kranky
Elite Member
The fear of giant lawsuits related to sexual harrassment has companies feeling paranoid and quick to swing the hammer on anyone who steps over the line. And after what happened a couple weeks ago, I've now seen everything.
A woman at work got an envelope via interoffice mail with an anonymous note that talked about what a great body she has, and how he'd like to do certain things with her. She read the note, promptly freaked out, and ran down to HR. The HR person was stunned because that's never happened before. He assured her they would launch an investigation and do whatever they could to find out who did it, and that they would absolutely take serious action if they could identify the culprit.
About an hour later, the lady's husband (who also works there) got out of a meeting and she told him what happened. He asked if reading the note had turned her on and of course she said absolutely not. He said that's too bad, because he sent her the note. And couldn't she tell? He used his private pet name for her in the note, but she never noticed it since she was shook up. So she called up HR and told them what happened, and said everything was fine.
HR suspended him for six weeks without pay. The explanation? The damage was done. She felt harrassed and formally notified HR about it. They cannot let it drop because she actually suffered because of what happened. That would set a precedent which could protect harrassers in the future, if they could convince the victim to let the whole thing go. Once the ball is handed off to HR, the victim no longer can control the process. Even though they were sympathetic, they felt that she experienced sexual harrassment and they were forced to take action for fear of a future lawsuit.
Oh, and he has to go to three sessions of sexual harassment training, as required by company policy.
A woman at work got an envelope via interoffice mail with an anonymous note that talked about what a great body she has, and how he'd like to do certain things with her. She read the note, promptly freaked out, and ran down to HR. The HR person was stunned because that's never happened before. He assured her they would launch an investigation and do whatever they could to find out who did it, and that they would absolutely take serious action if they could identify the culprit.
About an hour later, the lady's husband (who also works there) got out of a meeting and she told him what happened. He asked if reading the note had turned her on and of course she said absolutely not. He said that's too bad, because he sent her the note. And couldn't she tell? He used his private pet name for her in the note, but she never noticed it since she was shook up. So she called up HR and told them what happened, and said everything was fine.
HR suspended him for six weeks without pay. The explanation? The damage was done. She felt harrassed and formally notified HR about it. They cannot let it drop because she actually suffered because of what happened. That would set a precedent which could protect harrassers in the future, if they could convince the victim to let the whole thing go. Once the ball is handed off to HR, the victim no longer can control the process. Even though they were sympathetic, they felt that she experienced sexual harrassment and they were forced to take action for fear of a future lawsuit.
Oh, and he has to go to three sessions of sexual harassment training, as required by company policy.
