Here's my comment to the article:
Wow, nice article New York Moments! I couldn't help laughing because of how similar my situation is.
One colleague at work sits behind me with his back to me, but he keeps STARING at me! Every time I walk by to go to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to get a glass of water, ANYTHING involving the need to pass by him, he always stares. When I walk back to my desk, he stretches himself with hopes that I look, which I obviously don't. I look at anything except him! Or when he goes to talk to a colleague close by, instead of going into his office, he stands at the door so that he's closer to me. He even offered many times to pick me up from home and drive me to work, because I didn't have an office key at that time, and he did. NO WAY! Or he peers over the wall between us, looking at what I'm doing on my computer screen. It's so pathetic. He in his 40s, with kids, I think divorced, and I'm in my 20s. So far my strategy is to just ignore all his stares and act like he doesn't exist, except for when it's necessary that I work with him. I even put so many plants on top of the wall between us to block his stares. However he doesn't stop staring which bothers me...any suggestions, anyone? I know I need to be more assertive, but he's very nice too, which just makes it harder. What should I tell him?
Another colleague also kept hitting on me and pretended that he was competing against my boyfriend for me, calling me baby, honey, etc. He would comment on my body, what I was wearing, and give me tea that would supposedly impregnant me. He told me how we would have such a cute baby together and that we would get married. What also really got to me was how he would observe when my boyfriend would pick me up from work and even told me how he noticed how his license plate changed! After I told my boyfriend all of this, he really wanted to settle it on his own "the manly way", but I persuaded him that I needed to deal with it on my own. I am someone who is just too nice to people and often the cause of that, is that people take you for granted and disrespect you. So I got the courage to confront him and told him to stop all of his sexual comments and observations, to which he responded was "just having fun". Since then, he hasn't done anything yet, however it's only been a few days.
It's important for everyone, especially women, to let people know where there borders are. Speak up for yourself if something bothers you and let men know that you are to be treated with respect.
