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sexual harassment

sexual harassment When you think of Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, or Lorena Bobbit what comes to mind? If you are like many people, sexual harassment probably popped in your head. And because of these famous cases the number of sexual harassment complaints that the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Committee) has increased by more than 50%! Sexual harassment is a big issue nowadays in every business; if left unattended it could cost companies thousands, if not millions, in damages. In 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment was a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From 1978 to 1980, sexual harassment cases brought against companies cost them $189 million. This number rose to $267 million from 1985-1987. Although this number jumped significantly, the rate of sexual harassment had not. Damages are just not numbers. Sexual harassment can cause harm to a company’s image, reputation, customers, as well as their revenue. So why did Anita Hill not come forward with her claim of sexual harassment earlier? Well, in earlier years, women use to think in order to get along in the workplace they must “go with the flow” of whatever may happen in the office. Co-workers often looked negatively upon people who stuck up for themselves. Men’s behaviors at work had always been accepted without any questions. When women were sexually harassed they had no where to turn to either. Today, the EEOC receives more than 16,000 sexual harassment complaints in a year. This is hardly the amount of situations that happen. 95% of sexual harassment incidents are left unreported! We cannot follow in our government’s footsteps down this road. Our so-called Congress is the worse place to work in dealing with sexual harassment. Until 1994, they were not under compliance with any laws for the protection of workers in the workplace. Even the regulations of 1994 did not provide strict enforcement so the problem remains. Statistics have shown that in the Supreme Court one-third of the people has been a victim of some form of sexual harassment. A member of Congress harassed one in nine of these persons! 42% of women and 15% of men in the federal government have reported sexual harassment. Do you think our government does a great job of covering up things? It is estimated that nine out of ten women will be victims of sexual advances at work. The courts are making it easier to hold a company liable for any sexual harassment behavior that occurs within the workplace. The employer does not even need to know that the sexual harassment is taking place for an employee to file a suit and win. It is almost impossible to find a “solution” or “magic key” that will end the problem. There is no guarantee that anything will prevent sexual harassment from happening. There are only suggestions that might help in depleting the problem. Developing an effective policy against sexual harassment is a must for any business. Everyone in the company should become aware of this policy. It should include a statement stating that sexual harassment will not be tolerated at any level of employment. A procedure should be included as to how to report claims of sexual harassment. The plan needs to also contain penalties for violators and protection for the victims. Employers should raise the subject, express strong disapproval, inform employees of their rights to raise the issue, and develop methods to sensitize all concerned. All policies are bound to fail if a company does not enforce them quickly, consistently, and aggressively. Members of management must take sexual harassment very seriously. Employees look up to management and if they see them joking about sexual harassment then they will too. Once a complaint if brought forward it is necessary for the business to be prompt and confidential in the investigation into the incident. Every claim must be looked into no matter hoe trivial they might sound. Every investigation must be prompted and thorough. They must also be documented. Everyone involved with the investigation must preserve the information obtained. If word gets out about the incident at hand the victim and/or harasser may face humiliation or the source might not be trusted. This may constitute, in future cases, that the victim may not report a case of sexual harassment. Employers must make sure that employees know what sexual harassment is, how to deal with it, and where to turn if the problem does not stop. Surveys and performance reviews can aid companies about the knowledge of sexual harassment by employees. Such questions as, “Do employees know and understand the firm’s harassment policy?”, “Do they understand which behaviors constitute sexual harassment?”, “Do they know hoe to file a complaint and how to handle offenders?” Surveys and performance reviews can monitor approaches to identifying potential or real problem situations. Employee training programs are one approach to prevent harassment. A way to inform and educate employees is through programs that cover conflict management skills. These skills include how to recognize harassment and how to try to handle it they before it need to be taken further. If an employee thinks that they have been sexually harassed, they might want to consider these questions before taking the matter to management: “Am I jumping to conclusions?”, “Have I told the person about my uncertainty with their behavior when they are around?”, “Have they threatened my job or made my work experience unhappy?” If an employee feels that they are a victim of sexual harassment from this point they need to go higher up the ladder. What is sexual harassment? This is defined as any unwelcome or unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual or harassing nature. People’s own definitions of sexual harassment differ slightly from this definition because of various sexual backgrounds and toleration for jokes. Everyone has a pretty good idea of what is considered sexual harassment and what is not. Most harassers know when they are harassing others. An employee may act in such a way that one employee might take a certain situation as sexual harassment while at the same time another may not. Sexual harassment can include, but is not limited to, sexual remarks, suggestive looks, deliberate touching, pressure for dates or sexual favors, letters and calls, or actual or attempted rape or assault. Sexual harassment can not only exist between employees in the company but also non-customers, including customers. Although sexual harassment by customers is not clarified by the courts, Title VII states that employees have the right to work in an environment free from discriminating intimidation, ridicule, and insult. Employers are therefore liable for the sexual harassment by its customers. This type of harassment is almost always ignored. These cases often go unreported because of the growth of businesses in the service industry. There is a tremendous emphasis on service quality and customer satisfaction. Such examples of this include when the company says, “customers for life”, and “the customer is always right”. Employees need to learn how to confront sexual harassment issues with customers directly. Employers that have employees that work in isolation are more apt to incur harassment. Companies have less knowledge and control over these situations. This excuse does not however exempt the employer from their responsibilities to interfere in the cases. EEOC vs. Federal Express (1995). A courier was harassed by a customer on her route. The customer made such comments as saying she looked better without any clothes on and repeatedly asked her out on dates. She brought this issue up with her supervisor who wrote to the customer asking him to refrain from “any future conduct that could be perceived as offensive or intimidating”. The harassment continued and the whole building, not just the tenant was taken away from her route. The courts ruled in favor of the employees even though the company had taken action to end the harassment. The courier was awarded due to the fact that no replacement building was given to her, which resulted in a loss of pay. The court stated that she was “in effect, punished for her complaining.” There are two main forms of sexual harassment. One is “quid pro quo”, which means “if you do this for me; I will do this for you”. This relates to guarantees of career or job advancements in return for sexual favors. Under this form, employment is conditional on unwanted sexual relations. Barnes vs. Costle. The plaintiff rebuffed her director’s repeated sexual overtures. She ignored his advice that sexual intimacy was the path she should take to improve her career opportunities. Her job was abolished. This is a perfect example of “quid pro quo” in which the victim was ruled in favor of. The more common form of sexual harassment a hostile environment. This refers to sexual conduct that unreasonably interferes with an employee’s performance at work or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. An environment can include another person, areas, or inanimate objects. Sexual jokes, leering, and showing pornographic materials are all examples of a hostile work environment. Sexual harassment mainly exists due to the harasser’s abuse of power. Sexual harassment is not always about sex. It is more of an issue of power and the abuse of power. People often stereotype the victim as subservient and powerless. Employers are responsible for actions of all employees even if they are unaware of the behavior. Employers will also be liable is if they fail to take appropriate action within its control once it knows or has reason to know of the harassing. They cannot claim they did not know because the employee did not tell them. There is no such thing as taking “no action”. Doing nothing can have huge legal consequences. When an employee reports a case of harassment the company must not tell the victim to ignore the comments or propositions. Joking about the situation is out of the question too. Why, when people think of sexual harassment, they assume it is always between a male and female? Same sex harassment should not be overlooked either. Sexual orientation of either party should not be an issue when investigating complaints. A male/female could tell jokes or make remarks to offend someone of the same sex. And with the increase number of gays in lesbians in the workplace, this kind of harassment is bound to occur. Managers need to avoid making excuses for the harasser. No suggestions to “get even” shall be made. Punishment for the harasser should come into play. Such as a verbal or written warning, job transfer, suspension of employment, or, if needed termination. In almost all cases, people have endured very negative effects. Guilt, mental anguish, and self-doubt top the list of emotional effects on victims. They have to deal with other trauma as well. This can consist of a higher rate of absenteeism, a decline in productivity, a loss of friends and self-esteem, and family problems. The employee may change their shopping habits; their sexual desire may decrease. These factors can take their toll on employers too. If a victim misses work they are losing out on that person’s productivity, which in the long run, means lower revenue. Health-care costs, poor moral, employee turnover, litigation costs and court awarded damages hurts businesses as well. Before 1991, Title VII entitled sexual harassment victims to collect only back pay, lost wages and, if they had been forced to leave, to be reinstated in their jobs. They got noting for pain and suffering. Today victims are collecting more money than can be won playing the lottery. There are many laws to follow in sexual harassment cases in the courts. The EEOC had a set of guidelines they followed but overthrew them. They claimed guidelines did not constitute “the law”, but courts relied on them for clarification and adopted some definitions and standards for decisions on sexual harassment in the workplace. The Supreme Court has a two-part test for an employer's defense. They must show they took “reasonable” care to prevent and correct any sexual harassment in the workplace, and the employee “unreasonably” failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer. In customer harassment cases, employers are accountable if the employee complains of sexual harassment and they are ignored. They are liable if they know about the harassment and do nothing even though the employee does not complain. Companies must do more than request an apology from the harasser. If the harassment is so severe and pervasive that it is reasonable to conclude the employer should have known of it they are responsible for that too. When is it “severe and pervasive”? Or what is defined as “reasonable” and “unreasonable”? These open-ended questions leave vagueness in the court system. Employees should not feel as if they cannot talk about sex in the workplace at all. Someone can still comment on how nice someone looks or tell a sexual joke. The Supreme Court allows for sexual talk up until an employee is discriminated against. The key ingredient of sexual harassment is some form of sexual content and discrimination. This is unfair treatment of employees because of their sex. Sexual content does not necessarily mean unfair treatment, such as a sexual joke. People need to realize the extent of comments and jokes that they can tell around certain people. Some get offended more easily than others. What constitutes sexual harassment to one person may not be sexual harassment to another. Bibliography: Bender, David L., et al. Sexual Harassment. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1992. Cascio, Wayne F. Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 1998. Mcafee, R. Bruce. “Workplace Harassment: employees vs. customers.” (Mar.-Apr. 1999): n.pag. Online. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Available WWW: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_o/m1038/2_42/54370819/print.jhtml. McShane, Steven L., and Mary Ann Von Glinow. Organizational Behavior. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2000. Miramontes, David J. How To Deal With Sexual Harassment. San Diego: Network Communications, 1983. Roberts, Barry S. and Richard A. Mann. “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Primer.” n.pag. On-line. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Available WWW: http://www.uakron.edu/lawrev/robert1.html. “Same Sex Harassment.” n.pag. On-line. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Available WWW: http://www.employer-employee.com/sexhar1.html. “Same Sex Harassment.” n.pag. On-line. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Available WWW: http://www.employer-employee.com/sexhar4.html. “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.” n.pag. On-line. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Available WWW: http//www.de.psu.edu/harass/analysis/work.html. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace”: n.pag. On-line. Internet. 5 Dec 2000. Avaliable WWW:http//www.flabar.org/newflabar/consumerservices/General/Consumer.Pam/37PAMPH.html.

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