Hey everyone. First time poster here!
I (33F) absolutely love my job, and almost every aspect of it.
I work as a contractor for a company that does mostly monthly services for both businesses and residential clients. 99% of the time, only one tech is sent to do the job, alone.
The field is very male dominated, in fact I am the first female technician employed at this particular company in their entire 90 years of existence.
I am also obese, which has made my job difficult in some aspects. For example, sometimes I'm required to get into a crawlspace, but can barely fit through the entrance, or I may need to get into an attic, but don't know if I can trust myself not to fall or destroy the ladder required to reach it.
Also, I hate how unprofessional I look in my uniform. We're supposed to wear a company logo work jersey and khakis, but the jerseys accentuate my flabby upper body and I literally cannot find khakis that fit and don't look like clown pants. So, no matter how hot it is, I tend to wear layers, and just wore my jeans (until the crotch rubbed away on them) and now a work-like set of sweat pants my sister bought for me.
I've struggled with my weight and been mostly invisible all my life, and honestly my body has been kind of a security blanket when it comes to my job. I visit some unsavory places for work, but never really felt like I had to worry about my safety, due to my size and invisibility.
But one day I was sexually harassed by a very gross, very clever, one-time client.
Basically, he lured me into seeing him playing with himself.
I say he's clever, because he did it in a way, it could look like I just mistakenly walked in on him, but believe me, with how long and loud I'd called out and waited before going searching for him (even calling loudly outside the ajar door he was behind) there was no way it was an accident. =/
And this actually happened in one of the nicer residential parts of my city.
Just for anyone wondering, I'd talked to the boss and, as far as I know, the man was blacklisted, but of course I didn't have any proof of the harassment so I couldn't really do anything else about it.
I'd been propositioned and uncomfortably flirted with before during the job, but man, I really never expected something like that to happen to me!
Recently, my contact for one of a large group of locations I do, started to make me feel uncomfortable with his flirtation. He's a good-looking man, so I'd figured he's either just being nice and I'm over-reading it, or there must be something wrong with him to show interest in me. (I know.. super healthy mindset over myself, but to be fair, the only people that have ever shown interest in me are either crackheads or men 2 - 3 times my age. sometimes both...) I'd always be friendly yet professional with him.
Then he got a little too flirty for me, and also forgot to take off his wedding ring.
I was grossed out and uncomfortable enough to ask the office to transfer his service to another tech.
They thought I was being a bit ridiculous, maybe I was, but I thought this was the best way to handle it and not cause an issue.
After the transfer, I saw him with two techs from a competing company go to do a bid on one of my stops. Now I can't help but worry that we're going to lose all that work, all because I didn't just suck it up and let the guy flirt with me.
This has all happened just within my first two years of doing this.. and I'm an obese woman.
What happens when I finally lose the weight? What trouble or safety issues will that cause?
What if the next guy doesn't just harass me, but assaults me?
I've currently been doing CICO and changing my diet.
I want to look better and feel better, and I'm going to, but it's always in the back of my mind that this will become a bigger problem with my career and possibly my health. I've never had to worry about something like this before. It's eye-opening and a little bit devastating.
Any advice would be appreciated. =)
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/v8ugqk/i_may_have_to_change_careers_when_i_reach_my/
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