| Topic Name: |
Sexual Harassment |
| Message Name: |
Re: Harrassment |
| Date Posted: |
04/25/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
What do you all think???
I have an employee who is very gregarious. This employee is also 'physically demonstrative.' When speaking to people to either gender, this employee touches others on a shoulder, slaps them on their knee when joking with them, etc. What advice would you give this employee? Is it adviceable to terminate due to sexual harassment? If we end up terminating this employee for inappropriate behavior I would like to help the employee on handling the topic in future interviews. Should this employee disclose all or just mention to future employers that our company simply laid them off? |
| Message: |
Before I offer you any advice I need to know a few more particulars:
Is this person a superior, is he your subordinate, an eqaul or is he in a different department?
If this person is a subordinate have the others talked you about his behavior? If they haven't then as a manager it is your responsibility to call each in privately and ask them if _____(person's name) makes them feel uncomfortable. Ask them to elaborate on how this person makes them feel uncomfortable.
If he is a superior I'm not really sure what you can do other than quit if he is the manager of your departmant, because if you talk to him it could jeopardize your career with the company.
If the person is a superior but not the person you report to then maybe you can talk to your boss about it in private. Just tell the boss that ______ makes you feel uncomforable. Be very diplomatic.
If he is an equal, maybe you could pull him aside at the end of the day and have a private conversation with him. Don't mention termination. Tell him that as a friend you are concerned with his behavior. Be very diplomatic as you are treading dangerous ground. Or better yet talk to your boss in private and mention how uncofortable _____ makes you feel. You have to put it in such a way that you don't appear to be complaining to the boss.
If the person is a subordiate after you have called in the others and spoke with them, call him into your office in private and let him know that you have a concern about his behavior, voice the concerns that you have told us about. Let him know that the behavior is unacceptable and you want it to stop. In my opinion you should only terminate the employee after all the other options have been exhausted. I think if you terminate someone, you have to give them two notices stating what was wrong and what needs to be improved to make it legal before termination unless its a mass layoff. I don't know for sure, ask your HR manager they know better about that stuff.
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