This happened some years ago when I used to work for a committee secretariat.

A senior, well-regarded MEP who was a member of this committee kept insisting that I should meet up with him for a coffee to discuss his amendments to an ongoing report. I usually didn’t go for such coffees as these were known to be used by some MEPs as an excuse to proposition younger staffers but in this case, I made an exception. Mostly because the MEP in question was a bit older, a reputed freedom fighter and with a well-known and keen interest in the topic of the report I was working on.

It didn’t take him long to move from recent political issues to discussing how his wife didn’t understand him and how attractive he found me. Although I declined his advances politely, he did not take no for an answer. He kept emailing me dinner invitations and stalking me at committee meetings.

When he finally accepted that I was not interested, he decided to take revenge. He started to complain about the quality of my work to my hierarchy and MEPs I was working with.

Needless to say, it was extremely unpleasant and his attacks only stopped when I eventually moved jobs.