I have talked with a couple of successful businessmen in the past few weeks about this and both of them stated there is no way they will be hiring any women and they won't even consider it. They both stated they have too much to lose if someone makes a false allegation.

 

What terrible irony! Women worked so hard for equality in the workforce and are now speaking up about past harrassment. It is a shame the latter has hurt the former. I can see your point for sure.

Playing the other side here. Did they tell employees how to contact a male employee if they needed their attention?

 

Haha, whelp maybe I will bring up that at work tomorrow! No doubt the answer won’t be elbow!

Our elbows are close to a lot of other things on our body. No way in the world would I reach towards a woman's elbow to touch her. That is flat out crazy talk.

 

Excellent point. We once had an issue where a male employee was taking a female’s blood pressure and she accused him of fondling her. It sure is easy to accidentally touch the wrong place when taking a blood pressure.

 

He was a well known very trusted employee, and her accusations could have cost him his job. Fortunately it worked out, but now it is scary to think how easy it can be to ruin someone.

I know a case of a woman recently being fired for cause. Absolutely no way this woman could be retained. She made the statement on the way out that she would be filing a harassment suit.

 

Yet another black eye for all the legitimate complaints.

So let me ask this, two coworkers (equals) are friendly beyond work, hang out, whatever. One of them thinks it's turning into more than it really is and sends a text or says something that is more sexual in nature (nothing really bad). Is that harassment?

So let me ask this, two coworkers (equals) are friendly beyond work, hang out, whatever. One of them thinks it's turning into more than it really is and sends a text or says something that is more sexual in nature (nothing really bad). Is that harassment?

 

In my own definition, I don't think a single vocal act is harassment. Now if it happened more than once, especially after being corrected, that could be considered harassment.

Another in the list of offenses where an accusation is sufficient to ruin a life.

It only stands to reason that in a place where a person spends literally a third, if not more, of their day working side by side with others and developing close friendships that on occasion some of those friendships can spawn romantic chemistry.

 

I saw it time and again at my workplace, and can think of 3 incidences off the top of my head that resulted in marriage.

 

I get where for an employer it might be frowned upon as it could at times negatively effect the dynamics in the workplace, but the cultural understanding that it's wrong or should be restricted is just downright ridiculous, and especially when we're talking about adults and their freedoms. Employers pay you, but they don't own you. I'll do in my free time whatever I damn well please, and if that means courting someone that I've met on the job, so be it.

 

Everyone's heard the good advise of "Don't get your meat where you eat", or "Don't dip your pen in the company ink", and while these clever sayings do have merit considering so many bad consequences, the idea that it should not happen, or it can't work out is simply ludicrous.

So let me ask this, two coworkers (equals) are friendly beyond work, hang out, whatever. One of them thinks it's turning into more than it really is and sends a text or says something that is more sexual in nature (nothing really bad). Is that harassment?

 

If one has any hint of authority over the other, than the answer is yes. If not, and the one wants the action to stop, they take it up the chain putting notice of the action on record. Now the company must deal with it, or they are quilty of allowing a "sexually hostile" environment. Documented action and monitoring follow-up must be clear, thorough, and effective or the company is very vulnerable to potentially expensive litigation. That is why many "zero tolerance" policies are being implemented with high profile firings (replacing the private plaintiff settlements that often times were less disruptive, less corporate costs and reputational damage). Candidly, in today's world, corporate financial and reputional risk is superseding the "innocent until proven guilty" rights of some falsely accused.

I'm a male who supervises 8 female direct reports and 0 males. My department as a whole has 4 men (including myself) and approximately 50 women. With this, I have always taken sexual harassment very seriously and take every step to ensure nothing I do or say can be misconstrued.

 

I don't directly address female dress code violations. I get a second opinion of a female supervisor and ask that they handle it on my behalf.

 

I make sure to never be alone in a room with a female employee. I always request a female supervisor sit in on private coaching sessions so we can have a third party record of what happened. I want to avoid any he said/she said. I offer to do the same for them when they have to coach their male employees.

 

Not hiring women would just never be an option for me. And given that my company has a female Chairman/CEO, I don't think it's an option for anyone in the company, fortunately.