quote:
They handled it pretty strangely. They fired her almost immediately, but I received no compensation, apology, or even an offer of counseling. According to state law I am entitled to a few different options. This all went down early this year. I also know she'd been for sexual harassment sensitivity training, which is now mandated.
I don't know about NY law, so I can't comment on state-specific remedies. My one-paragraph assessment would be, "harassment reported, swiftly investigated, harassment confirmed, disciplinary action taken--the system works," because this is basically how it should transpire.
Companies get a little dodgy when it comes to handling the victim. The problem is they have a confidential disciplinary process they have to uphold (even if everybody knows she got fired) and they have to avoid admitting wrongdoing to fend off one or more lawsuits from the victims. When a company does what it should (i.e., informs employees that sexual harassment is forbidded, creates a system for reporting harassment, investigates all reports, and takes appropriate disciplinary action) then I don't see anything wrong with going to the victim and saying, "Hey, you were right...thanks for telling us so we could handle this." But if you remove any of those steps, then the company is vulnerable for creating an environment that would allow sexual harassment to take place. My organization tends to follow the right pattern, so I've been able to express appreciation to people who have reported this type of behavior because I'd rather identify a problem employee and correct the behavior while it is still manageable than have to deal with a long line of claimants and their attorneys.
That your company previously did not inform employees about its policy on sexual harassment is probably their achilles heel. The other weakness may be their disciplinary policy and they may be fighting a wrongful termination or constructive discharge claim for what they did to the manager. If male managers did the same thing and kept their jobs, they may be scrambling behind the scenes to do damage control and reign in previously rogue managers.
[/loves job]