Insults About Weight

[mayita]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: DC

Mr. X started with ABC. Inc like 6 months ago; we share an office. I have been trying to assist him in every single way as a coworker. Normally, the group of coworkers will have a few minutes conversation with each other, things like good morning, how are you, how was the weekend etc.

I always try to be friendly , helpful and respectful to each single one of my coworkers. Lionel in the past has expressed a lot of animosity towards women in the workplace. He always told me that I needed to get a man, instead of an MBA. He seems extremely concerned about my weight. He told me on Wednesday I was obese and I was going to die from cardiac arrest. He has expressed in the past his disapproval towards my life style, and his comments are always derogatory.

I always tried to take all those comments with a grain of salt, and because they were derogatory, I kind of stop engaging in conversation(other than work related). After his comments about what he told me about my "morbid obesity" last Wednesday, I decided that is in the best interest of the company, the contract and my job to stop engaging in any type of conversation other than the one directly related to work. On Thursday I called X into a conference room and expressed my desire to engage in professional chat only. I told him I consider him my coworker and respectfully asked him to limit his interactions with me to work. I also expressed the fact that as we do not have a team lead, all inquiries regarding schedules should be directed directly to my boss, as I do not have the authority to supervise any employee of the Team. We are peers.

He seemed to agree and we had a very good day on Friday, work wise.

I arrived to the job site Monday around 8:00 am. I was ready to print my time sheet when he said he wanted to ask me a question. He then proceed to tell me "ughhh you look nasty" and stroked me on my back and my neck several times. I have no idea why he did this. All I said previous to this was Good Morning. I told him to get off me and left the office. I waited until the other people from ABC Inc got there, took my purse and my car keys and left the job site. I feel very unsafe around X. When confronted he gets very angry towards me. When I asked him to leave me alone and stop touching me he reacted very angrily, almost in a rage.

In my opinion, X does not believe I am entitled to not have a personal relationship with him. I feel threatened by his actions, specially because of his rage.

My boss was notified and admonished X to leave me alone. Is this harassment if he continues doing this? What should I do?

[Betty3]

If the "harassment" stops, that is all that your employer is required to do - see that it stops. If it continues, notify your boss again.

[Beth3]

Lionel in the past has expressed a lot of animosity towards women in the workplace. He always told me that I needed to get a man, instead of an MBA. He seems extremely concerned about my weight. He told me on Wednesday I was obese and I was going to die from cardiac arrest. He has expressed in the past his disapproval towards my life style, and his comments are always derogatory. Personally, I'd tell him that I'm not in the least bit interested in his opinions and comments, to mind his own business, and to shut the hell up.

He then proceed to tell me "ughhh you look nasty" and stroked me on my back and my neck several times. I have no idea why he did this. That's both rude and creepy.

My boss was notified and admonished X to leave me alone. Is this harassment if he continues doing this? What should I do? Inform your boss immediately. This guy appears to have virtually no social skills but I don't see that he has crossed the line into any form of illegal harassment, at least not so far. Keep your distance and if he says or does anything inappropriate or that makes you feel uncomfortable, tell the boss right away.

My compliments on handling the situation so professionally. I'd have been sorely tempted to slap this jerk silly.