Re:Not Just Mike Pence. Americans Are Wary of Being Alone wi...
by Spivak on Monday July 03, 2017 @02:41AM
(#14686319)
I'm not even considering the case where the woman is being malicious; even in the case a misunderstanding her feelings could be completely valid. For example, she could take me buying her a drink as an advance when I'm really just getting the next round. Or I could be venting or speaking passionately about something and have it come off as scary; I'm a pretty big dude and I have a hearing problem so I talk too loud sometimes.
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Re:Not Just Mike Pence. Americans Are Wary of Being Alone wi...
by xenadu02 on Monday July 03, 2017 @02:51AM
(#14686367)
Then just say that's what you're doing. Ask her if she feels uncomfortable and say you want to have a productive but professional working relationship.
Re:Not Just Mike Pence. Americans Are Wary of Being Alone wi...
by mercer on Monday July 03, 2017 @06:27AM
(#14687222)
I dislike the use of the word 'just' in these kinds of discussions. If it were 'just' a matter of doing x, we wouldn't be discussing it.
I can't think of any recent professional interaction with a woman (I'm a man) where the mere act of 'asking if she feels uncomfortable' or underlining how this is not a outside-of-work-type situation wouldn't be enough to make the whole thing uncomfortable.
It'd a milder form of saying 'I don't want to have sex with you, just to be clear.'
I'm sure there are situations where this can and should be said, and where this might be done in a non-awkward way, I'm just saying that in many cases it's not that simple. Being explicit can be creepy.