I’m terrified of certain women in the workplace. So yeah, it’s a good policy to either avoid them altogether, or to make sure that every interaction with them is strictly business, no joking around, in very public places with plenty of people nearby. It’s come to that.
I was a manager in an industry where the workforce was 85% female. I got dragged to the quarterly HR head-thrashings about sexual harassment.
Don’t make any comments about how they look.
Don’t crack any jokes.
Don’t make eye contact for more than four seconds.
Life is too short to try and live that way.
The last phb-ette was enough to do whatever possible to not get another one.
I’m four months away from retirement as a contractor in IT. i.e. I could simply find another contract and, heaven forbid, I can’t, I’m still good.
It means I can joke around with them all I want, and do. In fact, sometimes I have to remind THEM that I have HR on speed dial. :D
Those of us over 40 (both sexes) actually joke about “warning” each other that we have HR on speed dial. We think the whole thing is absurd. But then, we’re from a different era and like joking around with each other and have nothing to hide.
That being said, there still are women in my age group that you DON’T joke around with. We all know who they are. :)
But life’s too short to worry about this nonsense.
Even that isn't safe anymore.
I know that my male supervisor at work; when he has to talk to one of the women in my office, always has another woman present.
Women are like cats. Neither one of them usually have any sense of humor.
I work from home normally but stopped by the office today. A female colleague was at her desk with a small set of pink tools trying to fix something.
I made some crack about the pink toolset. Fortunately, she started to laugh pretty hard.
Dodged another one.