How to deal with sexual harassment between directs.

Submitted by Emilio Olivares
in
General Questions and Comments
I've been approached by one of my female direct reports about being sexually harassed by another direct report. She has no evidence, and it's her word against his. Both are hard working individuals and I would hate to lose either of them. How can the company investigate such an accusation? If anybody has any experience on how to manage this situation I'd love to hear some advice. Mark, I think a podcast on how to handle difficult situations (sexual harassment, homosexuality, pregnancy, racism, etc.) would be very useful. Some background: I'm the production manager for a manufacturing company in Monterrey, Mexico. Regards, Emilio
Submitted by Emilio Olivares on Monday March 5th, 2007 3:10 pm

Edmund,

This is exactly what I was looking for!! The document provides a pretty good framework. I was surprised the company I work for (US based manufacturing company) didn't have such an outline.

Thanks!
Emilio

Submitted by Lou Florence on Saturday March 17th, 2007 12:42 am

Emilio-

Greetings from wet Western Washington!

I don't know the laws in your neighborhood, but based on US laws and practice, I don't try to "manage" any of these situations myself. To do so would only create the possibility of additional liability for the company or myself. In any case of possible harrassment or violation of law in the workplace I take the information received and go straight to HR. Let them do the investigation -- that's one of their functions.

Regards,
Lou

Submitted by Edmund McKay on Friday March 23rd, 2007 9:31 am

[quote="mahorstman"]Yep. Managers don't investigate sexual harassment. This isn't a US point of view, it's a be-smart-you-don't-know-what-you're-doing approach.

Get HR involved NOW.

Mark[/quote]

Mark, I agree with what you say, my organisation has a detailed complaints / grievance policy which states that all complaints / grievances go to our Director of Operations who in turn decides how they will be actioned and will either investigate the claim herself or more likely delegate it to me as ops mgr. I will only gather facts which includes interviewing both parties and then pass my report and recomendations to my boss, the CEO and the HR manager who then make the decision on what to do.

Edmund