Reposting from Tumblrr
I need sleep, but this thing is nagging me. Caus i might lose my job for upholding my morals.
I’ve already disgorged this incident to my family and net friends like four times today, but it seems I still haven’t gotten it out of my system enough to get any rest.
So there is this guy who runs an Ali Baba in the food court where I work. He owns it and his dad works there. His dad is nice, but he, Ali (I think that’s his name, but no he didnt start the franchise, he’s just arabic background, and hey there’s probably as many Ali’s as there are Mohammeds, they like those two names).
Anyway, so he’s a sleezy prick who is rude, arrogant and a general dickface, and i can barely tollerate him most of the time when he comes to get coffee.
Today I was on all afternoon with only one female co-worker, who is younger than me and worked there maybe a year, so I’m the senior on staff for that shift since technically I’m a crew leader (I can do everything except add tills at the end of the day because FUCK NUMBERS i am mathslexic. Also don’t do food orders simply cuz I’m part time so they don’t need me to learn that ever.)
Ali comes in, and co-worker (who i shall refer to as J ) serves him and stats baristing, cause I was filling syrups. I then finish and serve someone else, and in the background of that i can half make out Ali talking to J while she barists.
It sounds like he’s saying some pretty galling shit, but because I can’t hear 100%, I don’t confront him because I can’t say I know exactly what’s going on.
So he takes his coffee and goes, and J tuns to me looking disgusted and tells me what he was saying.
Basically he was talking about ‘wanting to see her pussycat’ and ‘taking he out to dinner’.
Hitting on her in a vile way when she was saying NO, and not showing any amusement at his ‘jokes’.
I was angry as fuck.
At this point, I was making note to tell my boss when he came in that afternoon to do the tills (Since Jess couldn’t and i was actually covering the shift for someone who can, hence boss popping in just for that purpose).
Then, about five minutes later, J, who was already having a shit day due to other personal life issues, tuns to me with an appauled look on her face, phone in hand and says ‘I think i’m going to throw up’.
ALI had sent her a TEXT MESSAGE.
The gist of which was ‘I still have your number, wouldn’t be to HARD to get though. We should hang out beautiful’.
It was longer than that, but i did not commit it to memory, because I was overcome with ‘OH NO YOU DID FUCKING NOT JUST DO THAT’.
And so I was pretty much on the warpath because A) Sexual Harrassment and B) That shit is not okay and I do not tollerate it and I will call you on that shit even if no one else will, because NO ONE needs that shit, especially not retail slaves.
So I march on over to Ali Baba’s counter across the food court, despite Jess telling me not to, and call him out.
And I tell him, vehemently but not yelling, Do NOT send he any more texts like that, that is sexual harrassment, it is not on.
He says, all smiley ‘it was only a joke’.
Ahahaha NO BITCH.
I didn’t swea at him, I just told him it was not a joke, it was not funny, it was harassment and it was filthy, and I would not tollerate it, and he was not to do it again.
And then I marched right back to work.
Considering I was angry and adrenalin fueled enough for my hands to be shaking, I was rather proud of how articulate and not swear-y I was actually.
J was kinda ‘i cant believe you actually did that’, but as I told her, I will not tollerate that shit, from anyone, anywhere.
unless of course they had a gun or could like beat the fuck out of me where i stood, i do have some self preservation
So later, Boss comes in to do till. I say hi, Jess is downstairs getting milk.
Five SECONDS after Boss walks in, Ali is over and not looking at me, full scowly face on, and basically drags my boss away for a little chat across the food court where I cant hear.
When he meets my eyes, I give him my best ‘yea fuck you buddy, you shit doesn’t scare me’.
Why it doesn’t scare me is not because I didn’t think of the possibility after my smackdown that he’s part of an arabic mafia that will now kill me fo my female insolence, but because I really really REALLY do not give a shit if i lose this job.
ONLY because my parents are the supportive kind, so I would not be out on the street and destitute in any way, I’d just lose my expendable income.
I hate my job, but it’s money, and friends, and it gets me out of the house so I keep it, because getting pat time jobs is had as slag since i’m 23 and no one wants to pay full wage when they can have teenagers.
So, back on topic, Ali has made sure to get boss’ ear before me, because he is a childish prick. And J comes back before Ali finishes with my boss, so I tell he what’s going down and she’s more freaked than me.
I go about my businesslike a bossuntil boss gets back and has a talk with me.
Aaaand of couse he’s disappoving because Ali is his friend, and I made him and his dad mad because I yelled at him in front of customers and that’s unprofessional etcetc.
Well there’s a lie right there, this happened WAY after lunch rush, there WERE no customers. And Besta pasta lady NEXT DOOR didn’t even seem to hear anything I said to him.
So much for THAT arrgument.
So we go about closing, and Boss talks to me again after a super awkward J leaves (who was super awkward because after telling Boss what had been said to her, she then said she didn’t condone my actions, which I knew she didn’t, and i’m not mad she doesn’t want to get pulled into this shitpile, but she must’ve thought I would be. Not her fault, don’t expect her to cop flac).
He tells me Ali and his lot are super angry about it and he has to go talk to them now and that I need to see it from his view as a manager, and from Ali’s view as a manager.
Look, I understand that when i am wearing your uniform, I am epesenting the company.
Guess what the company sucks and you do too Boss, so I don’t care too much about that is the face of things. If I respected the organisation I worked for, I wouldn’t have been quite so rash. As it is, I have very little reason to respect it, but I digress.
I told him that this was an issue i felt strongly enough to lose my job over, if that’s what it came to.
What I didn’t say was ‘if I DO lose my job over this, I am putting fair work Australia and industrial relations and workcover on you ass so fast you’ll go into the fetal position for a week.’
Because I know what’s going on here.
Ali and his dad are your fiends. Just like every other arabic person who shows up. I don’t mind this, arabic customers are the same as any other nationality of customers, you get nice people and rude fucks, it’s a random mix.
But don’t prretend, bossman, that you don’t favour the arabic ones, because you do more of them favours than anyone else. And I KNOW Ali is telling you to sack me because I publicly shamed him.
Having seen the different way he treats the male and female employees, it doesn’t take a genius to notice Ali is a misogynist. Barely anyone who works at my coffee place likes him. He’s the kind of guy, as my mum would say, that makes you want to take a shower after you talk to him.
Do I stand by what I did? Hell yes.
Is my Boss right to chastise me and tell me I should have waited and told him and let him deal with it?
According to the work-cover inspector I know, NO HE IS NOT.
I am senior staff, and I have a duty of care. Did I believe if J texted him back to say ’ do not text me’ he would have heeded her? NO.
Do I believe waiting for the boss to ‘deal with it’ would have garnered results? NO.
Why?
Because MY boss has shown his own subtle misogyny for YEARS. He doesn’t have female employee’s rights or emotional well-being in mind. He has his bottom line and his friendships in mind.
It takes a female, in most cases, to understand how it feels to another female to be sexually harrassed. It takes a female to stand up for her own rights when she cannot trust the male at the top to do that. And apparently it takes a female who won’t tollerate 1960’s attitudes to stand up for the younger women who by ignoring it allow it to perpetuate unchallenged.
So it is coming down to this.
Does my boss value me as a worker more than he values Ali Baba as a small group of customers?
I guess I’ll find out by Thursday, since that’s my next shift.
In the meantime, I have an essay to start and some sleep to get.
Getting that off my chest in full does help.
Thought i'd cross post for easier reference rather then retelling this story to people over and over.
I’ve already disgorged this incident to my family and net friends like four times today, but it seems I still haven’t gotten it out of my system enough to get any rest.
So there is this guy who runs an Ali Baba in the food court where I work. He owns it and his dad works there. His dad is nice, but he, Ali (I think that’s his name, but no he didnt start the franchise, he’s just arabic background, and hey there’s probably as many Ali’s as there are Mohammeds, they like those two names).
Anyway, so he’s a sleezy prick who is rude, arrogant and a general dickface, and i can barely tollerate him most of the time when he comes to get coffee.
Today I was on all afternoon with only one female co-worker, who is younger than me and worked there maybe a year, so I’m the senior on staff for that shift since technically I’m a crew leader (I can do everything except add tills at the end of the day because FUCK NUMBERS i am mathslexic. Also don’t do food orders simply cuz I’m part time so they don’t need me to learn that ever.)
Ali comes in, and co-worker (who i shall refer to as J ) serves him and stats baristing, cause I was filling syrups. I then finish and serve someone else, and in the background of that i can half make out Ali talking to J while she barists.
It sounds like he’s saying some pretty galling shit, but because I can’t hear 100%, I don’t confront him because I can’t say I know exactly what’s going on.
So he takes his coffee and goes, and J tuns to me looking disgusted and tells me what he was saying.
Basically he was talking about ‘wanting to see her pussycat’ and ‘taking he out to dinner’.
Hitting on her in a vile way when she was saying NO, and not showing any amusement at his ‘jokes’.
I was angry as fuck.
At this point, I was making note to tell my boss when he came in that afternoon to do the tills (Since Jess couldn’t and i was actually covering the shift for someone who can, hence boss popping in just for that purpose).
Then, about five minutes later, J, who was already having a shit day due to other personal life issues, tuns to me with an appauled look on her face, phone in hand and says ‘I think i’m going to throw up’.
ALI had sent her a TEXT MESSAGE.
The gist of which was ‘I still have your number, wouldn’t be to HARD to get though. We should hang out beautiful’.
It was longer than that, but i did not commit it to memory, because I was overcome with ‘OH NO YOU DID FUCKING NOT JUST DO THAT’.
And so I was pretty much on the warpath because A) Sexual Harrassment and B) That shit is not okay and I do not tollerate it and I will call you on that shit even if no one else will, because NO ONE needs that shit, especially not retail slaves.
So I march on over to Ali Baba’s counter across the food court, despite Jess telling me not to, and call him out.
And I tell him, vehemently but not yelling, Do NOT send he any more texts like that, that is sexual harrassment, it is not on.
He says, all smiley ‘it was only a joke’.
Ahahaha NO BITCH.
I didn’t swea at him, I just told him it was not a joke, it was not funny, it was harassment and it was filthy, and I would not tollerate it, and he was not to do it again.
And then I marched right back to work.
Considering I was angry and adrenalin fueled enough for my hands to be shaking, I was rather proud of how articulate and not swear-y I was actually.
J was kinda ‘i cant believe you actually did that’, but as I told her, I will not tollerate that shit, from anyone, anywhere.
unless of course they had a gun or could like beat the fuck out of me where i stood, i do have some self preservation
So later, Boss comes in to do till. I say hi, Jess is downstairs getting milk.
Five SECONDS after Boss walks in, Ali is over and not looking at me, full scowly face on, and basically drags my boss away for a little chat across the food court where I cant hear.
When he meets my eyes, I give him my best ‘yea fuck you buddy, you shit doesn’t scare me’.
Why it doesn’t scare me is not because I didn’t think of the possibility after my smackdown that he’s part of an arabic mafia that will now kill me fo my female insolence, but because I really really REALLY do not give a shit if i lose this job.
ONLY because my parents are the supportive kind, so I would not be out on the street and destitute in any way, I’d just lose my expendable income.
I hate my job, but it’s money, and friends, and it gets me out of the house so I keep it, because getting pat time jobs is had as slag since i’m 23 and no one wants to pay full wage when they can have teenagers.
So, back on topic, Ali has made sure to get boss’ ear before me, because he is a childish prick. And J comes back before Ali finishes with my boss, so I tell he what’s going down and she’s more freaked than me.
I go about my businesslike a bossuntil boss gets back and has a talk with me.
Aaaand of couse he’s disappoving because Ali is his friend, and I made him and his dad mad because I yelled at him in front of customers and that’s unprofessional etcetc.
Well there’s a lie right there, this happened WAY after lunch rush, there WERE no customers. And Besta pasta lady NEXT DOOR didn’t even seem to hear anything I said to him.
So much for THAT arrgument.
So we go about closing, and Boss talks to me again after a super awkward J leaves (who was super awkward because after telling Boss what had been said to her, she then said she didn’t condone my actions, which I knew she didn’t, and i’m not mad she doesn’t want to get pulled into this shitpile, but she must’ve thought I would be. Not her fault, don’t expect her to cop flac).
He tells me Ali and his lot are super angry about it and he has to go talk to them now and that I need to see it from his view as a manager, and from Ali’s view as a manager.
Look, I understand that when i am wearing your uniform, I am epesenting the company.
Guess what the company sucks and you do too Boss, so I don’t care too much about that is the face of things. If I respected the organisation I worked for, I wouldn’t have been quite so rash. As it is, I have very little reason to respect it, but I digress.
I told him that this was an issue i felt strongly enough to lose my job over, if that’s what it came to.
What I didn’t say was ‘if I DO lose my job over this, I am putting fair work Australia and industrial relations and workcover on you ass so fast you’ll go into the fetal position for a week.’
Because I know what’s going on here.
Ali and his dad are your fiends. Just like every other arabic person who shows up. I don’t mind this, arabic customers are the same as any other nationality of customers, you get nice people and rude fucks, it’s a random mix.
But don’t prretend, bossman, that you don’t favour the arabic ones, because you do more of them favours than anyone else. And I KNOW Ali is telling you to sack me because I publicly shamed him.
Having seen the different way he treats the male and female employees, it doesn’t take a genius to notice Ali is a misogynist. Barely anyone who works at my coffee place likes him. He’s the kind of guy, as my mum would say, that makes you want to take a shower after you talk to him.
Do I stand by what I did? Hell yes.
Is my Boss right to chastise me and tell me I should have waited and told him and let him deal with it?
According to the work-cover inspector I know, NO HE IS NOT.
I am senior staff, and I have a duty of care. Did I believe if J texted him back to say ’ do not text me’ he would have heeded her? NO.
Do I believe waiting for the boss to ‘deal with it’ would have garnered results? NO.
Why?
Because MY boss has shown his own subtle misogyny for YEARS. He doesn’t have female employee’s rights or emotional well-being in mind. He has his bottom line and his friendships in mind.
It takes a female, in most cases, to understand how it feels to another female to be sexually harrassed. It takes a female to stand up for her own rights when she cannot trust the male at the top to do that. And apparently it takes a female who won’t tollerate 1960’s attitudes to stand up for the younger women who by ignoring it allow it to perpetuate unchallenged.
So it is coming down to this.
Does my boss value me as a worker more than he values Ali Baba as a small group of customers?
I guess I’ll find out by Thursday, since that’s my next shift.
In the meantime, I have an essay to start and some sleep to get.
Getting that off my chest in full does help.
Thought i'd cross post for easier reference rather then retelling this story to people over and over.