I had to close the hell out of the window and shut him down. The physicality was just too much.
I don't mind nudges, pats and arms round my shoulder and that shit if it's a friend, somebody I really get along with and don't mind that threshold being crossed. But this guy is a work colleague to me, and not one I really talk to. Yet he seems to think it's okay to be getting physical with me. And then the poor ladies. They actually wince and cringe when he's near them, yet he can't read the signs and proceeds to get his hands dirty. Dude wears glasses too. He clearly has a problem.
I actually don't blame him. I blame myself and every other victim of his touching. We should tell him. But it's hard. I work in a small place. So it's not like you can have it out or say something uncomfortable to somebody and then roll to another department and avoid that person for the rest of the day until the air is cleared. You have to be in that space with that person and let the uncomfortable ride out. Which is never fun. Trust me. I know. I've put myself in that situation too many times and am in no rush to be back there. I'll let somebody else make shit uncomfortable. It's only a matter of time. A couple of the ladies at work are really at boiling point with it. The day one of them erupts and outbursts at Mr. Physical should be fun. As long as it's not me...