If You See Something, Seriously, Say Something

I’m in my senior year of high school, back in 1999. My girlfriend has been telling me about the creepy guy at her work that likes to be touchy with female employees. He’s a supervisor/lead for the front registers, and when he sets up a female employee on the registers, he leans on them, or he puts his arm around them on their waist or shoulder, or he puts his hand on their hand and tries to hold hands. Basically, he is always encroaching on female employee’s space and touching them inappropriately, especially for a work environment.

My girlfriend tells me that the other day at work when he was setting up her register, he was rubbing her arm and trying to hold her hand, but she pulled it away. She said he’s always doing this to the female employees when he’s setting up or breaking down the registers for them. I was pissed when she told me this and said we should go find him and talk to him, but she didn’t want to; she didn’t want me making a scene.

None of the female workers like being around him because he is always touching. None of the other supervisors/leads are touchy with any employees, just him. None of the women are willing to speak up about it for fear of retaliation or losing their job or just not being believed.

My girlfriend and I happen to be walking through the store one day. We have a couple nights a week where we sit and watch some TV shows and have cheddar-covered popcorn, and we are at the store to buy some. After we enter the store, we walk past the front registers. The creepy guy is at one of them with a female employee. My girlfriend points him out to me.

I look over and, sure enough, he is standing right up next to the female employee. The female employee is standing at the register and her left hand is resting on the counter. The creepy guy is right up next to her, leaning into her so his body is touching hers, and he is runs his hand down her arm and then to the top of her left hand and just holds it there like he is trying to hold her hand. She looks visibly uncomfortable, but she has nowhere to go because he is blocking her in at the counter.

I shout out loudly so everyone around can hear me and point right at him.

Me: “You mean that f*** that’s running his hands all over that female employee?”

My girlfriend grabs my arm and tries to pull me away.

Girlfriend: *Quietly* “Please don’t make a scene. I have to work here.”

Me: *To my girlfriend* “I’m not okay with guys putting their hands on women when it’s unwanted, and he’s doing it right now.”

I glance back over to the creepy guy. He’s now gone through five shades of red and his face matches the color of his work shirt. He is now slowly trying to back away from his female coworker.

I speak loudly at the creepy guy for everyone to hear.

Me: “I don’t know who the f*** you think you are, but you’d better keep your hands off the female workers here or you’re going to have a big problem.”

The creepy guy slunk away and a store manager came up to check on the commotion, but before anything else could happen on my end, my girlfriend dragged me away.

A few days later, my girlfriend said my outburst got a lot of the female employees to speak out about the guy and he was fired. My girlfriend told me that they didn’t have any more issues with any supervisor/lead inappropriately touching other employees the rest of the time she worked there.