Question

Ch. 16 1. Read the following scenario and answer the question in 5-10 sentences. You are the president of a HumTech, a technology consulting company, and have received some startling news. Richard is one of your information technology supervisors. You learn that Richard has been emailing Brenda, an information technology technician who reports to him, pornographic photos and sexually-directed jokes. Brenda told Richard to stop, but Richard continued to send the emails to Brenda. In response to Richard's conduct, Brenda abruptly quit and filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Preventing sexual harassment has been a major priority for you, and you have established extensive complaint procedures, dispute resolution mechanisms, and sexual harassment prevention policies. You are surprised that Brenda didn't use these resources before seeking legal redress. Evaluate whether your company may be held liable for Richard's conduct.

Answer 1

Richard engaged in hostile environment sexual harassment – a pattern of sexually offensive conduct in the workplace that infects the workplace with discriminatory insult and alters the conditions of employment. Richard will likely be held responsible for his actions. However, an employer may not be liable for the sexual harassment of its supervisor if the employer took reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any sexually harassing behavior (by establishing effective harassment policies and complaint procedures, for instance) and the plaintiff-employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer to avoid harm. In this case, Brenda did not take advantage of preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer, and went straight to the EEOC. Therefore, it is likely that HumTech will not be held liable for Richard's actions in court.