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Ok, I'm past the point of amused and now I'm angry.
I'm the senior manager of a subscription product and am fairly new in post. Our subscribers pay a small monthly fee and receive emails and other literature that now come from 'me' and contain my name and thumbnail image. This has been the same for everyone in the role prior. One of the benefits of the product is receiving exclusive monthly emails.
Today I was alerted to getting the following response to the first email that I authored, addressed directly to me, from one of our paid subscribers. After initially finding this funny (I have seen many weird and wonderful communications from the general public in my career) I now feel different.
This communication, whilst it is likely to be from someone vulnerable, is actually
nauseating for reasons that are obvious.
It's been flagged to my superiors but in all honesty I have found them ineffective at dealing with thorny issues like these in the past.
So I'm wondering what I should actually do in this situation. It's like someone has spotted a blurry image of me and felt like they could sexually proposition me based on that alone. It's grim and yet this person is technically a customer - someone who my colleagues and I exist to support.
What would you do in this situation, Queens? Should my company make more of a deal of this? Should we boot him off our subscriber list?
I'm angry. This shouldn't happen to women.
Edit: screenshot in comments
I’m so sorry this has happened to you. Why haven’t your employers immediately cancelled this crusty coomers subscription? I’m actually appalled they have done NOTHING to support you. Disgusting. I would be escalating this up to HR. I would also request your photo is no longer added to your email. I hate that we are so accessible now through LinkedIn with photos and through our websites and email. Scrotes like this now have access to our images without our consent to do what they want with them. Such an invasion of privacy. You are just trying to be professional and do your job until a man comes along and ruins it.
The company should definitely blacklist or kick such customers off the list. Most companies have policies regarding such things, although they differ from company to company. Escalating it to HR or higher management (depending on the organisational structure) should definitely be done. It is a matter of safety for one of their employees. Ideally, it will be taken seriously.
Personally, I would keep the screenshot and start a folder documenting everything about this. If possible, get as much as you can on emails which you can screenshot. Also I would be looking at the company policies about stuff and getting copies of them for the folder, which will help you check if they are following them.
I personally do this to help keep track of what is going on in a company, as HR exists to keep it safe. The more records you have of them failing, the easier it is for you, because HR is never on your side.
In the UK employers have a duty of care to their staff, which includes protecting them from sexual harassment. In my experience, employers will happily bend you over if they think they can get away with it. Sounds like they have been like that in the past and most likely will try again here.
Acas can give impartial advice about the situation, which might be able to help more than I can.