Hey, what a great group of cool people we have in our office

Okay so you have nice informal work environment, no ties, everybody "high-fiving", no problems--even a softball team! So you make frequent "crude" and embarrassing sexual remarks to both men and women in your work group. Not one has ever complained, plus you're not talking and much less not targeting anyone. Hey, it like TV! You know, "that's what she said". You're pretty "rowdy" group and some of us even respond with approval at times. It can't be sexual harassment if no one person is the "target" of this behavior, right.

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That would be great, and just like TV, but unfortunately, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (one that many don't particularly enjoy hearing from) recently ruled that harassing, abusive, and crude remarks can constitute sexual harassment, even though a supervisor directed the comments to all employees. The important question to ask in all sexual harassment cases is this: Is the supervisor's conduct sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment and create a hostile or abusive working environment. If so, the issue turns to whether the employer, when informed of the abusive behavior, took prompt action to remedy the situation. If supervisors remember this description, much of the gray area of questionable behavior will become clear. Also, even if a supervisor's conduct is equally degrading to both men and women, it does not make the conduct immune from liability for sexual harassment.

My Female Employees Don't Mind Sexual Harassment

A supervisor recently told me that his female employees love the attention that many other women in the workplace would consider sexual harassment. The women in the workplace are young, and they also dish it out themselves. So is it a problem? He thought the media was make too much out of the whole sexual harassment thing.

This supervisor is missing the point, I think. It's true that many workplace behaviors that constitute sexual harassment either by definition or perception by female employees goes unannounced and without formal complaint, but this doesn't mean a charge against the employer won't come tomorrow. There's the rub.

The attention given to this problem legitimatizes the lodging of complaints by employees who have not come forward. And there lies one of the most important reasons to have policy and a complaint procedure in place. There are reasons many employees don't complain. Here are just a few. Which one's do you think are being impacted by recent media and court actions?

The employee doesn't feel he or she will be believed.
They fear some subtle or overt punishment by the employer or supervisor.
They don't trust that management will take action or will listen with an eye toward objectivity.
They don't want to "cause problems."
They may be accused of "wanting it" or "bringing it on."
They cannot provide a accurate accounting of the incident(s).

Often a charge against the employer will not emerge until an employee is terminated for some reason, regardless of the legitimacy of the discharge action. In other words, once a job is lost, many of these reasons in the eye of the victim disappear as roadblocks to lodging complaints.

Okay so the employees aren't complaining. Let's go so far as to say they love it. Are you offended personally? What about the behavior and its affect on the corporate mission? It's values? Any problems there. Of course there is.

You don't need a female worker's complaint to take action. Sexual harassment is not based upon the victim's motivation to file a complaint.