You know what’s crazy?
How you can do the right thing—and still get punished for it.
Yesterday, I had to work with the guy I reported to HR. He watched me walk in like nothing happened. I kept my head up, walked right past him like he didn’t exist. But I felt sick to my stomach the whole time.
What blows my mind is that another girl once said we didn’t get along, and they changed her entire schedule. But me? I report someone for crossing a boundary—and I’m still scheduled to work with him.
Make it make sense.
HR told me it was my fault because I gave him my phone. Mind you, he offered to help me. I thought he was being kind. But now I’m being told I should’ve known he was trying to go through my gallery?
So let me get this straight: if I leave work at 2AM and get attacked, that’s my fault too? Because I should’ve prepared for it?
Is it ever the attacker’s fault—or always the victim’s?
I’m not trying to play victim here. I’m trying to handle this like an adult. But this whole situation is absurd. I’m losing work hours now because they’re trying to schedule me around him—the one who violated my trust.
And just to flex, he removed me from the bartender group chat. No explanation. Just a silent reminder that he still has power over me.
This is exactly why women don’t speak up.
Because when we do, we’re met with silence, side-eyes, or worse—retaliation. This story is older than time. Women speak up, and the system tells us to be quiet, to move on, to “watch who we trust.”
But if I was someone’s daughter—his daughter—would this be okay?
Or is it only “my fault” because I’m just another outsider, another “girl who should’ve known better”?
Let’s talk about what “should’ve known better” really means.
Should I have known that a man offering help had ulterior motives? Should I have known that handing over my phone meant he’d invade my privacy? Should I have known that by trusting someone, I was “asking for it”?
Using their logic, would it be my fault if I got raped? Because my shirt was too short? Because I bent over to pick something up? Because I have a vagina?
This is what it looks like when a company protects its image instead of its people.
I spoke up. And REGAL CINEMAS retaliated.
Not the man who violated my boundaries. Me.
The same company that constantly brags about “valuing employees,” “supporting safety,” and “fostering community.” The same company that now wants to focus on me having my phone out—a rule no one enforces.
Even my boss said, “I don’t know why they’re focusing on that. Everyone is on their phone from time to time.” Then he turned around and called me “sista.” Like we’re good.
No. We’re not good.
You didn’t have my back. And now I’ve lost hours I need to survive. I have bills. I have responsibilities. I have a right to feel safe at work.
Instead, I feel exposed. Violated. Silenced.
All because I told the truth.
Now what am I supposed to do?
Continue working there? For men who don’t give a damn about me?
I don’t start my new job until the end of next month.
So do I stay?
Do I keep showing up to a place that’s shown me I don’t matter?
Do I endure the ache of uncertainty, the discomfort of being unseen, unheard, unsafe?
Crazy world we’re living in.
I didn’t think this happened in the real world.
All those trainings we took I thought it was for entertainment purposes. Oh how naive I was.
I can see why women stay quiet. But silence never was my calling.
Echo R.S 