Ask Slashdot: Preempting Sexual Harassment In the Workplace? 1127
zwei2stein writes "My team of about 10 men (IT guys) is expecting a new colleague: a female one. It is guaranteed that there will be remarks, double entendres and innuendos with huge potential of getting worse. We already have women in teams who can somehow handle this (and deliver apropriate verbal slaps). How would you deal with this? We talked about some simple, fun ways — anyone who [acts inappropriately] will have to wear an embarassing tie, etc. — instead of swear jar, having a sexual innuendo jar and even fairly harsh punishments (like people losing their bonuses for the month or their extra vaccation days). I'd like to figure out a solution that would be effective, not call much attention to itself, and not be quickly abandoned." What has your workplace done to create a good culture on this front? And what hasn't worked?
Re:laws (Score:5, Informative)
You need to understand the laws around sexual harassment, which you clearly do not.
We went through a couple sessions, mandated by management. We'll have another one in a few months. Key point to make is that people who do not act approrpiately will be pulled from the team and possibly sacked. Fear works pretty effectively.
and talk to a lawyer regarding employment law (Score:5, Informative)
Hostile Work Environment (Score:5, Informative)
It is guaranteed that there will be remarks, double entendres and innuendos with huge potential of getting worse.
Hostile Work Environment [fcc.gov]:
"Hostile work environment harassment occurs when unwelcome comments or conduct based on sex, race or other legally protected characteristics unreasonably interferes with an employee’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Anyone in the workplace might commit this type of harassment – a management official, co-worker, or non-employee, such as a contractor, vendor or guest. The victim can be anyone affected by the conduct, not just the individual at whom the offensive conduct is directed.
Examples of actions that may create sexual hostile environment harassment include:
- Leering, i.e., staring in a sexually suggestive manner
- Making offensive remarks about looks, clothing, body parts
- Touching in a way that may make an employee feel uncomfortable, such as patting, pinching or intentional brushing against another’s body
- Telling sexual or lewd jokes, hanging sexual posters, making sexual gestures, etc.
- Sending, forwarding or soliciting sexually suggestive letters, notes, emails, or images"
Somewhere, a labor law attorney is locking and loading his briefcase... :-)
Re:laws (Score:5, Informative)
You need to understand the laws around sexual harassment, which you clearly do not.
In addition, things like "remarks, double entendres and innuendos", while perhaps inappropriate, are not simply and automatically sexual harassment. Generally the "affront" has to be knowingly unwelcome and frequent and severe. So, contrary to many TV shows, simply asking someone out or complementing them on [whatever] is not harassment, until you've been asked not to. Though incomplete, Wikipedia says this:
Sexual harassment is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Harassment can include "sexual harassment" or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.
Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person’s sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general.
Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision ....
People sometimes need to get a grip.
Group speak-up method (Score:3, Informative)
From a Woman who has been harrassed.... (Score:5, Informative)
.... it really sucks and sets tension in the air that just never seems to go away.
I worked for a popular retail store during my young adult years (mid-20s) and had a colleague blatantly sexually harass me. My dress was business attire with skirts that were two inches below the knees, and was strictly adhered to, it was not how I dressed. He even went so far as to put something on a display computer that a customer who tested a print file was shocked and dismayed at what he picked up from the printer and handed to me. I was mortified and so embarrassed. I was humiliated in front of a potential customer all because this guy thought his actions were funny or cute or something like that. I promptly demanded him to "get his ass over to the machine and remove the information or I would re-format the hard-drive and have him explain it to management." That and several other incidents finally prompted me to speak up. When I noticed that one of our security officers was also a Part-time police officer, I asked him for advice. He stated that I could indeed press charges, but it would be best if I addressed the issue with Management. I did, we were both interviewed, I was reprimanded for swearing and he got a slap on the wrist. I felt like my concerns were ignored. I had proof in my hands and was basically told, tough crap kiddo.
In the end, he was not fired, and we were never scheduled on the same shift. Frankly, I was livid, and I never felt comfortable there. Ever since then I am very wary about what I say that might elicit some sort of unwanted response. I have worked with teams that are consistently made up of a 90% to 10% male to female ratio in all of my different jobs, Often I am the only female on the technical team. I have never treated any other male colleague as though he was that first guy. And I've been lucky so far that there has never been a situation to deal with like the first one I described. I am no prude, I can keep up with the rest of my male colleagues jokes and even keep them in check.
But the biggest thing to take from all this is that once there is clear and definitive sexual harassment that makes the recipient feel uncomfortable, nothing short of a termination will make the recipient feel safe. It's harsh, but so is the feeling that comes from being harassed.
Re:It's called "Get A Grip!" (Score:5, Informative)
Well, imagine this if you would: Pretend that instead of going into a heavily male profession like IT, you'd gone into a heavily female profession, nursing. You go out, get a job, move to a new town, you show up for your first day of work and what you hear all day from other nurses is comments not about nursing but about the apparant size of your dick and your presumed sex life or lack thereof. And your ugly hag of a boss is deciding whether you'll be promoted or not based on how nicely you smile when she looks you up and down with clear sexual intent (or in more extreme cases whether you agree to sleep with her).
Think about how you'd really truly react in that kind of scenario, and you might understand the problem.
You're talking about actual harassment. I'm betting submitter is talking about "That's what she said" jokes a la The Office.
Re:What has your workplace done? (Score:4, Informative)
That is an approved work activity.
Re:It's called "Get A Grip!" (Score:4, Informative)
True.
Not from Texas. Just visited. Some of the politest people I've met.
Re:laws (Score:5, Informative)
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.
Or briefly, people do not have to put up with certain sh*t to keep a job.
Re:It's called "Get A Grip!" (Score:5, Informative)
Of course he said something. I said something. Several other employees said something. There were a number of us who weren't exactly thrilled to work in an office that often resembled a frathouse more than a place of business. Nobody said anything about suing or threatened to call in the EEOC, but management clearly understood that there were people who were less than happy with the situation. They chose to ignore the fact that some of their employees didn't like the behavior, and they paid the price for their choice. A managers job is to manage, which means preventing this sort of situation. When they failed to intervene, they demonstrated their inability to perform the job. When the other two "instigating" employees chose to bring Playboys to work, email hardcore porn around the office, and insult anyone who asked not to see it (actually calling us "whiners" in one email), they demonstrated an ongoing disrespect for their fellow employees.
They didn't lose their jobs because of "words". They lost their jobs because they couldn't be professionals. If you can't behave like a mature adult, don't get pissed off when people stop treating you like one.
Re:Preparing the Inquisition already? (Score:5, Informative)
No, the problem isn't that you're a geek - it's that you're thirteen years old emotionally. As so many have said elsewhere in this discussion, it's long past time to grow up.
Yet, many places operate mixed gender teams with no problems at all. As above, the problem isn't the policies - behavior created liabilities, not policy.
Re:Preparing the Inquisition already? (Score:3, Informative)
"Occasionally saying something off-color" isn't lacking filters or tending to say what you mean - you're moving the goalposts.
Had I suggested you be a soulless worker drone, you'd have a point. If you can't have fun while acting like an adult, well, as I said before - grow the fuck up.
That you believe that she was the real problem just confirms in spades what I and so many others have said in this discussion. You, and the males in question, are juvenile jackasses who haven't grown up and learned to behave like adults and accept responsibility for your own actions.
Re:laws (Score:3, Informative)
The problem is where to draw the line. As a female who has been working in an assortment of IT environments, from retail to corporate and government over 20 years I can tell you the line between "Ok" and "hell no" is broad and fuzzy.
In some cases it will be clear cut and obvious, but in others it will depend entirely on the people involved and the relationships they have established.
As an example, some years ago I had an extremely embarassed coworker be forced to apologise to all the women at work for inappropriate touching because he used to put a hand on your shoulder to get your attention when he wanted to talk to you. None of the women had complained, we knew it was impersonal and he did it with all the men as well. But one of the guys had complained it made him uncomfortable seeing it.
At the same job I had another guy tell me I smelled nice. Which depending on the delivery can be kinda creepy.
I've had jobs where the guys have felt they couldn't swear in front of me. I've had jobs where I've had to ask the guys not to call everything that was bad "Gay" in the work place because it was inappropriate and was obviously making one of the younger guys very uncomfortable.
I've had jobs where coworkers have quite explicitly hit on me. I've had coworkers behave in such a manner where I thought they might be hitting on me but I wasn't sure. I've had a boss who used to joke about my bust size (generous), and compare it to that of his wife - does the fact that I knew them socially before working with him and we'd have talked the same trash outside of work make it harassment or not?.
At the end of the day, the best guideline is if it makes you uncomfortable (be honest, too many women are passive and let it ride so as not to rock the boat), it's harassment. You have an obligation to ask them to stop. If they persist after you've asked them to stop, report it to your boss and/or HR.