Years ago, when I was younger and more naive, I got a new job at a little store. My boss was very friendly, and, I thought, a really nice guy. After a while, he started “opening up” to me, telling me about his wife and how mean she was. I gave him sympathetic advice, but mostly just listened. One afternoon, he asked me to go out to lunch the next day, and I said, “Sure. Why not?” Just a friendly lunch between boss and employee, I thought.
He called me that evening to tell me how “excited” he was about the prospect. “Err, uhm, it’s just * lunch,” * I said.
“Oh. Well, I was hoping it could be more than that,” he replied.
Shocked, I babbled something along the lines that I didn’t date married men, and I was sorry if he got that impression. He seemed to take it well, and the conversation ended on what I thought was a pleasant note.
However, the next day, I found that I had all but been eliminated from the schedule, and that I was suddenly delegated solely to the “crappy” jobs. Outraged, I reported the whole story to his superior and quit.
When I told the story to a friend, she urged me to apply for unemployment, because I hadn’t found another job yet and had bills to pay. She claimed that sexual harassment was one reason why you could quit and still draw benefits. At the time, I was getting depserate, so I followed her advice and applied, telling them the whole story.
A few weeks later, I got back word that my claim had been denied. Within a day or two, my roomate told me that my boss had called the house, but didn’t leave a message when she told him I wasn’t there. For obvious reasons, I didn’t return the call, and he never tried to call me again, either.