As most of us are hopefully well aware, when you pay for a pint of beer down the pub and the barmaid hands your change back with a smile, that probably doesn't mean that she's having to use every fibre of her being to resist lunging at you in a fit of passion.
In fact, what's actually going on in that particular situation is that she's doing her job.
However, somehow, even in 2017, there's still a contingent of men out there who think that a vague bit of acknowledgement from the barmaid gives them carte blanche to go turbo-creepy - time to start requesting phone numbers, kissing hands and doing that weird look where they lean nonchalantly against the bar and narrow their eyes slightly in an attempt to look smoldering and mysterious.
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Just for the record, you don't look smoldering or mysterious, mate. What you actually look like is a booze-addled sleaze who decided he was James Bond mid-way through his fifth pint of strong lager.
Well, the staff at one bar in Exeter, Devon were so sick of this type of behavior that they made a sign to give the message loud and clear to creepy punters.
Staff at Beer Cellar decided to make the sign after a member of staff was sexually harassed by male customers.
The bar tweeted a photo of the sign along with these words: "If dudes could stop trying to kiss our female bartender's hands that would be great."
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"We basically just printed it out after we had a very sex-pest heavy weekend about three months ago," Lauren Dew, a bartender at the Beer Cellar, told Mashable.
She added that she thought the sign would be a humourous way to remind male clientele that their slobbering, drunken advances on the female staff members would not be reciprocated.
She says the response to the sign has been almost entirely positive: "People really laugh, people support it. One percent think it's a bit offensive, which is funny to me because those are the people it's aimed at."
The sign was created by Illustrator Charlotte Mullin who says the inspiration came from working in retail for almost six years.
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"You're obviously pressured to give A+ customer service, and loads of people would interpret common hospitality as romantic interest."
"I wanted to make it clear that female staff are nice to you because they have to be!" added Mullin. "And, of course, most of us are decent human beings and would be nice to you anyway, but in no way does this mean we're dying for your dick."
Amen to that.
Words: Paddy Maddison
