I have another workplace harassment story (or at least an attempt of it). It happened a few months ago, but back then I was so stressed I couldn't even think about it. I can talk about it now!
So there's this older woman I met through work; she's been a friend but also a great contact. She often recommends me to other women, who then hire me for work. I've asked her to only ever mention me to women, and never men, but alas, she's not a feminist, she has sons, she sees no harm in m*n.
She called me up, all excited to tell me about an older m*n who needs me to do some work for him. I was sceptical, explained it's not smart for me to go and be alone with a m*n in a place, but she went on about how he's okay, not problematic at all, he's verified as a good person, no need to worry, his neighbour guarantees for him. I was even more sceptical, but at this point I could tell she's so excited about this, if I refuse to go, I will offend her. She wanted me to just go meet him and discuss it, in a public place, and with a worried heart, I said okay. It turned out meeting was set to be immediately, so I headed over there.
As soon as we met he wanted to show me his home, where I would be working, so we headed over there, to discuss what needs to be done and the pricing of it all. However when we got there, he insisted we have a sit down, drink something. He made jokes about how us young people have poor manners, and the older generation knows how to do business; drinking first. He offered me alcohol, which I refused, and settled to just drink some juice. I was so uncomfortable around him I never took off my coat, I didn't want him to be able to look at me.
He started a conversation about family and I am bored out of my mind. I knew his wife died recently and it worried me how little regard or fondness he was displaying for her, he wasn't grieving her death. He was mildly inconvenienced she was no longer doing shopping for him and complained about how supermarkets would not take a list and collect his items for him. I felt loathing but acted polite. He told me about his brother who lived over at the seaside; I tried to ask a follow-up question to be conversational 'Does he like it over there?' He took this as an opportunity to say 'Yes, a woman comes to him biweekly to do what is natural.'
He looked at my face carefully as he said this, and I immediately looked away, trying to show I'm feeling uncomfortable. I knew he just told me his brother was raping prostituted women. He continued, ignoring my discomfort 'You know what I'm talking about, right?' I was mute, still refusing to look at him. 'It's all natural, right?' he tried to get me to agree with him. I didn't indulge.
I was thinking about how I was in his house, and needed to get out of there. If he wouldn't let me out, I knew there were stairs leading down from his balcony, and I could jump a fence if needed. I hoped it wouldn't get to that. I needed to say whatever would have him believe it's best to let me out now.
'Okay, so we're all set and I can come on Monday, what time exactly?' I turned the conversation back to work, and he smiled and told me the time. I thanked him for the drink, told him we'll see each other on Monday, and turned to the door, which thankfully, he let me go to, and I got out.
I rushed home, disturbed and scared. I was alone with him for 10 minutes and he put prostitution on the table. I wasn't going back there for anything. Now would my female contact believe me this happened? He made sure to mention prostitution so vaguely a third person might not believe this is what he was referencing. I called her.
'I'm going to tell you exactly what happened,' I told my contact on the phone. When I got to the place in the story where he referenced 'what's natural', she jumped to his defense. 'Maybe he was joking!' she tried, and I said 'He looked me in the eyes and asked if I knew what he was talking about. He tried to get me to agree it's natural.'
'Did you know he was a director of a big firm here in the city? He's not like that, he's a honest man!'
I didn't want to waste time explaining to her that directors are more likely to see women as resources always available to them, that they're used to coercing women into anything, holding jobs over their heads. Instead I said: 'Please think about this. With what intentions would he say this to me, when he only knew me for 10 minutes? Why would he put this topic on the table to a person just starting to work for him? Tell me what he wanted to get out of this.'
And she understood. She said 'sorry' and I asked her to let him know, via whatever contact she had with him, that I will not in fact, be appearing on Monday, because I had no desire to ever speak to him again.
She called me later to relay that she told his male neighbour, who was now very upset and needed to yell how his neighbour is a bastard and he'd never have believed it of him. I didn't believe a work of it. I bet they're in it together. I thanked them for believing me, and proceeded to completely avoid that part of the city, so I don't run into that guy again.
I think that guy was testing to see if I would be easy to coerce into prostitution for him. If I had stayed after he brought it up, he would have taken it as a 'yes' and would either trap me in his house during work, or refuse to pay me unless I do whatever he wanted. If I had refused, he could blackmail me, spread rumors about me, make sure nobody else hires me, he could lie about what I did, or didn't do. He's influential and his word would be believed over mine. I'm sure being a director of a big firm gave him plenty of experience to sus out what women were scared of the most, and most easily threatened with. I really only have radical feministm to thank that I clocked this immediately, because had I been still under the delusion of equality and 'not all m*n' rhetoric, I would have been coerced into 'giving him the benefit of the doubt' and 'maybe he didn't mean it that way', and by the time I had it confirmed that he was a predator, it would have been too late. Even him offering me alcohol right off the bat was a red flag.
Anyway real happy I got out of that one, and it was disturbing to discover that you really can't be alone with a male even for 10 minutes without them trying to take advantage. It's even worse if you know that prostitution in croatia is legally punishable – only for women! Prostituted women can get in legal trouble, m*n paying to rape cannot. Really great for women trying to get out, they can be threatened with prosecution if they don't do what m*n want them to. Anyway this place sucks and don't forget to hate all m*n!











