One Irish woman has shared her workplace dilemma after a 'creepy' male colleague started lavishing her with unwanted gifts.
She said she landed her "dream job" almost two years ago but ever since she started one man in the office won't leave her alone.
The man, who is 15 years her senior, leaves snacks and gifts on her desk every morning, comes in to talk to her when she is alone in the office and lingers for hours asking her "personal questions".
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He recently gave her a €150 voucher for her birthday and once had an expensive box of chocolates delivered to her home address - which she promptly returned to him at work.
However, she said he is well-liked in the office and she is worried that if she complains she will cause trouble or "lose the best job she's ever had".
Taking to Reddit Ireland, the woman shared the tricky situation, writing: "I’ve managed to land my dream job just under 2 years ago, it’s a male dominated area, there are only 2 women in this area of the workplace and 15 men. They are all lovely people except for one maintenance contractor guy.
"He’s 15 years older than me but his behaviour lately is starting to freak me out.
"His base is supposed to be in a portacabin across the yard from my office but the other lady works from home a lot so I’m alone a lot.. he [spends] almost all day everyday in my office.
"He leaves me snacks and gifts in my desk every morning, he leaves whenever other colleagues come in for paperwork and stares in the window from his cabin until they’re gone then comes back in.
"He comments on everything I do and say. If I wear a different coat he comments on it, if I haven’t slept great and look tired he comments on it. I’ll be sat at my desk working on my computer and he’ll sit across the way staring at me asking over personal questions.
"It was my birthday 3 weeks ago I came to work to find an envelope with a €150 voucher in it.
"Problem is everyone at work thinks the sun shines out of his arse and I’m the newbie and don’t want to cause trouble or lose the best job I’ve ever had."
She said his behaviour has gone unnoticed by her other workmates as he is "sneaky" about it but it has made her "dread going to work".
"The thing is he’s sneaky about his behaviour," she wrote. "He only stays in the office when I’m there on my own, never says anything in front of anyone else. This has been going on almost a year, last summer he sent a huge expensive box of chocolates to my house by courier… I’ve never given him my address but he had the area code correct.
"I brought the chocolates to work and gave them back to him telling him I can’t accept them and his behaviour got worse. While he’s never outright tried to ask me out or suggest anything he’s making me dread going to work everyday."
People flooded to the comments to advise the woman on what to do with many people calling the man "creepy" and telling her to keep a record of all his advances and send it to Human Resources.
One wrote: "HR it's the only way. You need to start logging a pattern with them.
Another told her to confront the man about his behaviour, writing: "This guy is absolutely off his f***ing rocker.
"He has crossed so many boundaries here its alarming. You're there a year now so no, you're not the newbie any longer. You need to talk to this guy about his behaviour and illustrate exactly why you're taking him up on this. If he tries to defend it dont even give it a second.
"This is manipulative/dubious/sketchy behaviour within the workplace which is a form of abuse. Please keep us posted on this situation."
However, some even went further saying that it sounded like he was "stalking" her. One advised the woman to approach the situation very "carefully" as the man may not handle rejection well and she could be in danger.
They wrote: "This goes beyond inappropriate behaviour. Verging on dangerous if you ask me. Check out this website and support number. This man might be unstable and you should approach this carefully."
Another, who claimed to have been in a similar situation in her workplace, said: "Please ignore all the well meaning men on here telling you to confront him on your own. You don’t know how he’ll take the rejection.
"The best thing you can do is write down all the dates and examples of inappropriate gift giving and other things like that and go to HR. Remember though that HR is there to protect the company, not you."
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