Sexual harassment is a violation of civil rights act and it is a form of sexual discrimination that is unwelcome. These cases occur mostly in the workplace because there are different types of people with different personalities. However, sexual harassment is not ethical in any working environment. It lowers the victim’s self esteem and destroys the working relations among the employees. The act can be reported and dealt with before if affects the victim. There are forms of sexual harassment from the civil rights act which include sexual advances that are unwelcome, requests for sexual favors, and physical or verbal conduct of sexual nature. If there is any sexual harassment in the organization, the victim will take a step by reporting the matter to the appropriate authorities. This will help to speed up on solving the cases. However, most victims prefer to sue the offender, and this is because sexual harassment is a violation of right which makes it a court case.
When a person is sexually harassed, they become affected both physically and psychologically. Take for example sexual advances made by the manager to the intern or junior employee, this does not necessary apply to people of opposites sex as stated by the facts about sexual harassment in the civil rights act. When there is sexual advances towards the junior employee, there will be demand made by the offender, perhaps this takes place between people of opposite sex. You find that the offender could use his power of being the senior to manipulate the victim. This has occurred in many organizations, where the manager asks for sexual favors from an employee with the promise of promotion or even salary increment. The victim may end up feeling ashamed and the esteem is lowered, especially when it is known to the whole organization that there was sexual harassment.
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A review of sexual harassment case
A review on the case of Foodservice, Inc., John Harrison, and Creative Marketing Solutions is about a sexual harassment incident that was reported by Ms.Cordoza who worked in Creative Marketing Solutions. The case is about how the company failed to oversee the sexual harassment that their employees have been subjected to for a long time. Ms.Cordoza came out as the first employee to report a sexual harassment incident, and it was a surprise for Creative Marketing Solutions since such case had not been reported before. The two companies had been working together for quite a long time, whereby the Creative Marketing Solutions had to work on behalf of Foodservice Inc., on issues regarding marketing.
The plaintiff in this case is Ms.Cordoza and the defendant is John Harrison the director of food marketing at Foodservice. Ms Cordoza is a marketing employee who has worked with John for quite some time and Ms.Cordoza has been taking advantage of the fact that John had been organizing networking events where Ms Cordizo would find a platform to network and expand her marketing skills together with fetching the company more clients. The two have been attending meetings and dinners that were business-related. However, this was not the case for John who had began showing some sexual advances towards Ms Cordoza. John would touch her hands, her back and even pull her close when there was a dinner that involved little dancing. This did not feel right for Ms. Cordizo who at the first thought she saw this as just work relation and nothing else. This continued for a while, and Ms Cordizo was confused on whether that was the usual conduct from John or he was taking advantage of the fact that he was introducing her to many networking events that built her career in marketing.
Guilt of the appropriate party
A thorough examination of the case, we find that the two parties have a wrong understanding of sexual harassment in the workplace. Ms Cordoza should have reported the case the first time she noticed the sexual advances. However, she took it lightly and continued entertaining these advances from John. The reason why Ms Cordoza did not report the case at the first time is because she was not sure whether it was sexual advance or work relation. If Ms.Cordoza felt uncomfortable with John’s approaches, she should have rejected the dinners and evening business meetings. On the other hand, Ms.Cordoza was up to her career advancement and hence she could not resist those meetings as they were important from her marketing company. She was compromising for the sake of improving the marketing standards of the company and hence she ignored the sexual advances from John, until she lost her job.
When you look at John’s act, it was completely unethical to treat Ms.Cordozo in that manner; at least, he could have been straightforward on what the whole relation was about. From his explanation, he was attracted to Ms,Cordozo. Well, getting attracted to someone is not a mistake, however, the advances should not be done while at work place. It was wrong for John to take advantage of the fact that he was working with Ms.Cordoza, and that he could express his attraction by inviting her for more dinners and business meetings. It is clear that the two do not understand what sexual harassment constitutes, John could have expressed his attraction to Ms.Cordoza outside workplace, and this means that he could not use the dinner and business meetings as the avenue to lure her. On the other hand, Ms.Cordoza could have been keen on what constitutes sexual harassment from the first time she noticed John’s approaches.
Looking at the previous performance from both companies, it is clear that there has not been any sexual harassment case and the two companies have been working together for a long time. John is the director of marketing at the Foodservice Inc, we have no records of him trying to sexually harass any other employee. However, from the employees of Creative Marketing Solutions, they seem to have been the victims of such advances, but no one has ever reported. We get this information from Ms. Cordoza who sought opinion from fellow employees regarding John’s behavior and the response suggests that this was not the first time for any employee to encounter the situation. Therefore, we can conclude that the employees of Creative marketing solutions have been forced to compromise so as to work with employees from Foodservice Inc. John has been taking advantage of marketers from Creative Marketing Solutions by sexually harassing them all in the name of gaining marketing skills and expanding their networking strategies.
The damages to be awarded to the plaintiff
Ms.Cordizo lost her job because the account was closed as a result of her refusal to engage in sexual endavours for the purpose of keeping the account. The company deemed her marketing skills useless and that this had ever happened before with any other marketer. However, a close examination of the case suggests that there was sexual harassment that had not been reported before. Therefore it took the courage of Ms.Cordozo to report this case. Employees from Creative Marketing Solutions have been forced to compromise so as to keep their jobs. This is totally unethical and John is guilty of sexual harassment.
The plaintiff should be given her job back and paid for character defamation by the company, since she was fired without enough proof that it was not her lack of skills. Her refusal to compromise to sexual advances for the account to be retained is what cost her job. Foodservice should also compensate Ms.Cordozo for the alleged sexual harassment act by John.
Recommendations to avoid sexual harassment in the work place
It is clear from the case that most companies do not understand the civil rights acts, specifically the sexual harassment. There is need to create awareness regarding this act, because most employees have gone through it, but they do not have any further information regarding how to begin reporting the case. In other companies, when there is sexual harassment case, the victim is fired and since most employees do not know where to take the claim, they end up suffering in silence.
It is recommended that any company should interpret the act of sexual harassment and the authorities to report the case. This means that each employee in the company should be knowledgeable on any sexual harassment act. This will minimize the case of such acts and will promote peaceful working environment. For those employees who have been under such case and have not yet reported, they should be encouraged to disclose it. It is clear from the case that most victims who are sexually harassed have to compromise so as to gain recognition in the job as well as getting promotion. The employees should also be tough about ethical issue in business as this goes hand in hand with sexual harassment. There are some unethical behaviors in companies that subject the employees to the risk of losing their jobs. It is totally unethical to express the feeling of attraction towards another employee by taking advantage of their work to impress them. Employees who feel attracted to each other should organize for their meeting outside the work environment. This will lessen the cases of confusion on whether it is sexual harassments or just the natural forces of attraction.
