The Double-Edged Sword of Harassment

This week, all of my company's managers converged upon our attorney for a two-hour session of state mandated Discrimination & Sexual Harassment Prevention training. We did not learn anything new other than the fact that when an employee feels that she has been the victim of discrimination or harassment, the manager can be personally named in the complaint and ensuing lawsuit.

Oh goody. Trial lawyers lining their pockets again. I guess going after the employer just didn't provide enough funds.

California now makes it mandatory for companies with 50 or more employees to provide this training to managers, and the Human Resources director is no longer "qualified" to do the training - even though HR professionals are charged with the responsibility of investigating the harassment and discrimination claims. No. Now we must pay an attorney or other "certified" and "qualified" person thousands of dollars to "train" manager how to stop harassment and discrimination.

Is there discrimination and harassment in places of work? Yes. And it's wrong and frankly a disgusting and pathetic attempt at power by very small people.
However, no one ever talks about how women dress inappropriately - for work, or play . Yes, this is a real issue.

When a young girl or woman chooses clothes, she is very aware of her sexuality as well as the impact it has on men. Trust me - all women know this from the time they first flirt with their daddies.

When a woman chooses tight jeans, a lowcut t-shirt and high heals, she knows that all of her assets are on display for anyone and everyone to ogle. However, when she dresses like this for work, unless she works at Hooters, she should be sent home by her employer and told to dress more appropriately.

But men are terrified of women at work. Can her boss send her home? Can he even address her attire? When he points out to her that her attire is not appropriate, is that Sexual harassment because he was looking?

Do you see the outrageous legal conundrum we have as employers?

But trust me - a woman knows the effect her attire will have on men.

Employers can send an inapropriately dressed employee home to change as long as proper attire is addressed in the Company Employee Manual. In fact, I encourage it. Obviously some women never learned from their mommies the word "appropriate," or the timing of appropriateness and the workplace is not the venue to test this out.

I distribute memos every year to my employees, reminding them of our Company policy and what is appropriate attire in the workplace. And every year I have to send one or two women home to change their clothes. And yes, they have threatened to sue me, they have threatened discrimination and harassment, and a few have even informed me of their "right" to dress how they want to. They were terminated on the spot.

In the 18 years I have worked in Human Resources Management, I have fired several men for unbelievable behavior - disgusting harassment. I have never had a discrimination case with any validity. My company would not tolerate that behavior for five minutes. But more of the complaints are the result of hurt feelings, spurned lovers, tough managers who are demanding, or young, flirtatious women flaunting themselves at guys and then deciding they don't want the guy after all; the embarassment usually leads to a sexual harassment claim.

Preventing discrimination and harassment in the workplace is a double-edged sword. Managers and owners cannot be afraid to declare attire policies, as well as zero tolerance for any discrimination, and then enforce the policies.

And don't be afraid to tell a female coworker that she is dressed inappropriately. Dressing like a floozie is ugly anytime, but we don't have to tolerate this at work... we see it enough at the mall, the grocery store, the video store, at school, at the gym...