You think you've seen it all until.....

Crout

This one popped up today and it's a new one for me. A driver working for ANOTHER company filed an "harassment" complaint against one of our employees. The driver says our employee (a female) harasses him because he’s gay. I explained to her supervisor that technically it's harassment only if they BOTH work for us, but at the very least if it's true we shouldn't have employees engaging in conduct like that while on company business. Anyway, we're going to go through an investigative procedure and make a determination based on those findings. I swear, there's a new one every day.

Parabeagle

Au contraire! Harassment can be between coworkers, super/subordinate, or anyone with whom the company does business. They don't have to work for you in order to be able to lodge a complaint against one of your employees. And courts have held companies liable who do not address 'outsider' harassment, so pursuing the investigative process is only wise on your part. We have had guests harass front desk employees and we as the employer of the front desk agents have a legal obligation to ensure they can work in a harassment-free environment. So, we have to deal with these situations from time to time.

System

Actually, sexual harassment can occur between two people, each of whom works for a different company. The most common situation I've read about is when a customer of, or vendor or supplier to, Company A harasses a Company A employee. (The customer, vendor, etc. works for company B; we'll call him Bob). If the Company A employee (let's call her Isabel) complains to her boss that Bob is harassing her, her boss has a duty to try to stop the harassment. In this situation, Bob could conceivably go to his boss and say that Isabel is harassing him, and his boss would have to try to put a stop to it. In this case, Bob has gone straight to Isabel's boss. (I'm assuming that your company is a customer of "Bob's" company in this case.) I haven't read of any case like this, but I'm guessing he could have a legitimate complaint and it behooves Company A (or your company) to check it out. Hope that helps!

Crout

Interesting, but suppose there is no business relationship as you've described? In my scenario, the complaining driver's job is to transport an older person to one of our sites. In that sense, he is supplying services not to us, but to that older person. We have no connection to that driver's company.

Gillian3

You're still stuck, although if this went the way it should, he would complain to his employer, who would complain to you and you end up where you are now.

neveradull

Once had a client/employee sexual harrasment. When the client was told she really shouldn't repeatedly proposition my employee she got upset and told her live-in girlfiend. Together they threatened my employee. Needless to say it got very messy.
Once had a grandfather client sexually harrassing a employee who brought his wife to the investigation when he denied doing anything his wife not so politely said he does that all the time. Never had another problem as his wife wouldn't let him out of her sight.
I would backtrack quickly, do your investigation, take appropriate action, and train your employees. I could be very expensive not to.

Gillian3

Once you have a girlfiend, you will always have a problem.

LarryC

Hey Gillian, is that why you got divorced?x:D

Gillian3

Thanks. That puts it in a nutshell. Hadn't quite thought of it that way before, and , in moments of weakness, had assumed that maybe I played a minor role leading up to the divorce.

Catbert Evil HR Director

How about this -
I got my job as HR Mgr/Dr cuz the girl that had the job before me got fired for sexually harassing a male employee.
Needless to say, I must behave PERFECTLY!
And I work with mostly guys - some cute - TRUCKERS!
Liz

KathyHR

We have had customers harass employees. We investigate & talk with the customer and if it is harassment let them know that it is unacceptable behavior. We've gone as far as letting the employee tell the customer "one moment please" if they end up having to help them and have another employee help the customer.