I have been working since I was 17, it is pretty usual to start working at a young age in my country if you come from a low-income family. However, I was not, I was an early-graduated girl that did not know what to do with her life at the age of 17, so I decided to start working.
I think I am pretty, but like a cute kind of pretty, I’ve always looked younger than I actually am and I don’t consider myself particularly flirtatious. However, I have been dealing with abuse in the workplace, since the tender age of 17.
I got my first job as an English teacher at a small town institute, since I was underage, my contract was non-existent on paper. The owner of the place trusted my skills and hired me really fast. The weird thing is that, whenever we would meet, he would comment on my body. He would say “you look very curvy, you look very thin” and look at me for a few minutes. I don’t really know why I felt that was normal, or even paternal. It wasn’t.
When I turned 18 I worked at a call center (in English), and I had this co-worker that would call me late at night to say things about my legs and my butt. I was so scared when I saw him, I had to ask a friend to walk me home for more than a month. This time, I was just afraid to say anything, I was a kid, and that company was so shady I knew they weren’t going to do anything.
I then switched jobs and started working at a smaller call center. There was only 4 of us. I was already 21. The shifts were by pairs and I was paired with some old guy that talked a lot about books and music. One day, he started writing to me, in his emails, he said that he wanted to kiss my lips and touch my legs (this guy was like 50). I told my boss and asked him to change my shifts, I showed him the emails. He did nothing. So I had to leave. I ran into the guy years later, he looked at me with hatred, I almost had a panic attack.
I then started working as a receptionist at a fancy building. The first day, the owner of the building came up to me, gave me a kiss on the cheek and said that I was “stunning”. He would come over every day, would not call me by my name, but would call me a word that in English would be “hottie”. He even told me he wanted to take me shopping one day.
The whole story makes me realize that it is easy for men to put women in these positions, and so hard for women to let them go, or make them right.
I am older now, and I am well aware of my rights, but I still don’t know how I would react in a situation like this. I am happy that I have a boss that is intuitive and respectful, that will always hear what I have to say and that will protect me if I need protection.
I am lucky and I am also aware that a lot of women are going through this right now and maybe will be in that same position for their entire lives. Feeling hurt but not being able to do anything about it, because of fear, because of shame.
Girl in a Startup 