Consider it agreed upon that sexual harassment in the workplace is a serious problem and needs to be dealt with in the strongest possible way.
Now, I’ll take it as a given that the vast majority of harassment complaints are valid.
But it seems to me that there is an increasing number of harassment complaints that are unfounded and frivolous.
Cases in point-
A former co-worker of mine, talking about his female dog, referred to her as a bitch, which is the technically correct term for said dog. A female coworker overheard and filed a complaint with human resources.
Another co-worker, after listening to an employee talk about a cruise she was planning to go on during her upcoming vacation, turned to a female who happened to be standing next to him and said, “Hey, we should do that.”
Complaint was filed.
A male employee used the word “broad” in a sentence. A female co-worker, who was not involved in the conversation, at whom the remark was in no way directed, filed a harassment complaint.
A manager, in talking to a female employee, placed a friendly hand on her shoulder, touching her in a completely nonsexual way. Complaint filed.
It seems to me that fear of this sort of frivoulous complaint would lead companies to not want to hire women workers. Of course, they legally can’t discriminate, but in a right to work state, I wonder if a high percentage of women don’t pass their evaluation periods because, in some vaguely stated terms, they “weren’t meeting standards.”
I have worked in situations where fear of harassment complaints was so strong that male supervisors would start to give me a pat on the back, then suddenly jerk their hand away. Of course, they all knew that I’m not the type who would make a complaint, but there were eyes all around…
And most companies don’t seem to have procedures in place to deal with employees who make frivolous harassment complaints.