Warning due to comment to staff

NotAProgDirector

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I told a staff member that she was more beautiful in person that over the phone (we had talked a lot and she told me quite a bit about herself before we met, including where she lived, her future plans and other things) when I first met her I made the comment followed by a hug (she pulled her hair all the way back so I could see her entire face); when we sat down to speak I asked her age (which she responded by saying it wasn't important). I asked if I offended her with the question; she stated no and then lied to me about scheduling classes.During our second meeting she knew what she did and began acting weird; I asked if I made her uncomfortable and she said the firs time we met she was (liar), I apologized. Most of the time she avoided me while other times she became confrontational.

She screwed up a bunch of things related to my Academic track continuously that I didn't report to the school because it could cause me more issues (and she began making smart remarks that I would still be able to go to med school despite her carelessness and lies), creating a trail of mistakes that I have to clear up because she didn't check pre-reqs when registering my classes at the school. She then transferred me to another adviser with no explanation; when I attempted to make an appointment with her through my new adviser, she reported me to the schools Judiciary board (roughly 3 weeks after the beautiful and age comment) and I received an emailed warning stating that a staff member reported that I made inappropriate comments. It asked that I reference the student code of conduct and advised that this was a 'warning' and would not go on my permanent record. I've seen her as few times since but haven't spoken to her. Should I be worried about this at all? Since its not going on my record it should not be able to hurt me right? I decided to leave the situation alone. Any thoughts?

Your question is "should I be worried about this"?

From your description it sounds like this will only be a warning, and as such won't cause you any problems.

However, it also seems from your description that you feel this is all blown out of proportion. IMHO, it is not. The comment you made is completely inappropriate. So "leaving the situation alone" isn't a great answer, unless by that you mean that you've learned your lesson. You need to be professional at all times. If you make similar comments to colleagues -- other students, faculty, nurses, etc -- expect the hammer of doom to fall the next time.

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I concur with aPD. For over 10 years we have been required to review materials related to appropriate behavior and both the comment you initially made and the hug would be outside of the acceptable behavior within the policies we are mandated to follow. I'm not going to argue the rationale here, as this is CC and it isn't designed for that type of discussion. However, I would encourage you to consider carefully this type of interaction as even if you do not consider it inappropriate, it is so designated at many if not all work locations.

Meanwhile, I recommend otherwise moving on and avoiding any unneeded interactions of any type with this person. If you must interact with them, it must be exceptionally professional in every way and it would be best if it was in the presence of other people.
 
I told a staff member that she was more beautiful in person that over the phone (we had talked a lot and she told me quite a bit about herself before we met, including where she lived, her future plans and other things) when I first met her I made the comment followed by a hug (she pulled her hair all the way back so I could see her entire face); when we sat down to speak I asked her age (which she responded by saying it wasn't important). I asked if I offended her with the question; she stated no and then lied to me about scheduling classes.During our second meeting she knew what she did and began acting weird; I asked if I made her uncomfortable and she said the firs time we met she was (liar), I apologized. Most of the time she avoided me while other times she became confrontational.

She screwed up a bunch of things related to my Academic track continuously that I didn't report to the school because it could cause me more issues (and she began making smart remarks that I would still be able to go to med school despite her carelessness and lies), creating a trail of mistakes that I have to clear up because she didn't check pre-reqs when registering my classes at the school. She then transferred me to another adviser with no explanation; when I attempted to make an appointment with her through my new adviser, she reported me to the schools Judiciary board (roughly 3 weeks after the beautiful and age comment) and I received an emailed warning stating that a staff member reported that I made inappropriate comments. It asked that I reference the student code of conduct and advised that this was a 'warning' and would not go on my permanent record. I've seen her as few times since but haven't spoken to her. Should I be worried about this at all? Since its not going on my record it should not be able to hurt me right? I decided to leave the situation alone. Any thoughts?

Based on your second paragraph, I would agree the conclusions in the first two replies about how you should proceed.

######

As an aside, your post raises a lot of questions which possibly need to be discussed elsewhere as mentioned above. I will mention what these questions are, even though we may not be able to get into them here.

In reading this entire quote a few things were unclear to me:

1. What your relationship is to this "staff member" is unclear. Based on the parts in bold, I am pretty sure you are a pre-med talking about your guidance counselor. I wasn't 100% sure that you weren't a medical student or something else because based on the context; for example, if there were a little typo here or there, it [the context] would completely change your relationship to the staff member. (I suspect that some readers are wondering if it's never appropriate to date your guidance counselor and why.)

2. From the quote, it (either accurately or inaccurately) sounds like you may have misinterpreted her signals to you. It was not clear if she led you on and then became fickle and betrayed you, or if you advanced to quickly, untactfully, and based on a misinterpretation. See comments to follow.

A good discussion for elsewhere, if not allowed here: I don't know why colleges assume that students don't need to be trained about these sorts of things. Every company I've ever worked for has trained their employees about who they can or cannot date (ex. not the people they manage), commonly misinterpreted behavior (ex. mistaking a nervous smile for a flirty smile), and appropriate versus inappropriate ways to approach others about dating, etc. (ex. asking someone on your same level out on a date once may be fine, but after she says, "no," three times in row, you might want to stop). Colleges should put a training video with a Q&A forum on their websites and encourage students to watch it, in my opinion.
 
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