April is National Sexual Assault Awareness month. As I was looking into this matter, I read all about sexual harassment in the workplace. I experienced a bit of that myself once. It was when my husband's uncle persuaded us we should sell insurance with him because we were successfully failing being Realtors. It was long-term, home health care insurance. The clientele had sent in a junk mail lead where signed for some information that they wanted, and we would visit them at their residences. They did not always read the fine print and realize that we were bringing the info.

Well, my hubby's uncle lives in Ocala, Florida which is a good two hour drive north of us as we are in the Tampa Bay area. My husband went up to Ocala to run the leads and get trained by him. They got leads for Gainesville and other places a couple of hours north of Ocala. In that office, there was a superior that distributed the leads. There were some areas where the senior citizens had HMO's and did not really buy the kind of insurance we sold. The superior is the one that pretty much will help make or break ya. Our supervisor was going to take me out to teach me the ropes while my hubby was up north.

I was dressed in a pants suit with my hair in a bun. I was dressed quite conservatively. Well, instead of getting to the first house and teaching me the ropes, he decided he wanted to go out to eat some Chinese food. He then wined and dined me, telling me about how much money he made and had. He even told me that if I was with him basically, I would be at the spa now instead of working. I was rather shocked by what he was saying. Especially since a family member of ours was in the business, then when a husband and wife go to work together as a team, that usually can tell you that their relationship is pretty darn strong. People are always dumbfounded by the fact that we work so good together.

He then wanted to go shopping. He brought me to an art gallery, he then wanted to stop at a coffee shop in the same plaza and have coffee and dessert to talk a little more. At this point I was getting very perturbed and flat out asked him when he was going to show me how to run my leads. We then finally went to a house where he ran the type of lead that only supervisors get, the straight phoned in, I want this insurance type lead. I told him that I don't get those types of leads, so why was he showing me these?

The training lasted a couple days, and by the last day, he asked if I wanted to go to this one bar that's a well known pick up place and then told me how much I was going to love the Pina Coladas he was going to make for me at his house with this wonderful Jamaican rum that he brought back personally from Jamaica. My blood was boiling at this point, and I flat out told him that I was very close to my husband and I'd never do such a thing. Needless to say, he gave us the bottom of the barrel leads and made sure that we failed. All because I didn't give in to his fantasies. I brought this up to a manager, and he just swept it under the rug. I was so aggravated with the whole situation and business, I just let it go.

There are women that are in quite similar situations, but don't get off as lucky as I did. He could've easily tried to take advantage of me and sexually assault me. Perhaps if I wasn't in the same business as my husband and his uncle. Every female should carry a self defense product on them at all times. Be sure to check out all the options we have available for you.

Yours In Safety,

Regina Jacques