Here I am casting a long shadow. I pondered on the subject of this ponder. My ponder is not particularly upbeat Saturday but sometimes some ponders just need to get out. I’m sure all women who have worked in hospital environments would have experienced unwanted sexual attention from male colleagues or patients. Yesterday with my group of bobbers I saw a man I had last worked with more than 20 years ago. He was in our bobbing zone. At work we all needed to get along with him to make the working day go efficiently. He had an exterior persona of being chatty and pleasant but would throw in inappropriate comments in such a way that I questioned if I had heard correctly. There was also an element of having to engage in his, sometimes, flirty behaviour to get a job done.

One of the other bobbers had worked at the same place at the same time. She quickly got as far from him as possible. Rather than get changed near him I pulled my swimming stuff over my underwear. Checking that all the other bobbers were getting ready to swim with minimal flesh on show.

We all jumped in for a bob and I kept an eye on him. He was staying a long time in the changing zone, chatting and being charming I am sure. I decided that when the time came to get out I would tell all the bobbers to move their stuff to a different place to get changed.

I am certain he would have done nothing beyond watching and chatting but that is not really the point. For twenty years in the eighties and nineties many women at that place of work knew to be cautious around him. Did anyone ever share their experiences with their line managers. I think it is extremely unlikely. Could he get away with such behaviour in the twenty-twenties. Probably. How many women could tell a similar story, even now.

This is not headline grabbing stuff but it is low level intimidation and it casts a long shadow.