"I feel unsafe in my place of work," States a teen lifeguard

November 12, 2025

    "I know I did the right thing, so why is he watching me?" I sat up in the chair scanning, but my eyes were darting back to where he was playing with his kids, the cold stare burning into me. I suddenly felt self-conscious about my lifeguard uniform. I felt his stare follow me as I took my lap around the pool and back to my manager. "He won't stop staring." I whispered to my manager, "He's disgusting, I don't call him white van for nothing." 

    The subtle or even not-so-subtle harassment of teenage workers by adult customers, coworkers, and managers is an issue. It's a scary thing when you know you have a pair of eyes sizing you up or an adult yelling in your face because you're doing your job. I have some personal experience with two different adults eyeing me up in my uniform, a two-piece bikini swimsuit. I've seen coworkers get yelled at, and I've been yelled at myself for doing my job. But what makes these people think it's okay to treat teenage workers this way? 

   "Several studies, utilizing adult populations have linked Sexual harassment victims' emotional, psychological, and behavioral responses, such as sadness, depression, anxiety, and interpersonal withdrawal." This is from an article published by Taylor & Francis Group. Although this statement is about adults, it leads into another statement on the link between behaviors with teens: "Similar relationships between exposure to sexual harassment and difficulty in adjusting has been reported among the adolescent population as well." These statements highlight specifically the damage that sexual harassment can have on a person. 

    In West Virginia, A Chuck-E-Cheese was sued by a 17-year-old employee who quit after her manager sexually harassed her. "She claims her manager groomed her for unwanted touching with sexually inappropriate comments. She quit and obtained counsel, telling the court she hoped to raise awareness for sexual harassment." This article is titled Teen Harassment? Avoid A PR Nightmare, which highlights problems in the workplace that could lead to larger consequences. 

    Some might say that addressing the issue with management can solve or fix the problem. However, that's not true if the harassment is coming from management; it could work if it's coming from a co-worker, but then that could make the co-worker more angry and escalate the harassment. If the harassment is from a customer, management can't do much until the harassment reaches a certain level. As someone who has experienced harassment from customers, there isn't anything my management can do because they are paying to be there, and it hasn't escalated to a certain point that is outwardly deemed dangerous to me or others. 

    One should never have to feel unsafe in their workplace. not only speaking from experience of being yelled at for doing my job, and being stared at like a piece of meat, but from the research done on the effects it has on teens. Not all harassment is visible to others, and they might call you dramatic, but your gut instinct isn't wrong until proven. Harassment shouldn't be something people just have to deal with, especially teens.