Immediate help needed - Retaliation?????

Leslie

I work for a highly secured, surveilled company. Our owners directly employ investigators, so they don't work for us - they work for the owners. One of the male investigators took one of our female line employees into a secured but unsurveilled area so they could play you show me yours - I'll show you mine. The employee told her supervisor, also a female. The supervisor was friends with the inspector, and spoke with him about it. He told her it was the employee's idea - never mind that the employee had no access to the secured area. Anyway, the supervisor made a moral decision that the employee was "loose" (to put it nicely) and decided not to report it any further. Two months later the employee reports it to her dept mgr - not because she's really charging harassment but more because the supervisor and inspector are both ingnoring her and treating her badly. The dept mgr brings it to us. We reported it the director of the inspectors. They've fired the inspector. Our supervisor has been suspended for three weeks and has some mandatory training to take care of. The employee has been coached (and documented) that hey, you don't play those games where you work and if there's a next time you're out of here. Here's the problem - the director of the inspectors wants the employee fired for "immoral and indecent conduct on company premises." He's got a lot of pull with the owners, who have, remember, already fired one of their employees over this. Our policy and procedure has major offenses that carry disciplinary action up to and including termination even on the first offense depending on severity. One is, "Unauthorized entry to, exit from, or presence in restricted, prohibited, or sensitive areas on premises." Another is, "Indecent conduct on premises..." What I see is retaliation for her reporting of the matter. HELP!!!

Rockie

This is what I would have done in this situation. The inspector and the employee who were playing "touchy-feeley" at work should have been terminated immediately. The supervisor who did not report this behavior should have been severely reprimanded.

This was obviously a consensual act no matter whose "idea it was". But...it is not appropriate to conduct oneself this way at work. Incidents of this nature can easily become sexual harassment claims especially if one of the parties is terminated/disciplined and the others aren't. Our supervisors and employees are obligated to report any type of incidents where they feel inappropriate behavior is going on. Supervisors who have incidents reported to them that they fail to pass on to management are reprimanded.

Gillian

Just one more comment to add to Theresa's. Since the employee did report it she did what we like to happen. If other employees see that an employee who reports an incident gets fired, that might be the last report that you get and you don't want that.

Gillian

You have perceived the situation correctly. The fact that you decided that the proper discipline for the female employee was coaching, documentation and, in effect, a final warning sets the stage. If you say, oops, we really meant to fire you there is no other interpretation other than someone put pressure on you to do something different, and that is retaliation. All you can do it report the risk if the decision is changed and leave it up to the owners. You will have done your duty.

Theresa Gegen TX

I would stick with what you have done. It is okay to hold employees in more responsible positions (like managers and security personnel) to a higher standard than an average employee.

The employee did report the issue, whether you think it was a report of harassment or not, the employee obviously had concerns about what happened. I could easily see the employee saying: I felt forced because this security guard was so close to the owners. Many times employees will report things like this and say "I don't want to get anyone in trouble" or "I don't want to call it harassment", because they don't want the guilt of causing someone to be fired and don't want to be labeled a trouble maker. But you know what -- they report it because they really want something done about it. Here the employee had to report it twice to get action taken. There is a reason why she reported.

I can tell you from personal experience that it is extremely difficult (emotionally) to turn in a supervisor for misconduct. I had to do it once, and I felt physically ill before hand.

Good Luck!

Crout

I agree completely with Gillian. Your company made two decisions: one was to fire the inspector, and the other was to coach the so-called "loose" employee. Any further action to the employee will be seen as retaliation.