Harrassment in the Workplace

I’m writing this at a mandatory sexual harassment meeting. Frankly, I feel harassed by this whole thing. Not only was I given no choice about whether or not to attend, but also I was given no choice as to which session to go to.

Is there sexual harassment in the workplace? Yes. I know that first hand – not from the job I have now, thankfully. When I was in high school and before college, I worked in a plastics molding plant. The supervisor told us dirty jokes, and harassed women, though not as badly as could have been. (They also paid men more for the same job, and only offered health care to men.) At the time I was too naïve to realize this was reportable behavior. Besides, back then the complaints probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere.

Things are different now. I haven’t seen sexual harassment in years. It may be because I work more in white collar jobs now. I know from what I hear on the bus that women are still treated badly by boyfriends and husbands, and the men brush it off.

I think this is a problem that will never really go away. If we ever managed to get women seen as equals, then there would be others – gays, people of color, of different religions, etc. A sad but true fact of human nature.

One thing I just thought about is disability. For instance, the bus is set up to handle those with disabilities, but the bus schedule does not really allow the extra time it takes to load and unload wheelchairs. We usually make connections if there is only one person, but if two – which is rare, but happens from time to time – then we are likely to miss the next bus at the transfer point. Is that harassment? No, since it doesn’t affect the disabled person. What it does do though, is to make riding the bus less welcoming for all of us. I want to make clear that this is not the fault of the handicapped people. It is the inflexibility of the bus schedule that’s to blame.

One curious thing the presenter said is that harassment must occur in the areas of protected speech/action, such as sex, disability, religion, race, gender, etc. General harassment is not covered. As he said, it’s not against the law to be a jerk. I find this odd, as I’ve seen much more of that sort of thing than actual sexual harassment. In the workplace, people instinctively know who is the “weakest link” and can be harassed – can be complained about, made fun of, etc. And we also know those whom we cannot say anything about, no matter what they do or how they act. So why isn’t acting like a jerk harassment? And for that matter, why isn’t gossip harassment? I find that deadening, whether it’s about a coworker or the latest celebrity in trouble.

Oh, well, the meeting is nearly over, so I’ll bring this to a close.