A Touch Too Much Inappropriate Behavior

(I work as the office manager of an upscale spa. We’ve hired a male massage therapist who is fresh out of school. He’s a sweet guy, good at his job, and is quickly building a list of regular clients. I am working at the front desk when he comes rushing out of the back where the massage rooms are.)

Therapist: “Hey, uh, [My Name]?”

Me: “Hey, [Therapist]. I thought you had a client right now?”

Therapist: “Yeah, I do, but there’s a problem.”

Me: “What’s wrong?”

Therapist: *leans closer and whispers* “She’s, uh, she’s started saying dirty things to me.”

Me: “She’s what?”

Therapist: “I don’t know what to do! In school, they only talked about female therapists dealing with inappropriate people. She keeps saying how much I’m turning her on, and how she wants me to do things to her while her husband is getting his massage in the next room! I made up an excuse to leave for a minute. What should I do?”

Me: “The thing to do is inform her that her massage is now over. Tell her that we have zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior. If you don’t feel comfortable saying this, then you can go in the break room and I’ll tell her. We can also bar her in the system from making an appointment here again.” *sigh* “Unfortunately, we can’t directly tell her husband what she did, as it’s currently against company policy. But we can make sure she never does this again to any of our therapists.”

(The therapist chose to be the one to tell her he couldn’t continue the session. She came storming out to the front desk and pitched a fit. I told her she was no longer welcome at our spa, and that if she continued to carry on like that her husband was going to want to know what was going on. That shut her up. She sulked in the lobby until her husband was done with his appointment and made some snooty comment about not wanting to come to a “low-quality” spa like ours anymore. I checked with the therapist who had her husband, to make sure he didn’t pull the same stunt, and she said he was perfectly polite the whole time. We never saw either of them again, though.)

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