How to Handle Sex Harassment Complaints

My private consulting practice was based on referrals. I started with the 6 companies who had kidnapped me to start this practice. I got a calls from companies who had been referred to me by their friends. That’s how I got to handle the sexual harassment case I’m about to tell you about.

The young woman who reported this case had a good relationship with the Executive Assistant who reported to the company President.  She reported that her boss was hitting on her and she was uncomfortable. Both were young and single. The President told the Executive Assistant to call me. I stressed confidentiality and wanted to meet with the harassed woman off site.  The President agreed.  I called the harassed woman and arranged to meet her at a local eatery at 3pm, so there wouldn’t be a crowd. We met and she told me that she worked in a team full is singles. Her boss was the team leader and he liked to party with the team at bars. She understood the benefits of having close relationships in a team, but her boss was pursuing her. I asked her if she would move to another team and remain with the company and she agreed. The President agreed and arranged a quiet transfer. The boss who did the harassing was never told about the complaint, but I told the President to keep an eye on him.  He ended his pursuit of the harassed woman.

The other second harassment case I want to share occurred years earlier when I was still a Personnel Director.  I got a call from a supervisor who reported that a young male technician had been sending love notes to a happily married female co-worker. I met with the supervisor, looked at the notes and arranged for a transfer of the male technician to another group. I met with the male technician and told him he was being transferred and to leave his former female co-worker alone or he would be fired. He behaved for a while, but finally sent another note to the female co-worker and I fired him.

I resisted using formal methods that would have made these sexual harassment claims more widely known. In the first case I trusted the harassed woman was telling the truth and avoided letting her be branded as a “complainer”.  In the second case I had evidence and confronted the male technician with the evidence. I worked through the supervisors and didn’t even meet with the female co-worker who reported this to her supervisor.

Employees appreciate it when managers can solve their problems discretely, quickly and quietly. Employees never want to create discord in their relationships with each other and they deserve to have managers who know this.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader