Sexual_Harassment

According to Moran, “sexual harassment encompasses the request for sexual favors as well as touching, joking, commenting, or distributing material of a sexual nature that an employee has not consented to and finds offensive” (Moran, 2008, pg .261). I believe that Mr. Thomas committed sexual harassment because his secretary was clearly uncomfortable with the comments that were made about the female body part. I believe that the sexual harassment would be classified by unintentional sexual harassment. According to Kearney, unintentional sexual harassment can constitute as such if there are acts or comments of sexual nature not intended to harass but the other person is uncomfortable with such subjects (Kearney, 2004). Not only did the secretary let Mr. Thomas know that she was uncomfortable, he then proceeded to go to the dictionary to show a definition of the female body part. It is unclear as to if the dictionary had a picture next to the definition, but if there was a picture then that would be considered distributing material of a sexual nature. Again, I believe that Mr. Thomas participated in sexual harassment towards the secretary because she was uncomfortable with the conversation and Mr. Thomas ignored her. I do believe that Mr. Thomas’ termination was justified being that there were sexual harassment policies and procedures were followed. Most companies state their sexual harassment policies in an employee handbook which are given to each employee. If the procedures were followed then the secretary would have had to inform her supervisor of the issue or HR Manager. The next step would be for the secretary to document what happened and the company representative to conduct an investigation and speak to any witnesses that were present during the sexual harassment. If all of those procedures were followed and Mr. Thomas was still guilty for sexual harassment, then his termination was justified. In order to prove a sexual harassment in the workplace the secretary has to prove that the harassment was severe, the harassment negatively affected the terms, conditions or privileges of her work environment, and management knew about the harassment. If these elements could not be proven then this would affect the jury’s decision to find Mr. Thomas not guilty. Substantial proof such as written statements from the alleged victim or witnesses would help aide the jury to prove that Mr. Thomas committed sexual harassment. If none of the evidence is available or not enough evidence is available then the verdict for Mr. Thomas would be not guilty. References: Kearney, R. A. (2004). Unintended Hostile Environment: Mapping the Limits of Sexual Harassment Law. Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, 25. Moran, J. J. (2008). Employment Law (Fourth ed., p. 5). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.