To think your boss shouldn't refer to you as babe

[abbinobb]

Not just me, all women who work here but it gives me the creeps. And girl. As in 'your doing a good job there girl' 'can you do this for me babe?'
Gives me the creeps.
I hardly know him so it's weird, it's not like he's my friend or anything then it would be less weird.
Aibu to think it's weird and annoying? Or is that normal?

If your work has a HR person, I would be making a complaint

It's belittling, demeaning, and sexist.

YANBU. Speak to HR.

HR and official complaint. It's belittling and sexist.

Or call him 'studmuffin' or 'bad boy' every time you speak to him.

Do you have an HR department?

No they shouldnt but is ir not just one of those phase things? I had a collegue who called everyone babe ,hun etc male and female used ro make me cringe, other managers used the term love etc this was the NHS.

Yuck! I wouldn't like that one bit. He may not realise it, but it's actually pretty demeaning.

Ugh. He definitely shouldn't.

Unless your boss is Farmer Hoggett

Can't get worked up about this; it's a term of endearment, like 'love '.
It's pretty inoffensive, but then I'm old!
It's better than 'bitch '.

It's belittling, demeaning, and sexist.

It's none of these. Before making "official complaints" how about acting like an adult and telling him you don't like it.

Is it just a Colloquialism rather than a sexual reference? I call everyone sweetheart/darling and one of the area managers always refers to me as "kid" - he is nearly 60 and I am in my 30's, it is nothing more than a friendly term.

I actually think yabu and overthinking it unless there is significantly more to this than your post suggests

It's infantilising.

And if only used to women, therefore sexist.

I would ask him to stop, unless you're worried about repercussions and in that case take it further up.

Is your boss from Liverpool? My friend is and he calls all females from my mothers age to mine 'girl'. He is likeable and no offence is needed if you don't like it just say. Likewise my Stoke friend calls everyone duck!
It's like some people from the West Country call people 'my lover' which would be most odd round here. No need for outrage just have a word.

If he calls men babe as well, then I wouldn't have a problem with it.

People who call other people darling/love tend to do so indiscriminately of the sex of who they're speaking to.

8 posts to "just a term of endearment and 10 to "overthinking". How long to "dialect"?

I think at worst, it's a tad unprofessional.
I work in a primary school and I'm guilty of using 'sweetheart' and 'chicken' to my charges. Perhaps I shouldn't, but they never complain. I do think that reporting to HR is OTT and should be dealt with as 'a quiet word in his ear'!
Maybe we should all go back a hundred years and call each other 'my dear', which, in modern speech would appear quite patronising.
The poor man's using it without a second thought, in a friendly, banter'ish manner. Give him a break!!

Do you really see no difference between an adult calling a child "sweetheart" and a boss calling a woman employee "babe"?

"
"People who call other people darling/love tend to do so indiscriminately of the sex of who they're speaking to."

Women do. Men don't.

YANBU.
Is he a pimp? I imagine it's common in that line of business.

Bertrand - of course there's a difference!
I was talking about the unprofessional element, not comparing adults and children!

But it's not even remotely unprofessional for an adult to call a child sweetheart!

Bertrand - It could be seen to be unprofessional in some school environments. Maybe too 'familiar'?

Calling someone babe is totally unprofessional!

How can it ever be OK? It's so sexist! Its objectification, once again.