Weird sexual behavior at work -- how concerned should we be?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Wasn’t sure where to put this, but maybe this qualifies as a request for your views. Heck, maybe it even qualifies as a poll.

The operations manager at work called me and the personnel manager this morning, and asked us to meet him in an area of the factory, just off the main floor.

What he showed us was a small room that someone has been using for some personal, private time. The manager said it’s the second time they’d found the room in that condition, and whoever was using it has had to break locks to get in.

There were dirty pictures drawn on the walls, two lengths of a small chain hanging over a pipe with a step-ladder nearby, a place to lie down fashioned from some recycling bins and boards, band-aids, a small knife, more drawings on scrap paper, drawings on towels, cigarette butts, small pieces of aluminum foil, a box of tissues, and a satin teddy dangling from a nail. One set of fingerprints high up on the wall were the color of dried blood. (There was nothing violent in the drawings.)

The plant nurse thinks we should be very worried. She says this sounds to her like sexual psychopathy. She’s particularly concerned that he has continued to use the room despite being found out once before – he gets off on the danger of possibly being caught.

The operations manager isn’t convinced that this kind of behavior would ever affect anyone but the man who’s doing it.

I think we should ask an expert – someone in law enforcement or someone at the sexual assault center.

If someone was doing this at home, I wouldn’t be too worried, but doing it at work? That’s a bit unhealthy, isn’t it?

What do you think?

2

Pretty wierd workplace behavior. Find him and fire him.

3

Very weird. very disturbing. I wonder could you describe the teddy? um… nevermind. I think you already said what I think.

Am sure someone here might give you a few suggestions as well.

4

Hmm, do you work in the same office as Strainger?

5

IANAL, but he could live to regret those words if, now that you do know about it, something goes really, really wrong in there and your company is sued.

6

The situation is rife for serious trouble. I believe that if nothing is done to find the culprit then someone can go after the company for sexual harassment. I don’t have my materials with me, but I seem to recall that all you need is to show that the company did nothing to a situation that made people feel sexually uncomfortable, and I’m damn sure that description will apply to many of the people who work there.

The best action is to try to find the culprit and fire him. The company should have gotten some investigator in to evaluate the evidence.

7

Muffin, good idea, but I’m not sure we’d be able to fire him. That’s one for the lawyers to figure out.

Osip – dirty white satin, with a patch near the hem where it had been torn and repaired, thin straps, probably a size 5 or so. K-Mart-ish.

Ferrous, thanks, I hadn’t seen that thread. :slight_smile:

Slithy, yes! The room is concrete block, unused, it’s not even a store room. The factory has been added to over the years and there are lots of cubbyhole places like that. Usually, they’re just used for sleeping. Heaven forbid but there could be a body in there for weeks before anyone would notice.

RealityChuck, I think you’re right. This kind of stuff isn’t covered in the Human Resources manuals and seminars. Heck, I’m uncomfortable, and I pride myself on being unshockable. We need an expert to evaluate this.

Heck, everybody masturbates, and I can even accept someone doing it at work, but to set up a little den is scary. The chains, ladder, knife and bandaids too.

And rather than lock up the room again, we need to totally remove the doors, don’t you think? That’d be more effective than making the place secure.

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody.

8

IMHO this is an easy one. You should definitely take steps to find out who is doing and should notify the authorities as well. CYA

As for being able to fire him, well, of course you can. “[W]hoever was using it has had to break locks to get in.” You can certainly fire someone for destroying company property, can’t you?

The little bits of tinfoil also concern me as they could be evidence of drug use. Were the small pieces of aluminium foil charred?

I also wouldn’t be so quick to assume it’s only one person. Two lengths of chain on a pipe sounds like it might be a couple of people “playing.”

In any case, you won’t have too much trouble figuring out who it is. You’ve got bloody fingerprints and cigarette butts for DNA testing, if necessary.

Take steps. It sounds like whoever it is wants to be caught. If you do nothing and something does happen, you’ll feel terrible.

9

Truth Seeker, easy? I don’t know.

Damaging company property is punishable by a 15-day suspension without pay. If the damage is severe enough, we can fire the person. The company would think broken locks are severe enough, but there’s a union, which would probably file a grievance, and if it went to an arbitrator, maybe the arbitrator would uphold it, but maybe not.

The foil wasn’t charred. Three or four pieces, about 2 inches by 4 inches. We really wondered about that, since it appeared clean.

About the DNA testing, yes, I suppose we could use that at some point. But we have about 2000 employees. There’s a group of about 150 who are likely suspects – a crew with a lot of freedom, their own tools, and nobody watches them very closely. But even narrowing it down to 150, even if the Union would agree to it, I don’t think the company will pay to collect samples from all of them. Is that how it would have to be done?

I don’t have any authority, but I certainly agree that we need to do something.

10

DNA testing? Hell, they’ve got fingerprints. To do DNA testing, they’d have to match it up with everyone in the place right? With the fingerprints, all they have to do is run them through the authorities. If the person’s been fingerprinted any time for any reason, it’d be easier to go that route than straight to DNA testing it seems.

11

What if it isn’t a “him”?

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Hadn’t occurred to you?
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12

I’m visualizing someone very carefully setting the room up to look like this. Do you suppose the room is actually being “used,” or that someone is just screwing around with you. It’s the chains and the Teddy Bear that got me. Sounds a bit contrived. And leaving the bloody fingerprints? It’s like someone thinks he’s building a movie set.

13

Well, if there is a union involved, that does make it more complicated. On the other hand, whoever it is might just quit once you track him (or her) down. I know this is serious but I’m picturing some burly union guy sneaking into this room and dressing up in a satin teddy and I can’t keep a straight face!

**

Well, that would certainly be one way to conclusively prove who it was. Matching the prints would probably be easier. You can probably eliminate some people because they don’t smoke. If the union would let you, you might set up a hidden video camera.

Kyomara

Uhhm, It’s not a teddy bear. It’s a Teddy. I agree, though, that someone is setting up fantasy dungeon.

14

IAAL:D

15

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Truth Seeker *
**

Oops.

But c’mon! It was an easy mistake to make. Besides, a teddy BEAR would make for a much cooler movie set. And I’d certainly want one in MY fantasy dungeon.

16

Concerned enough to find the person and fire them.

If somebody doesn’t have the control to keep their sexual insincts to themselves and lets it seep into their workspace, this person has problems. Worrying about them suing if they get fired for it? I know America is litigation happy, but I don’t think you are going to find any court that will proclaim that any person is free to express all their sexual impulses in the workspace. Especially since this involves breaking into locked areas.

I don’t know if this a danger to workers, but this is not acceptable behavior in any workspace.

I think the camera solution is the best. There is no law prohibiting it. Hell, it’s on most street corners.

But it’s definitely problem territory. If it’s gone this far, the behaviour is not going to change. Once the sex engine ties itself to something it doesn’t let go easy. Hell, none of us are paragons of sexual virtue, but at least we can draw lines. Taking it this far is unhealthy in the extreme. Find this person and eliminate them from your workspace. You will be vindicated from every angle.

My god, why is this even a question?

17

If the room is supposed to be secured and normally off limits to all unauthorized employees, set up a hidden camera and find out who is doing this. As said by others, this is a potential legal time bomb and the possible liabilities are tremendous.

18

What a sicko – DRAWING dirty pictures on the walls? Why bother? God invented “Playboy” for a reason, you know.

19

Nuts! I lost several interesting posts in this thread. Oh well.
Pam, was anything done about this individual? Catch em?

20

I bet they’d win that argument in Ally McBeal. It sounds exactly like their sort of case. (Their sort of workplace, in fact…)

So what did happen? Hope no one got hurt.