@TimB Or they may actually like it. My SO and I had quite some issues in the past with one of the her former bosses because he got the wrong messages from her. She is very flirty all the time and really enjoys teasing up people with things like "putting her ass up in the air by the watercooler". Remember - females are human beings too, and they too enjoy sex, teasing and flirting. Maybe the daily teasing is a part of the culture that the people working there simply enjoy.

@TimB Take Brazil as an example - most gals are openly flirty in the workplace with their male coworkers, and so are males regarding females. Relationships born from the workplace are incredibly common for quite some time - my mother and my father were coworkers, my sister and my brother-in-law were coworkers, my grandparents were coworkers...

@TimB And, that's not deemed "unprofessional" - only if it disrupts your work. Otherwise, go ahead. It isn't rare to see both males and females slipping hands where they shouldn't.

@TimB Putting it on other words - they are humans, too, and most humans like to feel sexy and desired. They may be having fun. It isn't because they are behaving in a more raunchy way that this is automatically a self-defense mechanism and the males are at fault.

Frankly, the idea that only men can be willingly flirty in the workplace is as outdated as the one the pushes that females should be stay-at-home moms.

@T.Sar I didn't say it was automatically a defense mechanism. I just pointed out that that was a potential explanation that may not have been considered yet.

The fact that you think I did and feel the need to leap in to defend people's rights to grope each other at work says more about you than me. When the situation has developed to the point that other people (female or not) feel uncomfortable and/or are expected to join in whether they want to or not - then yes it is a problem. Whether some girls (and men) like the attention or not others very definitely do not and their feelings should be respected too.

@TimB Don't get me wrong - I'm absolutely not defending the anyone's rights to grope each other. Please don't treat it like that. What I'm saying is that this type of attention is something that people sometimes want, not something that is automatically bad. The situation on the question is a real problem - the OP doesn't want to join in the behavior and is feeling forced to it, and I'm not saying it isn't.

@TimB "The fact that you think I did and feel the need to leap in to defend people's rights to grope each other at work says more about you than me" -> this personal attack was unneeded, too. It doesn't reflect what I said nor what I meant and it's a malicious twist on my intent.

@TimB My issue here isn't about the OP not wanting any of that bullshit that her colleagues are forcing on her. My issue here is that your defense mechanism hypothesis is pushing forward the idea that only males do flirty things by their on will in the office.

Sorry, but you sounded like one of the anti-PC "they're all asking for it" lot at that point - making excuses for behaviour and saying "maybe they wanted it"

yes women can be flirty too, and I never said they couldn't. However I was pointing out to the OP that actually some of them women that at the moment she thinks of as being in favour of the environment may not be - they may just be playing along to avoid other trouble. I don't know if they are or aren't. All I did was raise the possibility that seemed to have been overlooked.

I didn't say they are or are not liking it. I don't know them. I don't know the environment. All I'm saying is that they might not.

@TimB Well, point taken. I'm sorry if my point sounded outlandish, but it wasn't my intention to put it like that. Harassment is a serious thing, for everyone, and it should be handed with the proper care.

@T.Sar Sorry if I was snappy in my response. Been dealing with a lot of anti-PC idiots recently which may have left me over-sensitized to it.

@TimB I've been dealing with a lot of extremists on the other side of the spectrum, but I can fell ya. It's hard to keep the chills when you're hearing the same bullshity arguments over and over!