Oscar Delgado

Sexual Harassment: Identifying and Prohibiting

So far my posts on human resources management have dealt with how to keep a company a float during a recession, resolving employee theft, and creating an HRM recommended sites list for present and future reference. But now I am ready to tackle a more serious problem within HRM, sexual harassment. Before reading credible sources on sexual harassment, my overall understanding of it was unwanted sexual comments or advances. To my surprise, it can occur in many forms, as the Law Offices of Helmer Friedman, LLP: Leaders in Employment Law, Personal Injury and Commercial Litigation, state, “unwanted sexual advances, or visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. This definition includes many forms of offensive behavior and includes gender-based harassment of a person of the same sex as the harasser.” Yes, this definition is packed with information but the act of sexual harassment is vague, making it crucial to correctly identifying it in order to take proper action on the harasser. Not to mention the negatives affects of tension and awkwardness it can bring to a healthy working environment, slowly deteriorating high morale and productivity. Therefore, this week I chose to address, “Sexual Harassment the Epidemic Recognition and Prevention,” by Helmer Friedman, an attorney specializing in equal employment. This post works in junction with “Sexual Harassment, Retaliation Lawsuit Filed against Purebeauty,” and the Law Offices of Helmer - Friedman LLP.

Seeing as I am planning to be a human resources manager your post is important to my maturation in this field. For instance, you provide startling statistics of the rise of sexual harassment claims in the past twenty years, forcing me to take a more proactive approach towards this issue. I also enjoyed reading how it is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; I believe this legal background is the backbone to taking proper action on the harasser. Above all, you go into specific detail on exactly what can be classified as sexual harassment. You write, “The use of sexist terms, comments about body parts, sexual advances, unwanted touching, gestures, taunting, sexual graffiti, and rumor mongering about a classmate's sexual identity or activity.” Additionally, you bring up to two elements I was unfamiliar with, offensive visual displays and retaliation. First off, you mark that “Court decisions have also found that certain types of offensive visual displays in the workplace, such as pornography, can be considered sexual harassment.” This is a surprise to me because I did not think anyone watched pornography in the office and even if they did why would it be considered sexual harassment on another employee. Regardless, I have come to terms to accept this as sexual harassment because the content can be oppressive against a certain gender or race. Finally, you link retaliation you’re your post when the accused seeks revenge on the accuser by making work stressful, hostile, and possibly firing the accuser are also issues to keep an eye out for when dealing with this matter.

Moving on, along with discussing what sexual harassment is you also give useful strategies on how to prevent this problem by clicking on the “prevent sexual harassment” link in your post. Examples are establishing a strict policy prohibiting sexual harassment and stating exactly what constitutes as sexual harassment. You also suggest setting up an atmosphere where employees are encouraged to report such claims by designating more than one individual to report the problem to. Overall, I feel your post is well thought out and informative. Although, I wish you could have gone more into depth about the consequences sexual harassment can bring to a company, in terms of employee morale, productivity, and the company’s reputation. For instance, what if the sexual harassment between employer and employee is consensual; will this create favoritism towards that employee instead of others? Will those employees be able to file a claim or lawsuit? I believe you only address this in the first line of your post “Sexual harassment creates confusion because it blurs the boundary between professionalism roles and personal relationships.” In closing, your post introduced me to the complexity of sexual harassment and ways to go about handling this matter. I believe this topic is as important as ever because how often do we hear about a senator having an affair with an intern, or a governor traveling to South America to meet his mistress. And most recently is “Late Show” talk host, David Letterman admitting to having affairs with several women on his staff. In other words, sexual harassment has become more apparent to the point that it is comical. But this is a serious subject where people get hurt and distraught, a subject where I am now more knowledgeable in and am bettered prepared to deal with.

Posted: October 20th, 2009 | Report This Comment