Is is harassment?

LegacyUser

I am female, and in work, if I wanted to be a complete wagon, I could have made several complaints (formally) already about unwanted physical contact and insinuations that I have some kind of connection (other than platonic colleague) with a coworker.

But generally I let things slide for the sake of peace. But now, there's a new manager in town, and I feel as though he is collecting nit-picky details and jotting them all down for use against me at a later date, so I am rethinking my ms. nice girl stance.

To put the physical contact thing into context, it's not as though anyone is groping my Butt in work, but you know when someone comes up behind you and puts their arms on your shoulders to move you out of the way from behind rather than saying excuse me?
That happens quite often.

To put the insinuation thing into context, it was commented today by a colleague of mine, ( another female ) while a male colleague with whom I have no connection with other than platonic colleague, was in close proximity, said "how's the two love birds". Jokingly obviously, but I'm disgusted, and may vomit the next time she says something like that, which wouldn't be good since I work with food.

All joking aside, is this harassment? And how do I go about complaining without sounding like a moan-y wagon, and how do I get taken seriously when everyone in management is male. ?

tenchi-fan

iapilis wrote: »

but you know when someone comes up behind you and puts their arms on your shoulders to move you out of the way from behind rather than saying excuse me?
That happens quite often.

So? It's fairly common for people to do that.

iapilis wrote: »

said "how's the two love birds". Jokingly obviously, but I'm disgusted, and may vomit the next time she says something like that, which wouldn't be good since I work with food.

All joking aside, is this harassment? And how do I go about complaining without sounding like a moan-y wagon, and how do I get taken seriously when everyone in management is male. ?

It's not harassment. It sounds like you have issues.

The Big Red Button

iapilis wrote: »

I am female, and in work, if I wanted to be a complete wagon, I could have made several complaints (formally) already about unwanted physical contact and insinuations that I have some kind of connection (other than platonic colleague) with a coworker.

If you feel you have been subjected to unwanted physical contact etc with a coworker, you should of course report this as it happens.

iapilis wrote: »

But generally I let things slide for the sake of peace. But now, there's a new manager in town, and I feel as though he is collecting nit-picky details and jotting them all down for use against me at a later date, so I am rethinking my ms. nice girl stance.

If you honestly feel that colleagues are behaving inappropriately towards you, you are not being a "nice girl" by letting it slide. If the behaviour is inappropriate, report it.

iapilis wrote: »

To put the physical contact thing into context, it's not as though anyone is groping my Butt in work, but you know when someone comes up behind you and puts their arms on your shoulders to move you out of the way from behind rather than saying excuse me?
That happens quite often.

This, in my opinion, is not in any way inappropriate. They're not "moving you out of the way"; it's more like a polite way of making you aware of your presence. I'm fussy about personal boundaries, and even I wouldn't be in any way weirded out by this, to be honest.

iapilis wrote: »

To put the insinuation thing into context, it was commented today by a colleague of mine, ( another female ) while a male colleague with whom I have no connection with other than platonic colleague, was in close proximity, said "how's the two love birds". Jokingly obviously, but I'm disgusted, and may vomit the next time she says something like that, which wouldn't be good since I work with food.

If you allow yourself to be so offended and upset by this sort of comment, to be honest it's unfair to blame anyone but yourself.

iapilis wrote: »

All joking aside, is this harassment? And how do I go about complaining without sounding like a moan-y wagon, and how do I get taken seriously when everyone in management is male. ?

In my opinion, no, this does not sound like harrassment. To be honest it sounds like you're overreacting. If you really have such a problem with being in physical contact with another person, perhaps you should nicely mention it to him first, before escalating the whole matter and getting him into trouble unfairly?

Wolfe Tone

You are overreacting I think, as for the arm on your shoulder people do that all the time!

chillywilly

It doesn't sound like harassment to me.