Am I being Sexually Harassed?

Where is the line between ‘just a bit of a joke’ and sexual harassment? When are we allowed to finally admit that something is making us feel uncomfortable, or that we feel threatened, without appearing ‘party-poopers’ or ‘milksops’ who do not know ‘how to take a joke’?

Seriously, can someone explain it to me please?

Yesterday, something happened at the office, which made me feel quite uncomfortable and which I did not like one bit. Someone behaved quite inappropriately towards me and the way he talked was also vulgar and out of place. This person works in my same department, however I rarely see him (thankfully), as he is in another building. He is also married and knows I have a partner whom I have a home with. Moreover, his wife herself also works in our same department too! (In a third building). Could this make his flirting and overt sexual advances any more inappropriate!??

Anyways, after this episode, I talked to my director and she kind of said it was quite out of place, but to take no notice of it. Fine. This morning, at 7.30am (I was still half asleep), the same guy came over to my office, he closed the door after him, came right up in my face, and tried to kiss me. Now, how’s that for ‘a joke’?

I was quite firm at that point and even raised my voice a bit, yet he went out slowly after I had signed for something, and continued to talk to me with a weird smile on his face, as though nothing untoward had happened… wow wtf. Is it just me? Am I a stick in the mud? Was it just a joke or does this guy seriously think I would have kissed him??

And before someone points any fingers, no I was not wearing anything skimpy or revealing – NOT THAT THAT GIVES ANYONE THE RIGHT TO TRY TO FEEL ME UP!

Now I’m feeling really uncomfortable. Somewhere where I generally spend 6-9 hours of my time every day no longer feels safe, and this is totally unfair. I don’t want to escalate it because first of all, this guy knows ‘people’ and wont get fired or moved for sure, and secondly because if I said anything, I would be the one appearing in a bad light, because I would be a ‘bitch’ who didn’t know how to ‘take a joke’…

Heh… I just hope this guy does’nt come over to our building again and that I won’t see him again any time soon…

Rude restaurant staff! Ugh!!!

They say that when it comes to restaurants and shops – ‘The client is always right’. What a total load of bollocks! Not in Malta at any rate for sure!!

Around a week ago, I went with some friends at a specific restaurant (which shall remain unnamed) to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Before going to the place, I researched a bit on Tripadvisor as I usually do, in order to get an idea of whether the place is good or not, and found mainly 4/5 star givers, so was quite pleased and had certain expectations.

I was SO wrong.

And there’s the proof that you really can’t judge anything basing your opinion on other’s… well, opinion lol

To cut a long story short, although at the time I was miffed, and left half my meat in the plate, I didn’t make an issue of it, even though the waitress asked me if something was wrong (since she saw how much I had left uneaten). I did not want to spoil my friend’s bday, as she was sitting right next to me, so I kept mum.

When I came back home however, I could’nt help but write the TRUTH on Tripadvisor, as I do after each restaurant I eat at. Unfortunately, instead of accepting some constructive criticism, the owner quite rudely replied that I was only saying those things because I knew her ex-chef!! Who the hell is her ex-chef?! Anyways she said I was lying, that no one had left anything on their plate, and that she should know since all the staff were members of her family (thereby make me wonder whether she was referring to her ex-chef or an ex-bf, since she seemed so pissed about it). Anyways, I had never been to this restaurant in my life, did not know the owner, and certainly not her ex-anything. I have over 100 reviews on Tripadvisor, does she think I know all the staff who work there and write my reviews according to my personal sympathies??

She went on to list a number of excuses and false reasons about the eve I had described. If that was not enough, the present chef of the establishment also wrote a comment afterwards, giving himself a 5 star rating and saying that he cooked good food and if I thought otherwise, I knew nothing of food and that my opinion was, as he put it, ‘pathetic’. Wow that is some quality customer-chef communication you got there! What’s pathetic is creating a Tripadvisor account for the sole reason of giving your own cooking 5 stars mate!

I reported this entry to Tripadvisor and they took it down, since restaurant-owners and staff cannot rate their own establishments.

Needless to say, I will never go to this restaurant again, not because of the bad food, which would have been enough, but because of the rudeness and bad attitude shown by the staff!!