Every workplace is a microcosm of society. On the one hand, you have your awesome peeps who just become your best friends. But you also get people who are far from the embodiments of politeness, common sense, and empathy that you’d expect anyone to have. Unfortunately, being high up on the management ladder doesn’t make you immune to this.

Twitter user Alexis Conklin started up a viral Twitter thread asking women to share the times that their male coworkers and bosses made them uncomfortable. Scroll down and have a read at the weird and creepy interactions, dear Pandas. And if you’re feeling brave, share if you’ve had similar experiences at the workplace in the comment section.

Alexis’ thread got more than 72k likes and was retweeted over 95k times at the time of writing. This just goes to show that the discussion she sparked was relevant to a lot of people.

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Image credits: Natierbaker

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According to Frank McAndrew writing on HR Zone, ambiguous threats and mixed signals are what make some people seem “creepy.” Which isn’t the same as feeling fear or disgust, but it’s in the same ballpark. But dealing with office creeps can be difficult because we don’t want to appear impolite.

“It would be considered rude or embarrassing to scream and run away from this odd person who has done nothing overtly threatening, but, on the other hand, it could be perilous to ignore your intuition and get more deeply involved in an interaction that could lead to danger. After all, if the person is clueless about the mundane rules of normal human interaction, what other rules might he be willing to violate?” McAndrew explains the dilemma.

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McAndrew adds that being in a state of “hyper-vigilance” can be mentally exhausting because we’re on the lookout for danger and predators.

While some creeps might be beyond saving (though some would argue that everyone’s capable of redemption), others are simply socially misguided. The latter may have good intentions, but they’re absolutely clueless about how to behave in social settings.

The answer in both cases, then, can be a strong Human Resources team who are willing to mediate any conflicts and provide guidance to any coworkers that need that bit of help to act in a socially acceptable way.