Woman fed up with sexist coworker, tricks him into drinking a glass of her sweat.
Hell hath no fury like a female manager scorned.
'I sat and waited for him to take a sip.'
Ten years ago I was a newlywed and joined my husband in a new city. This place was a well-known tourism destination.
I saw a a job posting for a weekend tour guide at a local distillery and thought being paid to drink on the job would be awesome! (It was…mostly).
After six months of countless cheers, I was offered a managerial position. (Front of the house operations, staffing, and maintaining an above-average guest atmosphere.)
Everything was fantastic for the first few weeks until two of the other managers pulled me aside. “You need to watch Frank. He and the executive director are close…ie, her kids call him grandpa. He’s abusive, sexist, and a logistical nightmare. Watch your back.”
Frank and I hadn’t worked closely when I was part time so I was oblivious that he refused to adhere to any timetable. His 30 minute tours last an hour. His 90 minutes went over two hours. At one point, several of his connoisseur tours (advertised as three hours) lasted FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. Geez Gilligan. Wrap it up!
Now, you might be thinking well this guy was passionate and was providing a world-class experience.
Our tour times were clearly advertised at the front desk and often people would choose a specific tour length so they could visit other attractions or because they had dinner reservations.
On more than a dozen occasions I profusely apologized to irate guests and even went so far as to offer refunds, freebies, and call their next destination to see if I could help them reschedule or squeeze them in later.
Additionally, I had to juggle the stress inflicted upon our other tour guides and to keep their guests blissfully unaware.
I am a 'cover your own a**' person. I documented days, times, guest complaints, staff grievances, everything. I did not trust the executive director to take my word. I had print outs in an unmarked file folder and forwarded them to my personal email at home.
Frank’s reign of terror came to a head on a busy Saturday when he disagreed with my handling of one of his irate guests and screamed into my face.
I calmly asked him to meet me in the break room and once the door closed, I immediately sent him home. Before he left he said so many disgusting and hateful things to me I actually cried.
We had an HR meeting that Monday which was nothing more than a peace accord. As Frank waxed poetically about his love of our experience and our staff and how he couldn’t understand why I had a beef with him, I stopped him cold.
I informed everyone I had documentation which contained numerous complaints from guests and staff for his disregard of our protocols. His belligerence (for which there were multiple witnesses) was a result of being reprimanded on his refusal to perform his basic responsibilities. (We didn’t have cameras).
In light of his aggressive and unprofessional behavior, he should be reprimanded. I wanted it documented in his employee record.
Should I have brought said documentation? Yes. But I was playing the long game.
I told HR I would like to work with executive director in creating a schedule where Frank could continue entertaining with minimal disruptions to our daily flow. Exec dir’s face was ghostly white when I mentioned numerous previous complaints but she agreed.
Frank apologized and was reprimanded. Which was nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
Later I walked into executive director’s office with a thick file folder. Contained within were emails about his abusive behavior to only female guides and managers and their complaints to her that went unaddressed.
And how I was the third to be subjected to it, I had every right to throw her under the bus for repeatedly condoning sexual harassment and allowing Frank to create a toxic work environment. I could walk away with some serious cash, but I genuinely loved my job and the people under me.
In retrospect, I should have been a whistleblower but I was in my 20s and pretty naive.
We agreed she would be his sole supervisor on the floor but I would be diligent in timing him and monitoring guest complaints. In 30 days, we would revisit the problem and if she couldn’t wrangle grandpa, I would go scorched earth.
We scaled Frank back from four days a week to one. No weekends, only Wednesdays, our slowest day. And moving forward, he was only allowed one tour a day - the 30 min lunch-time tour which had a 45 min buffer between guests.
One day as I sat at the front desk with my phone’s clock on a stopwatch, the executive director went to the bathroom. Seeing his golden opportunity for revenge, Frank loudly asked me in front of his guests to prepare his tasting experience, a job each guide oversaw themself.
I told him I would be delighted.
As I finished pouring his drink, I, sweaty from wearing khakis and a polyester shirt in the middle of summer, reached behind my back. I ran the tip of my finger up my butt and wiped the moisture around every square centimeter of the rim of his glass.
I poured myself a drink as well and stood in the background until Frank lifted the glass to his lips and sighed with pleasure.
That visual still makes me smile.
He never stepped out of line again and retired a month later to “spend more time with his grandkids.”
Here were the top rated comments from readers:
Yikes, that was a turn I wasn't expecting ?
You had me hooked but then I got to the end and….. uh what.
The OP responded here:
Lol am I proud? No. But I still laugh.
Wtf that's gross.
It's odd that ppl are upset about your revenge in a sub called PETTY revenge. What are they looking for, you to settle it behind the dumpster with knives and towel wrapped arms? When someone uses their physical size to intimidate another as most men do to women one has to get creative.
Ladies if you can't beat them, feed them....a** sweat. Men, stop being bullies or start trying ppl your size.
Considering how impeccably you'd treated the whole catastrophe, I expected something a little more cerebral in the revenge.
The OP responded here again:
I wanted to tell him to kiss my a** but I didn’t want to do it in front of guests.