Harassment means disturbing, abusive or belittling behavior directed to a person or group of persons. Sexual harassment means harassment of a sexual nature, for example, unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favor, or verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual in nature (Mohammed, 2006). From this definition alone, the action of John towards Peggy would constitute sexual harassment.
However, judicial courts might not rule such an incident as sexual harassment. Such an incident that happened to Peggy has more or less happened to many other women in real life. In the same incident where a woman complained that her co-worker repeatedly patted her bottom, the accused was fired from the company. Yet, the court ordered that the man be reinstated to work for the reason that while touching a co-worker’s buttocks is “obscene” and should be punished, firing the perpetrator is too severe because “it is not as serious as sexual harassment.” Such reasoning would confuse one as to what really constitutes sexual harassment.
Hostile-environment sexual harassment is a common form of workplace sexual harassment. A hostile environment may result from the actions of supervisors, coworkers, and third parties (Achampong, 1999). This could be what Peggy believes is happening to her, and would be what every women would definitely believe.
However, even if Peggy thinks that this is sexual harassment, court rules have conditions. In establishing a prima facie case of hostile-environment sexual harassment, a plaintiff must show that unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature has affected her terms or conditions of employment, either because it has had an adverse effect on her work performance or created a hostile environment (Achampong, 1999).
If I were Peggy, I would have done the same thing. I would have reported the incidence to a higher authority. Even if such an incident does not need to go to a higher court, Mike should have done something to prevent it or talked to John regarding the incident and tell him that it is not right. Herein we see the lack of the company against actions that would constitute sexual harassment. There could be many factors for this, not only the fact that there might not be some formal policy against sexual harassment, but also because Mike is a guy.
Employers should spend vast amounts of money and time to educate all levels of employees from managements to part-time employees in the area of equal opportunities, sexual harassment and discrimination. This is to ensure that managers are aware of the implications, and also to communicate to all employees the company stance on discrimination, which would include under it the issue of sexual harassment, and how it can be reported.
The company should also set up a code or policy against sexual harassment. The purpose of this is basically to guide the employer to set up an in-house mechanism that defines, regulates, investigates and penalizes incidents of sexual harassment in the workplace. Although this is not legally binding, the fact remains that this will still remain as a guideline for proper conduct of the employer and the employee in the workplace. If there was such a policy, the incidence of patting of bottoms could have been avoided.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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