George Wassell

Sexual Harassment Responsibilities<br />
Of The Supervisor<br />
<br />
1. Understand your organization's harassment policy<br />
and recommended procedures for handling sexual harassment complaints.<br />
2. Be a role model.<br />
3. Practice effective listening skills so you can<br />
listen actively when a person comes to you with a complaint.<br />
4. Find out what action the employee wants to take<br />
and how the situation has affected his or her ability to do their job.<br />
5. Be aware of what is happening in your department<br />
as well as in other areas of the organization.<br />
6. Take every complaint seriously and investigate<br />
it.<br />
7. Correct inappropriate behavior when you see it.<br />
Don't wait for a complaint.<br />
8. Respect the rights of all parties.<br />
9. Document all your discussions and talk with all<br />
involved.<br />
10. Inform your supervisor and/or the appropriate<br />
company office of situations, your investigation, proposed actions, etc.<br />
11. Follow up with the target to make sure there has<br />
been no retaliation since the complaint and that the behavior has<br />
stopped.<br />
12. Don't assume that no complaints means there are<br />
no problems in your workplace.<br />
13. Encourage constructive dialogue about sexism and<br />
sexual harassment.<br />
14. Have an open door policy for sexual harassment<br />
problems.<br />
<br />
Of The Witness<br />
1. When you witness sexual harassment or what you think may<br />
be taken as sexual harassment, talk to the targets and let them know you<br />
see what is happening. And want to be supportive.<br />
2. Speak up when you see offensive behavior and let the<br />
harassers know how you feel.<br />
3. Do not tell or laugh at jokes that demean women or men.<br />
4. Listen to target without judgment<br />
5. Volunteer to accompany targets when they confront<br />
harasser(s) or when they talk to the appropriate official about the<br />
complaint.<br />
6. Help targets find resources and experts who can help -<br />
EAP is a good resource for confidential advice and support.<br />
7. Remind targets that what happened is not their fault.<br />
8. Share what you witnessed about incident with managers,<br />
peers and others in the organization.<br />
<br />
Of The Target<br />
1. Trust your feelings<br />
2. Learn about your legal rights and the organization's<br />
policies and procedures.<br />
3. Explain to the harasser what you find offensive about<br />
their behavior, haw it impacts you and your expectations of their<br />
behavior in the future.<br />
4. Put you objections in writing and send it to the<br />
harasser. Keep a copy for your records.<br />
5. Tell others about the harassment including supervisors,<br />
colleagues, union reps, etc.<br />
6. Document all sexual harassment incidents or<br />
conversations about incidents.<br />
7. Document your job performance in case of any retaliation<br />
regarding your work performance should occur.<br />
8. Do not blame yourself and seek support.<br />
9. Talk with others who may have been the recipients of<br />
similar treatment from your harasser.<br />
10. Talk to possible witnesses to enlist their support<br />
<br />
Of The Harasser<br />
1. Pay attention to verbal and nonverbal cues from others<br />
to what you say and do.<br />
2. If you think you have offended someone, discuss it with<br />
him or her.<br />
3. Assume that women and many men do not enjoy comments<br />
about their appearance, do not want to hear sexually-oriented jokes or<br />
comments and do not appreciate being touched, stared at or<br />
propositioned.<br />
4. If someone tells you to stop your behavior - STOP.<br />
5. If you are a supervisor or manager, do not assume that<br />
employees will be comfortable telling you your behavior is offensive.<br />
6. Remember that sexual harassment is illegal.<br />
<br />
Of The Organization<br />
1. Have a clearly define policy and procedure related to<br />
sexual harassment in the work place.<br />
2. Offer periodic educational sessions about sexual harassment<br />
3. Post the sexual harassment policy where all employees will<br />
see it.<br />
4. Address each complaint as soon as possible<br />
5. Treat each case with fairness and consistency<br />
6. Leadership within the organization has a responsibility to<br />
provide positive modeling for<br />
all the employees of the organization.<br />
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