It’s unfortunate that women who work still feel like they aren’t safe when they’re alone – and a lot of it has to do with how men act toward them.
One gas station employee and TikToker shared a video showing a male customer talking to her while she was alone working the night shift — and it’s sparking a conversation about how men believe they are flirting when in reality they are really just making women very uncomfortable.
The video, which has over 3.6 million views, starts with a male customer referencing part of the conversation between himself and Sami Jean, who goes by @nobootyshakin. “Your front plate? What’s wrong with your front plate?” asks Sami. Sami noted in the video’s caption that she was “printing the exact same paper over and over to appear busy” while she was having the interaction with the customer.
“It’s visible,” the customer responds, referring to his license plate.
“Why is that a bad thing?” Sami asks.
The customer doesn’t answer the question but decides it’s a good idea to comment on her “flirtatious laugh” (it’s a NERVOUS laugh, buddy) when he asks if she wants to drive his car at a high speed.
“I’m just laughing because I’m a bad driver, that’s why,” she says in response. He then says that she would be the passenger. Sami asks him why he keeps “looking back” and he tells her he is just looking at his car. Sami then tells him she must get back to work.
It gets even worse. The customer asks her again if she wants to go for a drive or if they could stay in a hotel room.
“I don’t know about that one either, I have a boyfriend,” Sami responded.
“You didn’t mention him earlier,” the worker says. It’s all very creepy!
Viewers commented on how the interaction was scary, especially viewers who listen to a lot of true crime media:
“I listen to way too much true crime is first sentence about the license plate would have put me in full tear!” one commenter wrote.
Others commented on how sadly normal this kind of behavior is: “Idk what’s scarier this, or the fact that because we’re women it doesn’t matter what shift we work,” one commenter wrote. “This still happens. Even if we’re not working alone.”
Sami updated viewers with another video, in which she explains that she just started working at the gas station a few weeks ago. She informed them that the store has safety precautions in place, like an alarm that alerts her to anyone walking into the store and a button she can press when she might be in a precarious situation. Sami also said that drinks are free for cops, so they are frequently at the store. This was the first time she felt “nervous” at work, but it’s definitely not the first time this has happened to a female worker at night.
