Stopping Sexual Harassment at Work

Sexual harassment is one of the biggest problems in the workplace. The combination of wannabe alphas with what they see as a captive audience has sometimes created a hostile environment. It's also interesting to see how cross-cultural issues are coming to the fore; Japanese businessmen are having to attend special seminars about how much Western women are different than the ones they know.

That's the bad news. The good news is that companies listen to their employees under attack as they've learned costly lessons in the disadvantages of a toxic work environment and the advantages to keeping their employees happy; this has led not only to massive policy and attitude changes from the CEOs down, with the Human Resources departments of most companies given new directives. HR is now more inclined to listen to victims, especially if they have proof.

However, there will always be those more interested in their own needs above those of the company, and take their rewards where they can get them. These people need to be shut down, and doing it is surprisingly simple once you have a plan and implement it.

[This is not a woman-only problem. Men, especially younger men, are possible targets as well and we're seeing greater numbers of women as aggressors as more women rise to management positions. There are also some industries where men and women are These notes can also be used to deal with toxic or dangerous environments; it's just a matter of changing the behavior being documented.]

For The Managers

Creating a harassment-free workplace is next to impossible, but certain safeguards can be taken. The first is to ensure that your HR Department is above board; the person in charge needs to be interested in defending the company, in the sense that they need to defend against internal threats, but they also need to be on the lookout for those crying wolf, and they need the authority to challenge anyone in the company, even the executives. You should also have simple security measures placed throughout the offices and surroundings, such as cameras and guards; just having them will act as a deterrent.

There are three areas that need to be debated: compliments, dating other employees, and provocative clothes. People need to be able to compliment others without it necessarily being seen as harassment just as certain compliments need to be seen as harassment; each compliment needs to be taken on its own merits. Dating needs to be regulated so as to avoid even the appearance of exploitation; this is why people aren't allowed to date within the same department and why management is usually forbidden from dating employees, even those in different departments.

Provocative clothing is a decidedly thorny issue. The fun part is that there is no question when men wear provocative clothing, be it pants tight enough that you can tell how he's feeling, kilts worn properly, or even shirts exposing a bit too much of the chest. However, if you try to enforce some dress code on women wearing shirts with one button too many unbuttoned, skirts high enough that you can tell her brand of underwear, or a dress tight enough that she can barely move, then it gets interesting. The best you can do is to draw up a dress code and enforce it as fairly as possible, preferably without as being seen as a prude.

In short, management needs to create an environment that's safe for everyone without being a dystopian nightmare while not leaning too heavily in favor of one side, and you need to accept the challenge to avoid lawsuits while maintaining positive office morale. Yeah, this is why you get paid the big bucks.

Identify the Problem

The first step has to be identifying the problem. Sexual harassment can include any unwelcome sexual advances, including those where a threat related to employment or rank. It also includes any verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature, especially if it creates a hostile work environment. It does not need to be solely sexual in nature and can include offensive remarks about a person or group's sex in general.

Both victim and harasser can be of any sex or gender and can include not only those you work with but also clients and customers of your business. You can also be harassed as an applicant. However, it needs to be noted that mere teasing, offhand remarks, and isolated but not very serious incidents are not legally a problem, they can be if they create a toxic work environment. It can sometimes be blatant, such as a spanking

If you are experiencing this kind of behavior, you should also determine if there are others being attacked and to what degree management encourages the behavior, and if so which managers. This last part needs to be done as objectively as possible as it's easy to presume that every supervisor and manager supports the problem; the solution is going to change depending on how systemic the problem really is rather than how it's perceived.

[The jerk point here is that you may be assuming upper management doesn't care and even supports the harassment when the reality is that they may not even know there is a problem. The more layers between upper management and the rank and file, the more out of touch they are with what's going really going, after all. This is why if you know your chain of command is corrupt it may not be a bad idea to go outside it. This is also why Legal and HR departments are usually isolated from other departments; it gives them a needed neutrality.

In essence, look before you leap to conclusions.]

Know the Rules

Knowledge is power and that starts by sitting down with the employee handbook. Most companies have adopted some sort of harassment policy and you need to find out exactly what it is and who enforces it. With larger companies, there should be a specific department or chain of command to whom you should report the problem; by knowing who is in charge of dealing with harassment violations you can also determine if it's even worth going forward. For smaller companies, you may need to contact a government office instead depending on how sympathetic the owner or manager is to harassment victims.

You should think about retaining a lawyer. Not only will they be better able to direct you, but you may need one should the situation escalate. At the very least they will know which laws apply and can help you create an offense if working within the system is unlikely to work. The lawyer can also help you file a complaint with the appropriate agency.

Get The Phones Out 

You're going to need to start collecting evidence. The sad reality is that whoever is doing the harassing may not be doing so where the appropriate authorities can see; he may be acting totally respectable when management is around and is able to somehow do what he does in full view of the cameras and security. Worse, you need to do it discretely so that you yourself don't tip your hat and so you can catch the guy doing what he does.

First, you need to determine if there are other victims, and if so you need to start collecting their testimony. You and the other victims also need to start documenting all of this. Somewhere along the line, you should key someone in management to the problem and ask their advice; ideally, this should involve HR. If you can't find a sympathetic manager or HR person, go straight to a lawyer, do not pass go (you should involve a lawyer at some point to help cover your posterior but this just speeds that part up).

Enter the smartphones. Before you bring your phone to bear, you need to find out if you are in a one-part consent jurisdiction; these are jurisdictions where you can record someone without their consent. If you aren't, then you will need to work with witness testimony. If you are, then you can record audio of the sexual harassment; it may not be that effective but it is something. You can also record video of the encounters, but you need to do so discretely; this shouldn't be a major issue if everyone powers their phone and checks their phone every so often (just make sure that you have your buttons set up so you can record without unlocking the phone). If you're working as a team, it should be even easier.

Make Your Case

So, now you should have a lot of evidence; the only question is what to do with it. There are three basic options, depending on the situation:

1. HR/Management Sympathetic: Present the evidence to them. Hopefully, it's sufficient to get the person terminated. 
2. HR/Management Unsympathetic: Time to quit and sue both the harasser and possibly the company in civil court. 
3. It's systemic: Time to quit, sue the harasser and the company, and notify the government agency.

The point should be to eliminate the problem, not make it worse. If you take bigger steps than is needed to solve the problem then you may hurt others; it may feel satisfying to take down a company to deal with a single harasser, but that also means putting everyone else out of a job. There's also a high probability that management only suspected what was going on but were unable to prove it; if they move on your evidence and deal with the problem then they've done their job and there's no reason to pursue it further. Hopefully, dealing with the person will also act as a head on a pole for others.

If management supports the harasser, especially if there are threats regarding promotions and possible termination, then either retry with someone higher up or just quit; you should not be forced to work in a hostile work environment. Of course, if you can get them to fire you, so much the better; this adds "wrongful termination" to the situation. The next step is to talk to a lawyer about suing the company. Here's where additional witnesses help; they can not only add credibility to the case but can be co-defendants as well.

Be advised that the company will throw everything they can at you, but in the current social climate it's in their favor to keep it out of the news and settle things quickly. Going to the press and hitting social media may not be bad threats if they drag their feet or they threaten you; you have power so don't be afraid to use it.

If the company is corrupt to the core, then it needs to be nuked. This is when you bring in the applicable government agency and give them what you have. You should also initiate your own court case. The plus/minus here is the potential for synergy: The two could affect each other. If the case or the investigation goes well, it could help the other but if either goes south it could hurt the other. Nonetheless, this will create a scandal, so even if you don't win you may still cause some damage.

Sexual harassment, and other toxic or hazardous environments, will be with us as long as people work together; this is just an unfortunate side-effect of doing business. However, by working together we can hopefully mitigate the situation and make the environment toxic for the attackers.