Monica asks :
Hi Lucy,
Am I being too friendly? Hi there. I work on reception and get a lot of male attention. I am always professional and try to be as friendly to these men. I have even had inappropriate remarks of sexual context -which I have always ignored and shrugged off. An incident occurred today in which a man called me offensive names. The situation was pertaining to work. But it made me wonder if my kindness/friendless was taken for a weakness? My male colleague at reception was not spoken to in this way. Should I keep it professional and shut down all this friendly chat?
Hi Monica,
Agony Aunts on Female First
As much as you have a responsibility to be the first point of contact and as helpful as you can be, there are limits to what you should take from customers.
If you think your friendliness is being misinterpreted, perhaps you could ask your male colleague for his opinion. If he works closely with you, he will see how you are with the customers and be able to give you his advice from a working perspective and a male perspective. If you're not being overly friendly then you know that it's to do with the customers and not you.
Another option is to dial it back a bit and see what the response is. You could test your theory that you are being 'too friendly' and try to remain approachable but attempt to keep it more work focused and see what happens.
If someone- male or female- is speaking to you out of turn, you could politely ask them not to speak to you like that before you help them or ask your colleague to take over if you feel it's too personal.
Could you talk to your boss about the comments you've been getting? They may have some suggestions as to how to handle this situation if they have come across this reaction from customers in the past.
tagged in Boss
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