Sexual Harrassment?

[BigD35]

I have been wondering about this for a while and wanted to ask. How far would you let a fellow employee higher up go before you would consider it Sexual Harrassment? Or do you not believe in it and would let them do what they wanted? Also would you think of differently if the person was of the same sex and doing it to you? Please let us know and tell us any stories of how far you have gone with sex at work. BigD35.

[BigD35]

I met my wife at work I was her supervisor and she let it be known thru fellow workers that she really liked me alot. A couple of nights later we met and went to a movie and the next night we were in a hotel room fucking our brains out before we went to work. I was still living with my parents and she had 2 kids and a husband at home so hotels were all we had until our co-worker gave us a key to her place and said we could use it anytime we wanted. That was six years ago past November and we were married in June. So I would be willing to go quite aways before yelling sexual harrassment at work unless it was a guy coming on to me. BigD35

[Lilith]

Tricky situation.....is it only sexual harrassment if you are not interested? I think unwanted sexual contact or verbalizations that make anyone uncomfortable or threaten count..... too broad a definition maybe... I have dated superiors at various jobs. One I was really into but it was so awkward at work. Everyone finds out etc... you can not have sex in a walkin freezer and someone not catch you LOL:p

[sadora]

Lil- LMAO!! been there myself!

I agree, to be asked out is one thing, if interest isn't both ways it needs to stop.

I have been harassed... was no fun at all, and made me hate my job.

[Ophelia]

There is a difference between showing mutual interest, and unwanted sexual conversation, touching, inappropriateness. I worked at a church for a time, and was, I felt, sexually harrassed by the Pastor. He would discuss his sexual desires in my company, which I told him was uncomfortable (I guess he got a thrill out of watching me squirm), but which he continued to discuss at times where it was inappropriate for me to leave (staff meetings, committee meetings, etc.). He would also stand very close to me while I was seated, positioning his penis so it was inches from my face! ICK! There were other things involved, including some inappropriate hugging...anyway, I got reported his behavior, which in the end, got him fired. Some people didn't think this was sexual harrassment, but considering I made it clear to him that his behavior made me uncomfortable, I felt it was. I should also mention that his behavior was part of a daily routine which continued for almost a year, despite my attempts to end it, and reports of being uncomfortable.

Just my little soap box...

Ophelia

[Oldfart]

Ophelia,

The moment you said it was inappropriate, it became so.

[vampeyes]

I think that it definitely depends on the situation and the people involved.... I think that some people can take it too far and some are easily offended. BTW Ophelia yours was definitely harassment and by a pastor in church ..for me that would make it much worse. Where I used to work the owner (I was his assistant), a couple other people (mailnly guys and one or two females) and I would joke around and be just perverted and raunchy in general while we 'misbehaved' in front of each other not in fron of the general staff we were informed that the things we said or did could be taken as sexual harassment by some.... So I guess its all a matter of opinion and how people react to each other. The bottom line is if someone says or does something that makes another uncomfortable and are asked to stop and continue with the behavior anyways then it is harassment.

[sixsense]

I got charged once with it. It was from this coworker at a copy shop I worked at. She was lazy and ignorant of what happened around her (I think she eventually got fired-- I left that job on my own later on for other reasons). Anyhow I had to get a customers order that she was currently standing in front off. I asked her to move but she was talking to another customer and told me to wait. From past exprerience her "waits" would be rude to my customer. She was very tall and had her legs spread leaning against the counter. I thought nothing of it and grabbed the package between them (I made no contact on her being).

So later on she charged with sexual harrasement. After the full story came out though it was adjusted that I would work behind the counter, and her in front of it when we had the same shift.

I think things had happened before that caused this.. for one she was a lesbian. Sometimes I wonder in retrospect if another situation not as innocent had happened to her before.

[Aqua]

I guy I worked with at one time was fired for sexual harrassment... and I feel wrongfully so. We worked in a food court at a restaurant and this gal worked for the mall and cleaned the tables and such. After hours they would flirt with each other constantly, calling each other 'baby' and such, and getting lewd on occasion. This went on for weeks and one day while he was on lunch break and they had finished talking she started to walk away and he tickled her ass while she was walking away. When I say tickled I do not mean groped. Now, she turned and got mad and told him off... OK fine, he did something she was uncomfortable with and she said stop and he did. But then she called the office of the company we worked for, and he was fired. No investigation, no questions asked. He wasn't even on the clock when it happened. Not like it was a career position, but it was his first job and he had been there a couple years starting in High School. Kind of the opposite extreme of what Ophelia dealt with.
I do agree though, the key word in any harrassment situation is 'unwanted'.

[axe31]

on a building site i worked on a plasterer found out
that a new bricky was gay so he would call him
names. i talked to the boss but the bricky would
not say any thing. i wore my gay pride t shirt
the next day he started on me his first mastake
when he said you love sucking you cocksucker
wilst grabing his crotch. he was fired for sexual
harasment . i know it may have been entrapment
but he wasn't telling any one why he was fired

don't get mad get even