Hi all - difficult one here and not sure how to put a stop to it. Going to be a bit vague as defo don't want to be outed.
Started a new job 3 months ago, and absolutely love the job but I am very new to the profession so am working my hardest to impress the bosses, make a good impression and such.
We have a different professional who my company works alongside, and we refer clients to each other if need be - he often holds his meetings in our workplace's meeting rooms. I am early twenties and he must be at-least forty.
On my first day meeting him, he introduced himself, gave me his business card and asked me to text him with a "hello" so he had my number for if he needed to refer a client to me as he is often out of the office and uses his mobile. Thought it was a bit forward, but wanted to get off on the best foot possible with all of my colleagues, so sent the "hello" text.
Now he texts me almost daily, asking how my day has been, talking about his life, asking about mine. I have made it clear I have a boyfriend, and have also make it clear that I know he has a girlfriend (a quick FB stalk showed me this).
I don't want to talk to him regularly as it is too personal and makes me feel uncomfortable, I want a work relationship only and when he does text me I just reply politely without asking leading questions. He is very persistent and has called me a couple of times too in the evenings to "chat". One time I answered and said it wasn't a good time, another time I just let it ring through and didn't answer. He has asked me out to lunch on more than one occasion and I politely declined both times, stating that I would like the relationship to remain in work only, and that my boyfriend would not be happy either.
If it was anyone else, I would just tell them to back off and leave me alone, however he is very influential in the firm and I am worried that if I appear rude or annoy him by telling him to stop texting me, he may cause problems for me at work. I have finally got myself into the career of my dreams, desperate to progress as far as possible and it just worries me that if I turn around and politely tell him to fuck off, he could do any number of things to make my career difficult. Our company isn't very big, and all of the partners sing his praises and I wouldn't feel comfortable going to them with a complaint about him as I have only been working here for a couple of months.
For now, I have just stopped replying to his messages but he often just sends follow up texts.
What would you do?