As to whether or not one should report harassment, although the plural of anecdotes is not “proof,” I personally have regretted not going to my supervisor and asking advice, rather than sitting and fuming. Your mileage, of course, may vary, but I imagine most good managers would want to know if there is a problem. Isn’t that what managers are for— to facilitate solving problems that interfere with your ability to do your job with maximum efficiency? A happy employee with a good work ethic is able to put far more into his or her work than one made miserable by his or her co-workers.

My two cents, but pennies aren’t worth the zinc they’re printed on these days.

Bull. As a man, I hate the pretense that some men have that many women are just sitting around waiting to accuse someone of sexual harassment, and as a nice guy they’ll just innocently fall into the trap while they were “just trying to be nice and compliment her on her nice ****” or telling a joke that “I thought everyone would find funny.” They know exactly what they’re doing and they don’t want anyone coming around with this “PC crap” telling them what they can and cannot do–especially a woman!

Everyone around such people, especially others of the same gender or rank, should have the guts to send a clear message through their reactions that they are not funny and their comments are not appreciated.

http://sexualharassment-alltruth.blogspot.com/

http://joel031.vox.com/

The company has left him in on the job and kicked me around ever since. You would think he would have been removed from the aircraft. It has now been 10 months. This company tolerance has to stop. I am not the perpetrator here. They have to understand it is illegal. NO means NO.

“Obviously, if that tactic doesn’t work, you may need to escalate it, but remember that there are often social consequences to reporting someone for their behavior [...]”

Although factually true, the way this is presented almost makes the case for “oh, just keep quiet about it or you’ll ruin it for the rest of us”. I’m hoping I’m reading this wrong.

I have been in situations where I had to take it up the chain (supervisor was doing the harassing), and other times where a simple but stern “please don’t do that” took care of the issue (guy deliberately leaning up against me). We can legislate all we want, but it takes time for culture to shift. It is only by being open and working with these issues that we’ll get them to change.

At the company I work for, other then for physical touching, i.e. ‘groping’, the policy states that the ‘harassor’ must understand that his/her actions are offensive in order for it to be harassment. They can be told by the ‘harassee’, or a third person, or Human Resources.

As a low level supervisor, I once had to investigate claims of sexual harassment. After talking to several witnesses, the supposed victim, and the supposed harassor, I realized the supposed victim was delusional (as confirmed by witnesses). In fact, the supposed victim was the only one that actually performed any sort of sexual harassment!

The real problem was the supposed victim really, truly thought they were being harassed!

Employers have a duty of care to provide a safe environment for all employees and that includes freedom from all harassment and any resulting confidentiality issues and “social consequences”.

If people do not want to report harassment of any kind that is one thing, actively encouraging people to not report it is potentially irresponsible. The best response is not necessarily to tackle the issue with the harasser. It is another option available to the person being harassed. It may be the best response under certain circumstances – comments on this post have highlighted the broad scope of this issue – but it is not the best response in all cases.

Everybody knows the law and larger companies will ensure all employees are aware of the company policy regarding sexual harassment. When it comes down to it, we need to take responsibility for our own actions, and if those actions – however misunderstood – breach a law or company policy, we have to be prepared to face the consequences.

However, if the jokes or comments don’t stop that is another situation. Also a boss trying to take advantage of an employee and cornering them in a stock room is a completely different situation, the same with inapproite touching. Both of these situations would have me going up the chain of command right away. It’s funny you don’t hear a lot about the last in Law Enforcement, I guess it’s because we all have guns and from less than three feet away you will not miss even if you are aiming a little south of center of mass.

Having worked in human resources, I’ll tell you that most of the time, if there’s a harassment complaint against someone, there’s been multiple similar complaints against that person.

I can’t imagine trying to make a similar argument for racial harassment – suggesting that the minority employee should just try to “talk things out.” Bigotry and discrimination is serious and seriously harmful.

It is my guess that people who advocate talking it out have never experienced harassment. :( JMO

I have a high tolerance for boys-will-be-boys behaviour and a filthy sense of humour – at the pub or outside of the office. I’ve also worked in the construction industry all of my professional career, and have often been the only woman on site or in the boardroom. And even in these environments, sexually charged or demeaning jokes would be considered completely unprofessional and immature by myself and my male colleagues. Work is work.