My boss's poor jokes make me feel harassed

By Linh Hoa   May 28, 2024 | 12:03 am PT
Every time I enter my boss's room to give him some documents, he would say: "How come you're so pretty!"

I am working at a place where people say all things in the wrong place like that.

Let's take one of my managers for example. He is not my direct manager, but I report to him sometimes.

One day at a company's party, he sat at the same table with me and he kept questioning me why I did not raise glasses with him, that whether I was disrepecting him because he's old.

Everyone at the table seemed to know that he just tried to break the ice, but his jokes were not funny at all and made everyone uncomfortable.

Other times when I was busy and asked not to join the team to meet some customers, he would "joked": "I'll let your husband know," or "Next time I'll remove you from the team."

Recently I encountered one of my most uncomfortable moments with him. I had some documents for him to check and I gave them to him outside his office, but he insisted that I bring them into the room.

When I was about to open the door to leave, he made some moves as if to stop me, forcing me to struggle a bit.

And almost every time he saw me, he would say: "How come you're so pretty."

I literally don't know what to do in these situations. I only tried to smile to be polite.

But I also wonder: Has he been harassing me?

Is the boundary between jokes and harassment is so thin that we tend to be silent about acts that should be tantamount to harassment?

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