– is a white, Anglophone Quebecer. She was about 20 at the time of the story

The first serious summer job, I was the mail girl. One day I was behind a wall and I was sorting mail and everybody else was out. And this big guy walked into the office and he said, “I'm looking for Daniel”. I said, “He'll be back in 15 minutes or so”. And he came behind the wall to be in front of me, and there's no one else, and he says, “Oh, you don't have Daniel in your pocket, do you?” and he puts his hand in my pocket. And, thankfully my brother had told me that the company had recently put into place these sexual harassment laws. And so I said to this guy, “What's your name? Where do you work?” And he said “why do you wanna know?” and I said, “Because I'm gonna report you for sexual harassment so fast you're gonna be out on your ass without a job and you're gonna be in deep s--t!” And he was like, (gasp!) and he left and I never saw him again the whole summer.

By naming the problem, Sarah used the element of surprise to retake control of the situation and scare the aggressor.

– est une femme immigrante, de couleur, dans la trentaine.

Je travaillais dans un restaurant et le propriétaire m'avait engagée pour quatre heures [par jour], puis il voulait tout le temps que je reste pour une heure de plus, qu'il me payait, mais moi j'avais d'autres choses à faire. Puis j'ai commencé à être tannée de ne pas faire respecter mon horaire. Une fois, j'ai dit : « Non! Mon contrat c'est quatre heures par jour et j'ai d'autres choses à faire. » Puis, lui il m'a dit : « Mais tu sais là, je t'ai engagée ici sous la table. C'est pas déclaré, je peux appeler la police puis leur dire.» J'ai dit : « Oui, appelle-les! Toi, c'est toi qui m'a engagée comme ça. Appelle-les, je vais leur dire ! » Il a commencé à rire puis il a dit : « Non, non, c'était une blague ! » J'ai dit « Mais, moi aussi c'était une blague ! » Puis je suis partie.

Véro set her limits about how much time she wanted to work, and she said what she meant. Then she turned the tables on him when he threatened her! By going along with his story of it all being a joke, she was able to keep her job.

– est une femme québécoise, blanche, dans la cinquantaine

C'était à l'ouvrage. C'était une femme qui était ma boss, qui se sentait supérieure et tout, puis qui aime écraser et tout ça. J'étais engagée pour une job, mais elle me faisait faire une sous-job : elle essayait toujours de m'abaisser. En fin du compte, j'ai dit « Mais, quand tu vas avoir d'la job pour ce que tu m'as engagée, je reviendrai. » Puis, je suis partie. Au bout d'une semaine, c'était un autre chef qui m'a appelée puis qui m'a engagée.

Lise said what she meant. She was also prepared to set her limits by leaving the job until things changed.

– is a Montrealer of Indian origin who is in her thirties

I was working in an office with another woman, and she was kind of like a bully, she would have power trips and things like that. One day, she hadn't come into work and she didn't call, and we had had an agreement that if we are not coming in, we just let the other know. So the next day when she came in I asked if everything was ok and she said yeah. So I told her “Ok, well next time can you just let me know?” And then she got really angry, and she's like “Well, isn't it obvious that if I wasn't there that I wasn't coming in, you should know, na na na na...” I stayed calm and I told her, “Look, I'm not trying to be accusatory, it's just that we had this agreement and this is what we had decided together and this is what I would like”. And she was still kind of angry but then she calmed down and she said, “Ok, that's enough”. And then she sat back.

Aisha stayed calm and said what she meant.