The management of any organization has numbers of responsibilities to fulfill. The management has to ensure that wages and salaries are paid out and employees are safe from all dangers including sexual harassment. A good leader always tries his best to meet his responsibilities. A single sexual harassment case can destroy a small enterprise or even cripple a bigger one.
When it comes to sexual harassment, an entrepreneur is responsible for everything they know and have to know. If an employee tries to sexually harass another employee and a strong claim is filed, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) looks into the situation and figure it out. For example, what is the problem? Did the employee try to harass them over and over again? What did the management do about it? Did the management succeed in stopping the harassment?
So, if a sexual harassment incident takes place and management does nothing, it can be held liable. On the other hand, if the management becomes harsh and terminates the employee, they may be held liable for discharging the employee wrongfully. So, the leader should not take any action blindly without conducting research or investigation.
As a leader, you will need to protect yourself. To do this, you will end up spending a lot on training, posters, lawyers and staff so as to meet the additional requirements and so on.
Here is a case study: A manager, who had more than 10 years of experience leading workers in an office, found out that one of his supervisors raped a girl. At first, he thought of taking strict action against that employee, but he decided to carry out an investigation after a while. Two days of comprehensive investigation revealed that the girl had made a fake allegation.
Actually, the girl had a sexual relationship with the supervisors and, for some reason, the supervisor tried to scorn her. As a result, the girl made a fake allegation against him. Upon finding out the truth, the manager terminated them immediately. The case was very complex which opened the eyes of that manager. The world is complex and people often do strange things.
This incident teaches mangers and leaders in an organization that they should investigate into sexual harassment cases before taking severe actions against an employee. No statement should be taken at face value. First off, verify each and every fact prior to believing an employee’s claim.
As a leader, you should understand that sexual harassment should have no room in an organization. So, you should take necessary steps in order rid the workplace of sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment incidents are on the rise, especially in organizations. So, stringent rules should be formulated so the employee could stay away from such filthy acts.
This article throws some light on sexual harassment in workplace. Hope the article provides useful information about sexual harassment and the way it can be controlled by managers in an organization to create a peaceful work environment. In this way, the employees will be able to work at their full capacity.
If you or your loved one has been sexually harassed in the workplace, contact sexual harassment attorney Moseley Collins.