What constitues sexual harassment? I have a couple of examples that happened to me.
I had a boss, male, who scratched his crotch all the time. He was a VP at the company (a KMart distribution center) and he would stare at every woman's breast while talking to them. Then the scratching would begin. I finally spoke to my female manager who told me he had been doing it for years. I said it made me uncomfortable and I think it is wrong. She told me that since he was a VP, I needed to just be quite about it....there was nothing I could do.
Well, I looked into the companies "employee hotline" and called. I had spoken to every woman in the company and determined that the VP had been doing this stuff for years and everyone was afraid to speak about it.
I called the hotline and explained to a very nice man on the phone what had been happening. I ended up calling because during a company inventory, I was alone in my office counting inventory slips. Everyone had been cleared from the area to make sure our data remained clean. Ross, the VP walked in and said nothing. I said Hi, I was almost done and would bring up the inventory slips when my tally was complete. Ross looked at me without saying a word, put his leg and foot up on the chair next to my desk, looked at his finger and jammed it into his crotch. The look of rapture on his face I will never forget. He stood there, fingering himself, for about 45 seconds before my fight or flight reaction hit. I picked up my slips and ran out of the office. I ran to the main office and was yellling at the security cameras that lined the interior of the building.
I called the hotline and waited for the chips to fall. My next door neighbor was the VP of human resources at the company. I spoke with neighbors, friends and my husband who encouraged me to report this man, Ross, to the head quarters.
I ended up getting called into the office about 2 weeks later. The VP of HR was there, the president of the company, my manager and myself. They said they were concerned that I would take this matter to the corporate people. I said what Ross was doing was wrong. He was harassing female employees when he stared at their breasts and scratched himself. I said that Verna (my female manager) had told me to ignore it so I felt I was not getting the support required for this type of situation.
The HR VP told me with a straight face, that after a complete investigation, they determined that Ross had severe jock itch and he was now getting treatment!!!! I almost laughed! I said that I could not work in that enviroment and I would give 2 weeks notice. They said thanks, however, here is your severance check. They were going to fire me, however, I resigned before they could. I said I just needed to collect my stuff from my office and I wanted to say good-bye to some people. They had security follow me through the building.
I went to each woman and told them what happened. I told them Ross would continue his horrible ways if they did not start complaining. I said I was being used as an example to keep them quiet. They should not stand for it. Also, as I walked through the building, I gave the security camera's the finger. I was mouthing "fuck you" to the camera. The security people following me said they would tape me. I told them to go ahead....all I did was let the cat out of the bag.
Within 2 months of my leaving, we moved from Ohio to California. I put down the VP of HR as a reference on my first job application. I wanted to see what he would say. He gave me glowing references-for years. I know he was afraid of being sued. Anita Hill and sexual harassment had just come out. The neighbors I kept in touch with said they shunned he and his wife for his treatment of me.
I never did sue. I thought that the fall out of a lawsuit would be terrible for my career. Plus, I was in California and the company was in Ohio. I wish I had now. When I moved back to Ohio 3 years ago, I put the VP down as a reference. He asked one of my references to have me call him...he was thrilled I was back in town and could not wait to catch up on old times!! I spoke with my neighbors who said he was a pariah in the neighborhood for his treatment of me and the situation.
Another instace was working in Kansas. I worked for Lucent Tech and I had about 7 people reporting to me. One of the young men, an engineering college student, had all kinds of naked women as screen savers!! I would walk by his desk and there were a pair of naked breasts looking at me. Or a female crotch. I got complaints from female employees and called him in and spoke to him. He was Asian and did not have the greatest grasp of the English language. I explained it was not acceptable, etc. He said ok. I noted it in his file. (Lucent was on its way down hill at that point, 1999, and we had no on-site Human Resource people. We had to work this stuff out ourselves.) Well, it did not stop. I got my manager involved because he needed to be aware that the women in the office were complaining; I pointed out that sexual harassment suits were brought for less. He said to ignore it! Said that with the lack of engineering students to fill his job, our only option was to just let it go....it was not hurting anyone! We needed him.
I almost hit him. I was so mad. I knew I would be moving from Kansas within a few months, however, I wanted the last few months to be positive. This jerk-off boss let this idiot keep his screen savers. His only concession was that maybe we should move his desk to an area where people were not walking by it everyday. We were in cubicles, about 5' x 6', and our computers were in the corner...everyone could see what you were doing at any time. Everyone had the same cubicle.
These two experiences were very frustrating. The one at KMart was in 1991, the one at Lucent was in 1999.
Did you ever experience this at work and how did you handle it? What was the fall out if you did complain?