Young Bunnings worker lifts lid on sexist customers

A Bunnings worker has taken to social media to reveal a major issue with the some of the customers who come into her store.

A female Bunnings worker has lifted the lid on the relentless sexism she says she faces in her job saying she is made to feel like a “weak, feeble woman”.

Haley Webber told her TikTok followers she was “constantly overlooked at work”.

The young woman said customers generally “bypass her” to go “straight up to a male co workers” when they have a question.

Incredibly, she said customers often ask her if she can find someone else to help them –automatically assuming she would have no idea about hardware.

Ms Webber said she didn’t believe customers were being malicious but the situation sent her “spiralling”.

She used the example of a male customer who needed help getting a 20kg bag off a high shelf.

Haley Webber says she constantly faces sexism at work. Picture: TikTok / haley.webber

Ms Webber said she brought the man a step ladder, but he insisted she would not be able to carry the bag.

“He was like, ‘No you are not strong enough’,” she said.

Ms Webber insisted she was strong enough.

“He looked at me like I was a weak feeble woman who wouldn’t be able to handle it. It was only 20kg it is not that heavy,” she said.

Chief People Officer Damian Zahra told news.com.au that they were “really disappointed to hear one of our team members has experienced disrespectful behaviour, which is something we don’t tolerate in our stores”.

She revealed what customers said to her. Picture: Brendan Radke

“We always encourage our team to raise any concerns they may have with us about issues they’re facing at work, and we have a range of measures in place to support them,” he said.

Ms Webber’s concerns come as Australia has for the first time released data reflecting a gender pay gap at nearly 5000 companies.

Wesfarmers’ median gender pay gap for total remuneration was 3.5 per cent – although at the base salary level the gap is higher at 7 per cent.

Jenny Bryant, Wesfarmers’ chief human resources officer, told the Australian Financial Reviewthe company had a number of initiatives to increase female representation in the workplace, such as flexible working policies and women in leadership programs.

Ms Bryant blamed the pay gap on the lower number of women in technology roles at the company.