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The original was posted on /r/bestofredditorupdates by /u/MadisonBrave on 2025-06-29 05:23:45+00:00.
I am not the OOP. That would be u/throwrainsidious2. Links to the posts can be found below
Trigger Warning: sexualizing of a minor, sexual harrassment/jokes in the workplace
Mood Spoiler: frustrating
Original Post: (February 27th, 2023)
No, you’re not reading the title wrong. I thought my friend (John) was pulling my leg when he told me, but he recently found out and told me about it because I was mentioned in said podcast. For background, this is an office job, and I am interning as a phone rep mostly while also in college. John showed me the podcast that someone showed him after finding it, and that’s how I found out. Long story short, it’s one of our managers (Josh) and his friend on the podcast, and his friend doesn’t work at the company. He doesn’t solely talk about his employees on the podcast (he also does sports/politics), but the segment where he did was about “work stories” related to his job, and I’ll refrain from the actual title for obvious reasons. One of the clips John showed me was about a girl who went on maternity leave and the girl who replaced her temporarily, and he made jokes comparing them (using their first names) and even called her replacement “retar__d”. However, the clip about me involved my Instagram
Long story short, I haven’t used Instagram in years, and my last post was literally 4 years ago. Maybe I should’ve had it private, and I’ve since deleted it this week. On the podcast, he talked about how some of the managers follow each each and some of the employees, but that there were a few he didn’t follow that led him to search them to “learn more about his team”, and that’s how he came across mine. He said I had a “hidden talent” of dance from high school that I “didn’t tell him about”, and he joked it was because I “didn’t want to be hit on”. He also said my boyfriend “must be happy with my flexibility” even though I’m single, and his friend said that that was “the reason I posted” and that “my face wasn’t doing it”. Josh also joked about “if I was still flexible”, and his friend said to “drop something to have me bend down”. Josh is a jokester at work, but I was floored by his video. It’s on YouTube. And while it doesn’t show his face, his name is in the description, and my friend wants to address it with HR after telling the mother who was on maternity leave. However, he’s not sure if there’s anything else we should do beforehand besides having numbers (when we go in) that he thinks will be important, and he wants us to go in together. So here is my question. Are we handling this correctly, and is there anything else we should do beforehand to get our ducks in a row, perhaps even legally such as consulting a lawyer?
Update Post (update can be found on the bottom): (January 22nd, 2024)
As I’m writing this, I’m no longer at the company. My coworker and I went to HR according to the advice we received, and we used a YouTube downloader to download the videos specifically mentioning employees in case they’d be deleted upon him learning of a potential investigation. I also made sure to tell them that the dance videos he commented about me were from when I was much younger, and we also mentioned his derogatory comments about the coworker on maternity leave. We gave them links along with a thumb drive containing copies of the videos we downloaded, and we felt like it went fine at the time. We only received one follow-up meeting afterwards to let us know that they spoke to the manager about it, and that meeting was given separately to my coworker and I. The videos were also deleted around that time, and the manager was never fired (at least when I was there for a few more months). The follow-up meeting was the last update we got before months of radio silence, but my ex-coworker and I have a guess as to why
All of the managers including the two HR workers at our office are tight, and they all often go out for sushi after close in the same plaza as our office too. They also follow each other on social media (although the manager’s podcast was never linked to his personal social from what we saw before going to HR), so we weren’t exactly expecting much when they’re practically friends and post Instagram photos together (including the HR managers with them too). Months went by with no updates following the follow-up, and said podcast manager began to treat me somewhat differently like being short with me or giving me side-eyes too. Even the mother on maternity leave made a complaint after we told her about his comment. But again, nothing came from it to our knowledge
I eventually put in my two weeks, and that was pretty much it. His podcast channel is still up and posts new episodes, but nothing pertaining to work/coworker stories from when I last checked. My coworker friend said he wouldn’t be suprised if the other managers already knew about the podcast given how tight they were. I began looking for other work around the time we initially visited HR because he really came off as a creep. There was another comment from the video about me that I forgot to add, but he joked that he should offer a prize for whoever had the best split at the annual Christmas party as a way to see if I still had them (they play fun games at the Christmas party), and the whole thing just felt gross to me. I didn’t attend for obvious reasons, but it’s creepy just knowing that a manager I thought was completely normal could be such a creep
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(Comments)
(Corgi_Cake):
“HR exists to protect the company - not you. Your mileage may vary, but remember that at all times. HR is not your friend. Document everything yourself. The podcast likely breaks company policy in multiple ways, and some aspects could be considered sexual harrasment. You absolutely should file a formal complaint together. There is nothing here (yet) to get a lawyer involved with. If the harassment continues or there is any kind of retaliation (even a position change) - that would be where you can look at legal avenues”
“Yes you should 100% take this to HR. Make sure you download a copy of it so that you have documentation in case the guy hears you’re reporting it and tries to delete it”
(cali_grown22):
“I work in HR and I would absolutely be interested in knowing a MANAGER is posting videos talking about employees. Especially when he’s being rude about them. This is unacceptable”
This has to be a lawsuit in the making
