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Herassment in the workplace
I am a 29 year old female who is currently employed by a large car dealership in sales. I recently was in my managers office speaking with both my Sales Manager and General Manager/part owner. A cooworker entered the room and made a comment to me which was quite offfensive, referring to my sexuality. I was completely offended! The GM giggled at the comment and left the room. The sales manager spoke to the employee and told him to apologize. I don't feel that was appropriate descipline do you? This individdual has made sexual comments to me in the past which I diffused by speaking to my cooworkers. They in turn spoke to him and let him know the comments were not welcome. Now I feel like everyone is avoiding me...I have worked there for a year. This gentleman has only worked there for three months. All my friends tell me to contact a lawyer and that this was sexual herassment. Is it? I have never been in this situation...What do I do....
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In theory, yes, it can be classed as sexual harassment. However, whether or not it would stand up in Court is another matter because the only witness to his 'joke' seemed to find it humorous and therefore would not take the situation very seriously.
Make sure that from now on, you keep a full record of any other such comments that he makes to you. Don't try to fight back at all but tell him you don't think such comments are appropriate in the workplace. Make sure it is clear each and every time that he says something along these lines, you find it offensive and inappropriate. When you have gathered a decent sized list of comments that he has made to you, if you think that they are relatively serious, present them to the Sales Manager or General Manager, whichever you feel might take the matter more seriously. He has now already been warned about his behaviour. If he continues to do it, he will be heading down a very rocky road.
Unfortunately, until you have sought further appropriate action from your Manager's, there is no point going to consult a Lawyer. So secretly keep making a note of every slimey thing he does or says and build a case against him. If you have a lot of examples and your Manager still does nothing, then you might want to consider taking the matter further.
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