Is this harassment by my female boss, why does she keep putting her hands on me ?

John Shaw

New Member
Jurisdiction
Kentucky
I don't know if it's harassment or her being friendly and I'm very confused about why she ever started this and I haven't laid a finger on her.
I've never had this happen at work before, she has over 20 years experience as a supervisor.

I'm male and in my ninth week at a new job in a warehouse and within the first week my female boss and i started talking about how we both use to work at the same company at different times and how working at this new company was a refreshing and relaxed change and while we were talking, she started rubbing the middle of my back straight up and down with her hand and that's the day that it started.

After that she has come up from behind me 3 different times and put both her hands around my neck for making a data entry mistake, patted me on the back as she walked by me, and started bumping her hand on my thigh to talk to me.

She's asked me to dance with her in the warehouse in front of coworkers and even asked if i was going to whip her one day when my belt broke loose while putting boxes on a skid for inventory.

When i was putting boxes on a skid one day the bottom of a box broke open letting glass bottles break on the floor and when she seen it, she told me to come over to her and she playfully slapped me.

This last time i was bubble wrapping glass bottles for protection for shipping and i had a large roll of bubble wrap at my feet on the floor i was using and she came over to help on the other side of the roller conveyor and looked at me and said gimme some, so when i started to bend down to get her the bubble wrap, she said to me, If you think i'm going anywhere near down there to get the bubble wrap from you, your crazy, well, i didn't say anything to her but, just looked at her confused and was saying to myself, i wasn't expecting you to go down at my feet to get the bubble wrap but, i felt she was implying something else, maybe i'm wrong.
 
I don't know if it's harassment or her being friendly and I'm very confused about why she ever started this and I haven't laid a finger on her.
I've never had this happen at work before, she has over 20 years experience as a supervisor.

I'm male and in my ninth week at a new job in a warehouse and within the first week my female boss and i started talking about how we both use to work at the same company at different times and how working at this new company was a refreshing and relaxed change and while we were talking, she started rubbing the middle of my back straight up and down with her hand and that's the day that it started.

After that she has come up from behind me 3 different times and put both her hands around my neck for making a data entry mistake, patted me on the back as she walked by me, and started bumping her hand on my thigh to talk to me.

She's asked me to dance with her in the warehouse in front of coworkers and even asked if i was going to whip her one day when my belt broke loose while putting boxes on a skid for inventory.

When i was putting boxes on a skid one day the bottom of a box broke open letting glass bottles break on the floor and when she seen it, she told me to come over to her and she playfully slapped me.

This last time i was bubble wrapping glass bottles for protection for shipping and i had a large roll of bubble wrap at my feet on the floor i was using and she came over to help on the other side of the roller conveyor and looked at me and said gimme some, so when i started to bend down to get her the bubble wrap, she said to me, If you think i'm going anywhere near down there to get the bubble wrap from you, your crazy, well, i didn't say anything to her but, just looked at her confused and was saying to myself, i wasn't expecting you to go down at my feet to get the bubble wrap but, i felt she was implying something else, maybe i'm wrong.
Have you asked her to stop?
 
I don't understand what she's getting out of this, I'm probably going to lose my job if she gets mad, maybe, she has a temper.
 
I don't understand what she's getting out of this, I'm probably going to lose my job if she gets mad, maybe, she has a temper.
If you think that she will retaliate go to HR and report her*. If you get fired over this contact the EEOC

Home | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

*Keep in mind that HR doesn't have to inform you of their findings after an investigation...they just have to make sure the offending behavior stops.
 
I agree that the first thing to do is to politely inform her that making personal contact with you makes you uncomfortable.
If you are not comfortable approaching her about it then your HR should handle it.
You might even inform HR first so the company is aware, but still notify her personally, that way they are on notice of there is any retaliation.
 
she started rubbing the middle of my back straight up and down with her hand and that's the day that it started.

Very spooky, very freaky.

When i was putting boxes on a skid one day the bottom of a box broke open letting glass bottles break on the floor and when she seen it, she told me to come over to her and she playfully slapped me.

She's being very inappropriate.

She's asked me to dance with her in the warehouse in front of coworkers and even asked if i was going to whip her one day when my belt broke loose while putting boxes on a skid for inventory.

Outrageous conduct.

This last time i was bubble wrapping glass bottles for protection for shipping and i had a large roll of bubble wrap at my feet on the floor i was using and she came over to help on the other side of the roller conveyor and looked at me and said gimme some, so when i started to bend down to get her the bubble wrap, she said to me, If you think i'm going anywhere near down there to get the bubble wrap from you, your crazy, well, i didn't say anything to her but, just looked at her confused and was saying to myself, i wasn't expecting you to go down at my feet to get the bubble wrap but, i felt she was implying something else, maybe i'm wrong.

It might be time to report the "bizarre" behavior to whomever such conduct is reported to in your organization.
 
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