The brave fight of a woman against workplace harassment

Most Americans now know, through countless compelling stories in the media, that it is against the law to harass a person because of their gender. Individual case histories published across the country have reinforced the idea that harassment can include “sexual harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.

Stories of how brave women fight bullying always catch the public imagination, and none more so than that of Teresa Zerilli-Edelglass, a New Jersey woman who just published her personal narrative in a compelling new book, “Thrown Under the Bus: The Rise and Fall of an American Worker “available through book stores. This is the unique story of an affable young woman with humble social and economic roots who was simply trying to pursue a career when she fell into a terrifying sequence of nightmare episodes at work. What started as a humiliating demotion for his refusal to play with “the boys” quickly turned into nearly 20 years of lawsuits and legal disputes. It is a compelling story that turns the page and perhaps some readers will see parallels in it with their own lives and take steps to deal with their own situations.

This book emphasizes that harassment does not have to be only sexual in nature and may include offensive comments about a person’s sex. For example, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stresses that it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general. Both the victim and the harasser can be a woman or a man, and the victim and the harasser can be of the same sex. Although the law does not prohibit simple teasing, impromptu remarks, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in a decision. adverse employment. (such as the victim being fired or demoted). The harasser may be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a customer or client. To avoid legal exposure and protect both subordinates and managers, employers should write written policies that clearly explain what to do if workers think they have been harassed.

With a formal written policy in place, then in the event that harassment occurs, companies are legally protected because they can demonstrate that they took preventive steps to prevent or stop it. Written guidelines need not be complex, but should always include a designated person within the company to receive complaints that an employee is being treated differently based on gender.

This is a problem that can be solved. Everyone must do their part in the workplace to ensure that sexual harassment becomes a relic of the past.