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I can imagine that it could be really difficult to be the only woman in a male dominated work environment. However, the workplace should still be professional, and a woman in this situation shouldn’t be made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

In this story, there is only one woman working in a particular department of a factory, and her male manager is very unprofessional and makes inappropriate comments that make her feel very uncomfortable.

He acts like she’s making a big deal out of nothing, but she’s thinking about reporting him to HR.

Is she overreacting, or is her manager as awful as she thinks he is?

I think she should go to HR. Keep reading to see if you agree.

Manager made an inappropriate comment?

I (43F) work in a factory based company. I’m the only woman on the floor and I handle my own dept, which is a pre assembly type thing. I make everything that isn’t a complete product yet.

You can imagine the talk between guys, which I’m fine with. Sometimes when it gets too inappropriate I say things like: “ok guys tmi”, or, “okay that’s enough talk for me”.

I never talk about intimacy or steer conversation in that direction, which I do very deliberately.

As the only woman on the floor you need to be careful, I have been singled out in the past for being too forward and I won’t let that happen again.

Her manager is awful.

Two months ago I asked my manager to apologise for a comment he made.

He had a metal splinter in his finger and couldn’t locate it by looking. The way to find it for me usually is to rub your finger along your lips and because your lips are very sensitive, you can find it.

I mentioned that and he obscenely rubbed his finger through his crotch and said: “finger on your lips”.

I was too shook to say something in the moment. I’m slow sometimes and tend to think about stuff like that a week later so I confronted him a week later and he apologised.

Here’s another example.

Today something equally happened with the same people in the office. I needed some information about work and I went to his office. They were talking about food and they asked my opinion on something and I said: “that would be good with cheese”.

They glanced half grinning to each other and I instantly knew they made it gross.

So I called them out on it. I said that it is typically a guy thing to think about body parts when I gave an innocent answer.

My manager said that I was too sensitive and that I shouldn’t be “that kind of woman”.

She’s thinking about going to HR.

I commented that from now on I will only answer work related questions and that we need to keep this strictly professional and that I will not respond to childish innuendo like this.

I am thinking about going to HR about this because he is the only guy in the whole company that makes me feel unsafe like this. First the finger comment and now I can’t talk about food without him changing an innocent comment about food.

No other colleague have I ever needed to ask to be more careful with his dirty mind. On top of it he is my manager, he should know and be better.

Would I overreact if I took this to HR, or should I just buckle up and be less sensitive?

Her manager is a jerk and very unprofessional. These comments are not appropriate. She should definitely go to HR.

Let’s see if Reddit agrees.

Here’s a vote for going to HR.

Another person suggests writing down the date and time her manager does anything inappropriate.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a military employee who kept repeating the same “wrong” audit until his commanding officer was fired.

Here’s another vote for going to HR.

But maybe she should warn her manager first.

I don’t think I’d warn the manager. After the first comment, she told him it made her feel uncomfortable. He should know better. I think she should go directly to HR. I wouldn’t want to work for that manager. His comments are highly unprofessional.