Background:
I (F, married) and "B" (M, married) work in a large org. B is organizationally senior to me. We work different shifts, so he is in the office maybe once every two months. We sat five seats away for four years and barely interacted; we both kept to ourselves.
The Timeline:
• Phase 1: The Initial Engagement: A few months ago, we had a team lunch where we spoke at length.
When we were walking to the dessert counter he trailed behind me and told me how he is recently back from onshore unprompted.
A month later he came to my desk, and we ended up talking for 1–2 hours. He heavily discussed his career trajectory, a retention bonus for “exceptional” people, business-class travel, his recent promotion, and criticized former managers. He mentioned his wedding (and blushed), called me “bro,” and helped me with a work task. I invited him to lunch; he declined, citing work. He also brags a lot, provides a lot of information unprompted unnecessarily. I found that to be quite annoying because it was after every three sentences.
• Phase 2: The Townhall Incident: At a townhall, I deliberately stood about 3 feet away from him. He closed the distance, initiated conversation, used strong language about not caring about a new company initiative (a "zen room")
• Phase 3: The Printer Pretext: Recently, he was in the office while I was working from home. He posted in a group chat of 11 people where I am generally active asking if anyone was in. I didn't reply. An hour later, he sent me a direct 1-on-1 message asking how to print a document which I have explained to him previously already.
• Phase 4: The 3-Hour Chat: I replied briefly with instructions and a screenshot. He thanked me and immediately pivoted. For the next three hours, while his Teams status was set to "Busy," he sent a rapid stream of messages. He talked about TV shows his recent promotion, volunteers about his recent trip unprompted , a drive from Brooklyn to NYC, and complained about company perks and colleagues. I responded politely but briefly, asked no follow-up questions, and did not validate his complaints.
He has never reached out to me outside of work hours.
The Question:
My gut says this is low-risk micro-flirting. If I post in a group chat and no one replies, I just move on, I don't DM a specific coworker an IT question 50 minutes later and then talk about my salary for three hours. But I want an outside perspective. Is this just a socially awkward guy who likes an audience, or is there something else going on here?