Misogyny Is Coming: Get Out Of The Way!

(I’m a female. I am working in a deli inside a grocery store. It is fairly busy, so lots of coworkers are going back and forth down behind the row of slicers. It’s a narrow area, so we often get in each other’s way. I am slicing meat for an older, female customer when a coworker needs to walk behind me.)

Coworker: “Excuse me.”

Me: “Okay.” *moves to the side while still slicing meat*

(Later that day, the male store manager stomps over and calls me into the office, along with my female department manager.)

Store Manager: “We received a customer complaint that you were rude to your coworker today.”

Me: “When?”

Store Manager: “He needed to get by you, and you refused to move out of his way.”

Me: “The only time anybody asked to get by me was during the lunch rush. I wasn’t rude!”

Deli Manager: “Let’s just look at the tape.”

(The store manager pulls up the tape, and all three of us watch me move to the side so he can walk by.)

Store Manager: “So, why didn’t you move out of his way?”

Deli Manager: “She did.”

Store Manager: “Clearly, she did not. She was in that young man’s way.”

Deli Manager: “Where would you have liked her to go? The roof? She did nothing wrong!”

(The store manager let us go back to work, but I continued to have problems with him telling me I disrespected male coworkers for things like not saying hello the right way.)