Jen: I used to work with about 2 dozen manager-type guys at Kodak once upon a time. Everyone was really professional...they were all about in their 50-'s - 60's in age and I liked it because they all reminded me of my dad. But there was one guy that was more like the overly romantic, divorced, gentlemanly type...if you get my drift. Like, there were times that we all had to pile in a van and go to a different place in Kodak and Bob would always make sure and open and close doors for me and was really just polite and...gentlemanly. One time, though, he actually came into my office and asked me OUT!
He was, literally, about 60 years old and here I was...about 30 with a 2-year-old daughter. I always felt sorry for him because the other guys picked on him called him an airhead and here, I still felt sorry for him. I politely told him no (can you imagine me bringing home a boyfriend to my parents and he was older then THEM!!...Actually, that would have been pretty funny!!) and pretended it never happened...but then he kept coming to my office for me to do dumb things because, well, he wasn't really very busy, but he kept coming in and asking me to do things for him (business-wise...I was a secretary) and, literally, wasting my time on menial things. It was then I decided to tell my boss...when it was starting to effect my job performance. Looking back, I probably should have gone right to my boss the minute he asked me out, but I didn't want to give the guys anything more to talk about. I think old guys just have old paradymes that they work with in dealing with women at work. Like the guy that's calling you sweetheart. It would drive me nuts, too...but at the end of the day, I guess you could be called worse? Later on, at a different job, I sat across from a guy that was a new Vice President of our company...he was in a cubicle while waiting for his new window office to be done...and he flat-out...about two days into the job, asked me out, "You know, not as a business lunch, but as friends..."
I thought, what a suave, concieted thing. I told my boss, who was a female my exact same age..."I don't want to get him in trouble or cause problems...I just wanted you to know this guy asked me out and get it out on the table between the two of us that it happened and I said no...in case he gets weird."
And, so, that's what I suggest to you....just tell your boss this guy calls you Sweetheart and that it bugs you and that you just want to get it out to him (your boss) that it's a problem for you in case he gets weird....in case it DOES get weird, the boss won't say, "Well, why didn't you tell me this before?" Now it'll be out there and if it gets weird, you're boss will know it's been an ongoing problem.
JMHO...and, long, boring story...hope it helps...Kris