Have no idea where you are coming from with giving a compliment at work. When men and women were able to do, there was absolutely nothing wrong with a male worker saying “nice dress” or “nice shoes” or even “nice watch” to a female co-worker OR a female worker saying “nice tie” or “nice shoes” to a male co-worker. Married or single, it was just a compliment! Sounds like you’ve had problems with lawyers.
Today (sometimes) a woman will come to work looking like a Vegas Call Girl. Low-cut or skin-tight top, very short skirt and way overboard on makeup. Sometimes a man will come to work and brag about the lady he was with the night before (all night). Not “office” type talk, but some young guys simply don’t think, until a Supervisor or Manager calls the guy into his office.
I still give out compliments, and I still enjoy getting them. I think it depends a lot on the way it is presented. Just yesterday at a store, I saw a young man wearing a shirt that said, “Born this way, not raised”. I, without thinking about it said, “I like your shirt”, and I kept on walking. If I receive a nice compliment, I try to remember to take it as such. But yes, I too have gotten the wrong type of, “compliment”, and unwisely, my mouth will open before my brain engages, and I’ll pop off with a scathing remark. Sometimes it as stupid as, “ Watch it, I do bite!”
For me personally I see all these women, etc. finally "voicing" what they felt they could not "voice" when it happened. Men had all the power back then and could ruin women's careers, reputations, etc. if the woman did stand up and say she was being sexually harrassed or worse. There was also the problem that women were pretty much blamed for either wearing something to provocative, "leading on" a man by something she might have said or even did...according to the man's view point. There was also the fact that if a woman spoke up she would end up going through hell if the case when to Court...and the man would still usually win anyway. Now days the power has shifted some, and for women there is always a better chance if they all speak up at the same time. One woman standing alone still may be ignored but women coming together in Unity for what has been done to them...often shifts the power of truth to them. Every job I worked at I also got flirted with, propositioned, etc. at too. And I did nothing to deserve it. I finally decided I would only work for women after that...or be my own boss. And I stuck to this. No person has the right to sexually harass another person for any reason. Personally, I'm very happy to see those who had all the power back then...getting their just rewards now for abusing that power.
During my years of employment, I never once seen it THAT bad for women at work. Don't know why, but so many times women just want to blame men co-workers for this or that. I'm sure there were men out there that were "twerps", but I never heard about a problem in any job I had.
The men that do these kinds of things do not do them in front of others @Cody Fousnaugh and the women back then kept quiet and did not speak of this like they are doing today, so it is no surprise to me that you did not know about it or even hear anything where you worked. If a woman did say anything it would probably have been to another woman who worked there to warn them to watch out for so and so's "roving hands", propositioning, etc. Even if women did not speak out publicly years ago...and many even today...they usually would speak privately to warn the other women who worked under the person who was doing this kind of thing.
I did hear things, like "nice dress" or "nice shoes", in which I'd say as well and get a smile and "thank you" from the female co-worker. Come to think about it, I never once got propositioned at work, darn it. Kidding, but not as well.
There's nothing wrong with nice dress or nice shoes comments but what I'm talking about went beyond that and no I wasn't dressed in a sexy manner at all. It was a job in the accounting dept.
Well, there are idiots at the workplace, I’ll give you ladies that. Another thing is, and this has been proven that it’s happened along with giving law enforcement false info, where a lady lied about what happened, for one reason or another. Once such incident involved a lady who told her boss and law enforcement that she was touched by a guy at work. She lied because she didn’t like the male co-worker and her boyfriend had broke up with her the night before. She was fired from her job and to pay a fine for a false police report. So, that happens as well.
Now days some women are a lot bolder and there is sexual harassment done by women in power positions to the male gender too. Unfortunately there will always be people who think of people as sexual objects...and they will go after what they want even if the person has given them no reason to do so. I'm very happy that this kind of stuff is not being tolerated like it used to be in the work force. But it still happens and there are still people who are to afraid of losing their jobs, etc. to report it.
However, there is a good and bad side to reporting abuse or anything else.........retribution from the accused.
It does not matter that laws have changed in this area. For many "good ole boys" the only rules they think count...are their's. So this stuff still goes on and in my opinion probably always will. But I didn't put up with it when it happened to me. I told the person involved what they could do with what they said or tried to do...and quit my job that day.
I don't care what they call them in So Calif. there are sexual harrassers there and those that do this think the rules are made for everyone else but them.
Well, guess it’s time for me to be done with this topic, since I’ve never personally known a lady that was harassed on the job.