Last week on Wednesday, I was working with one of my co-workers, who I’ll refer to as M, in the back of the dish room at Cranston Marche Dining Hall at SUNY Fredonia. I was putting away clean dishes, which I do for the majority of my shifts while working in the dish room.

So, M called me over multiple times (in individual instances) to come and wash the dishes, instead of putting them away out in the dining hall. With there being one less person to help us, I came over each time. Eventually he called me over and asked that I STAY there to wash the dishes. As I was spraying the dishes to put in bins for them to be soaked under the machine which cleanses them, I felt him hovering over me the whole time. At one point, I notably felt the tip of his finger rub across my butt (looking back, there was no valid reason for his hand to be around that area). At the time, I brushed it off, negotiating to myself that he probably was just adjusting himself physically, but was largely making this excuse out of nerves and discomfort which I felt at the time. 

Then, one of my managers, who I’ll call A, asked that I go back to putting away the dishes in the dining hall outside of the dish room. He then pulled me over and told me privately that he noticed M was hovering over me the whole time I washing the dishes and said something along the lines of that he (A) didn’t want me to feel ‘weird’. The dining hall is usually pretty loud and we were talking right outside of it, so I couldn’t hear exactly all of the details of this part but got the general gist of what A told me.

Since this incident, I’ve been in contact with the managers of the dining hall since last week and told them about this incident, to which I received the response of that they’ll speak to M about what happened. As a following result, I was notified by the managers today that M was spoken to and also where I work was changed from the dish room to another area of the dining hall. They didn’t indicate any other action was taken regarding this matter. 

A friend of mine who works at the same dining hall has also experienced an uncomfortable situation of another male coworker, who I’ll call T, standing unnecessarily close while behind her (as she told me). 

Employees who perpetrate inappropriate behavior should be fired as soon as the manager/(s) know about what they did, especially when more than one employee complains about it. This type of behavior is unacceptable and warrants more than just being ‘spoken to’. Since he’s still working there, M could perpetrate what he did to me to another co-worker or it could escalate to something worse. Please share this with your friends who work for schools and those you know working, as no one should have to worry about being subjected to invasive treatment while working in a job setting, especially on campus at the school they attend. Spread awareness and help end sexual harassment.