"Sexy Beast" and Other Language You Can't Use at Work

By Jodi Tahsler

When you see Sexual Harassment cases in the news, they always seem sensational and most employers probably think, "My employees know better. They would never do something like that."

For example, a former St. Louis police officer was recently awarded $7.5 million for her sexual harassment claim. Her supervising sergeant made a mock "wanted" poster of her, asked her to sit on his lap and skinny dip in his hot tub, and retaliated with bad shifts and poor performance reviews after she complained.

One of the largest sexual harassment cases in history also happened in the St. Louis area when a worker won $95 million in court after her general manager sexual assaulted her.


However, sexual harassment isn't always this obvious, and in the case of our email subject today, "Hey, you sexy beast," it often depends on the perception of the person being addressed. Some people may think it's funny and laugh it off, but if one of your employees finds the phrase offensive, they could claim sexual harassment, and if the jokes or language continues, they may have a case for a hostile work environment.

 

Here are the action steps we recommend to avoid sexual harassment claims in your workplace.

• Sexual Harassment & Diversity Awareness Training. This seems like an obvious thing--tell your employees what is and is not acceptable before an incident occurs--but we know that scheduling the training so everyone can attend can be challenging. Thanks to technology, you can even have your employees participate online, so offering this training yearly should be a requirement. Judges look favorably at company's that can prove they had strategies in place to prevent sexual harassment, if a case does happen to arise.
• Have a strategy in place to properly handle a claim. If you have the "it can never happen to us" mentality, when something does happen, you'll be scrambling to deal with it. Having risk management and investigation strategies in place can help you greatly in the long run. In the $95 million case, part of the reason it was so high is that the investigations were not handled properly. During the investigative process, make sure that you separate the parties and find out from them, and any witnesses, what happened without passing blame or getting emotional. Allow them to tell you in their own words what happened and get the full story before reacting. Proper documentation is essential. You will probably also have to ask questions to get witnesses to respond with information that can be used legally. For example, "He acts like a jerk all the time," isn't acceptable but, "He often sends emails with sexually explicit jokes and calls all of the workers on the floor demeaning names like babe," gives enough detail.
• Think outside the box. In this day and age, many people are hyper-sensitive to being politically correct, but they often don't think far enough outside the box. For example, sexual harassment and a hostile work environment can be created in female-to-female relationships, female-to-male, male-to-male, or the more expected male-to-female. Possibly offensive items, like a "girls in bikinis" calendar, are barred from the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but courts have ruled that a "men in uniform" calendar is equally offensive. Remember, it is not the intent of the action that matters, but the perception.

Protect yourself and your workplace by knowing what constitutes Sexual Harassment and educating your employees and by preventing problems before they exist. Learn about our three training options here. 

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