Question

As your company's director of human relations, you have to deal with Susan's complaint about her supervisor. Soon after she was hired, Susan received text messages from her supervisor that said "You are the prettiest girl in the office" and "3 Dates=1 Raise." The text messages made Susan uncomfortable, and she did not respond to them hoping that her supervisor would "just take the hint" and leave her alone. However, today this supervisor hugged Susan, patted her rear end, and said: "The way you look in that outfit, it's clear that you're my best hire yet." Susan immediately pushed him away and has now reported the incident to you. At what point do comments rise to the level of sexual harassment? When does a hostile work environment exist? How much should the law tolerate before holding the employer responsible for the actions of employees that are sexually harassing other employees?

Answer 1

Ans- Comments rise to the level of sexual harassment when someone gives texts messages commenting on the other person's physical features or promising for a promotion if the other person goes on a date with them or anything like commenting on their outfit like in this case which happened with Susan. It can be seen that how her supervisor approached her giving her text messages by saying that he will promote her if she goes on three dates with him and also he commented on her outfit. Comments can also be sexual harassment when someone gives messages which makes the other person uncomfortable or touching them intentionally which the other person does not want which happened with Susan as her supervisor hugged her and patted her rear end which Susan did not want.

A hostile work environment exists when a person does not feel comfortable working in their office because of some specific person. The person will continuously stare at that particular employee and pass sexual comments or approach and touch them intentionally or it may also be like that women are not given equal importance like men and are always not allowed to be part of important discussions of office or are not allowed to work on projects which they want to take.

According to me, the law should not tolerate these things at all. The law should impose strict rules regarding sexual harassment so that no one dares to do such a thing. When an employer hires employee they see the skills of that employee and their work experience if any, to judge them and the employee may also perform very well according to the expectations of their employer but that employee's character may not be good. If that is a male employee and if he has female worker under him then he may send her unwanted texts or may even make her work late night at the office and touch her during work which she may not want and the employer may not come to know these things unless the female employee complains about it and yes the employer will be equally responsible if they come to know such things and keep silent and therefore there should be strict rules and punishments for such kind of acts so that employees fear and think twice before doing such things.