Not sure if this is the right sub but the whole situation is making me feel anti-work, so here we are. I (18F) work in a kitchen, so pretty close quarters, and i think a guy at work, we’ll call him “Fred”, who is at the youngest in his late 40’s, might be harassing me. But I’m not 100% sure if that’s the case, or if he’s just being too friendly. Here’s what’s happened:
(Sorry for the length)
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Whenever he needs something from my station, he gets very close, usually WAY more than needed, and always makes sure to say my name, ask how I am, and says my name again once or twice when he leaves. I didn’t think much of this at first, but with the rest it’s started to bother me.
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Today I was cleaning the fridge doors after close (they’re the short, half size ones), and I’m crouched while I’m scrubbing the door and the inside when he comes over asking for stuff from my fridge and he is standing less than a foot away, basically just leaning over my head. I’m fairly tall and he’s short so he had to really try to do that.
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I warned when I was coming through the kitchen and through his station the other day, and he acted like he didn’t hear me and placed both hands on my hips to I assume “steady himself”, and I think he kept them there a few seconds longer than necessary if that truly were the case. He didn’t say anything about it after.
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Once, he called my name, whistled and gestured for me to come over to his station. I was kind of annoyed because it seemed like he was summoning me by doing that, if that makes any sense, and he wanted to give me a quarter of a sandwich he made that from a distance looked like he had already eaten some of, but I’m not sure.
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He passed by me again today and briefly put his hand not quite on my butt but very close. I understand that people bump into each other, especially in a small kitchen, but when I do that I always make sure to make it clear it was an accident and apologize. He just does it and keeps walking.
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Fred speaks both English and Spanish. I had Spanish classes in school, so I’m not fluent but I understand SOME things. One day he was taking stuff from my station, and he looked at me for a few seconds and said “Tienes ojos bonitos,” which I am 99% sure translates to “you have beautiful eyes.” I certainly don’t speak Spanish casually at work, so if he wanted me to hear his compliment, shouldn’t he have said it in English? And if he said it and didn’t want me to hear it that kinda makes me uncomfortable.
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With the exception of above, he just randomly says things to me in Spanish that I don’t know, and he’s aware that I don’t speak fluent Spanish.
That’s everything recent that I remember. Everyone else (I’m not the only girl in the kitchen, but it is mostly guys for sure) seems to get on well with him for the most part. However, I do see him interacting with some of the female servers sometimes when we’re cleaning and I heard from someone he was trying to go out drinking with some of them. I’m not sure what ended up happening with that, but it seemed weird to me. For reference, most of them are around 24 or younger. And sometimes he kind of shouts at this one specific server while we’re cooking and she walks by VERY briefly.
Him getting super close to me is kinda just making me generally uncomfortable in the kitchen, but idk if I’m overthinking it. If you were me, would you talk to management ?