-
Pole and the Work Place Drama
-
I imagine when your boss said it was a violation of ethics to make money from pole dancing she was talking about exotic dancing/stripping. Teaching a dance based exercise class is clearly different. Pole is becoming a popular and accepted fitness activity. Perhaps your boss doesn't know this?
I hope that you and your boss would be able to communicate so the difference between pole fitness and stripping is clear, and so that you would be able to continue teaching pole classes without being fearful of being found out.
-
Utter bullshit. I’d keep a lawyer on call and document everything well like webs talked about.
Now because everyone’s given thoughtful advice, can I just say…dude seriously f*ck those people! WTF! F*cking assholes! Unbelievable…coworkers keep your noses up your own assholes with the rest of your head and mind your own damn business. People suck.
-
Wow, I’m glad I came across this thread because I just encountered a similar situation at work 🙁 I’ve been at a new job with a company I worked for for a few years on and off, for about 3 months now. When I first started pole I worked for the same company but at a different location, and would talk about it occasionally. That was when the stripper roumers started. I just laughed it off and wams like yea thats what I do, sure….Now, the boss I had a few years ago told my new boss I’m a stripper!!! Well, I still got the job at least, but I guess they Googled me before my first day and found some of my pics and videos and joked around about how he â€hired a stripper hahaha†Not that the maturity level in my workplace is very high, but lets add insult to injury! The girls I work with now know what I actually do, and think its reallt cool, so now they’re telling me all the horrible things the boss said about me before I even,started! And how before they knew me, they were going to torture me by changing all their ringtones to â€I’m in love with a stripper†and Clorox everything I touched because I’m so â€dirtyâ€. I literally went home crying for a few days. And apparently, when I get out of work at 4, its because I go strip, not teach at a studio. My boss is very immature apparently, and theres so much drama as it is, I feel like I work with children! If I confront him, who knows how much worse it will get, or if ill get hours that I cant work or no hours at all, or worse, I’m terrified of being fired now that I’m finally becoming financially secure. 🙁
-
RaquelleStar, that is called fostering a hostile work environment and possibly workplace harassment and it is against the law. Look it up and go and talk to your HR depertment about it.
-
Thank you, I will do that. My only problem is I’ve never heard it straight from him, just everyone I work with, so I have no proof. But even them saying it to me is making me say I’ve had enough!
-
It does not matter if you have "proof"….the fact that co-workers have told you that he has said this behind your back is a case to get HR involved. It is better to be the first to bring a concern to their attention than for him to take it to HR as something totally different.
-
if you still have your job , why make more drama about it. People are probly just making jokes and if you react to those then the problems could start !
-
Raquelle…I would suggest a professional face to face approach.
Get in the right mind-set and keep it very simple and matter of fact…tell him you are concerned that some other employees have approached you stating that he is under the impression that you are a stripper and you are concerned that they are saying these things about him when it's not true.
Tell him you just want to be certain that he understands you do not work as an exotic dancer but work as a professional dance/exercise instructor and wanted to clarify this before it becomes embaressing for either of you.
My guess is that if you're very professional and calm and matter of fact about it, you may in fact make him nervous that he's made these remarks and that it may lead to a harassment charge on his part.
-
Poel and work drama . . . FML. Here's my story: I was fired by two different employers because they found out I was a pole dancr (performer, teacher, but not stripper). I was at a non-profit as a diversity recruiter for college interns. The first was my FT job that I was at for a little over a year. At first they urged me to "consider my cyber reputation" and think about taking things down. I told them thanks but I'm not going back into the closet about this. Six weeks later, I'm filing for unemployment. Of course, there was no talk of pole being the reason for my termination, but the timing is very coincidental.
Job #2 was to be a receptionist at a school. I didn't even make it to my first day. They gave me an offer, sent me paperwork, then recinded everything once the background and Google check turned up all my pole stuff. They told me outright it was because I pole and they didn't know how they would explain it to the families, students or donors.
I defend both institutions' rights to eliminate percieved threats to their success — that's leadership. What hurts me to the core and makes me cry from my soul is that I was (and am) considered harmful. I'm just a nice person who is smart. Because I pole dance, all of my intellegence and worth was negated.
-
I have 1 person from work on my FB. I deleted everyone because that one person was dragged into a disciplinary because of something she put on FB. I wasn’t prepared to be that person.
It’s SAD but some people really have nothing better to do with their lives than cause trouble for others.
Somewhere in all of this will be the basic jealous woman and coveting male… -
I have to say I really consider myself lucky being able to have a job where they are very accepting of pole and what I do. They have never seen it as a 'stripping' side gig. Heck, my boss is crazy in love with Steven Retchless and encouraged me to take one of his classes in NY!
Most of my coworkers are on my FB and while ive dialed down the pole posts (I had one person block me from their feed b/c I post too many pole things – hey its the only thing ive got going on people!), they are still cool with it. The best is when newly hired people find out who I am. One our new people found my AGT audition and was shocked it was me!
-
As awful as it is, I'm glad that we're all posting our pole/work woes because it brings us all together in a way where we can be like, "Yeah, that happened to me too, this is what I did to rectify it…it'll be ok". Or whatnot. Being able to give each other that support when it's really needed you know?
I'm so so sorry Raquelle, but everyone is right, that IS a hostile work environment and HR should be aware of it. I'm so sorry, I can't imagine how awful that must be!!!
Log in to reply.