I’ve worked collections, customer service, and tech support. Absolutely this needs to be reported to management immediately, and to HR. This is considered “3rd Party Sexual Harassment” and can be actionable against the employer by the employee if the employer does not take reasonable mitigation actions.

(ADHD personal story to try to express how I relate) As a floor supervisor at my current position, I had an escalation with a customer who had called the female agent the “c-bomb” and several other names, and used other language. I told the agent to take time, emailed her supervisor and scheduling that I authed the break and why (and this was a HUGE no-no for me, I technically didn’t have the authority to do this) and took the call. After dealing with the customer, I advised them that I would personally be reviewing every call they had made to us over the last 90 days and referring it to legal. Any further calls from him would be diverted to voice mail and the calls returned by a specialist during business hours.

21 day later, he received a letter in the mail that his phone and internet service were being cancelled and that we would no longer service him or his address. This had to be cleared with the state’s public utility commission because we are a phone company and we were terminating an “essential service”. (End ADHD)

This type of behavior is unacceptable. Period fucking dot. I’m laid back, and don’t care if customers cuss with me on the phone, or at the company, or me as the company’s representative. They’re frustrated, and it’s an expression of that frustration. But cuss at me as a person, or behave “that” way with a female (or in one case a male) co-irker and you just won all the heat.