Problem: Respond to this post as if in a back and forth conversation.
At work, I faced an ethical dilemma. A co-worker of mine recently left the job, and confides in me that one of the men at our work was sexually harassing her. He kept asking her personal questions about her sexuality, and was asking other inappropriate questions about what she does in the bedroom. She said that he made her feel "disgusting" and called her "sick" for liking women and men. I know this particular staff member likes to flirt, and I have witnessed him talking inappropriately to women at the work environment that we are in. I realize that I am leaving in a week myself, and I could say something to stop this co-worker from continuing to talk like this at work. If I do not, he could go past another co-worker's boundaries and maybe even go past just talking. I see this as an unsafe environment for the women at our office.
If I tell and choose to "take an action [it] may not be in [my] best interest" (Mintz, 2015). My manager could choose to not believe me, press me on who my co-worker sexually harassed, or even fire me. I do not want to out my co-worker for the sake of the respect that I have for her and for her privacy. As she was not comfortable speaking out against the co-worker on her own, I feel it would only be right to speak on her behalf, even if this costs me being fired. I would not be able to sleep at night, if I keep my mouth shut because it is the ethical thing to do. I am influenced by the law that sexual harassment becomes illegal when the harassing becomes constant and the other party did not want it to continue. This is clearly the case with her. She had told me that a supervisor heard what was going on because she sat near them, and instead did nothing and said nothing on her behalf. As this supervisor has been friends with this guy for a long time, she decided to not go against him. This is not morally right, and it is my responsibility to act.
I do know that this gentleman will not be fired because he is an exempt employee, meaning he has worked there for a long time and is paid salary. He is guaranteed the same pay each week, no matter how poorly or late he is to work. Since he helps out around the office outside of work hours and has been a loyal employee of theirs, he has been awarded this title.
My answer is clear to tell my manager because sometimes things people do can be "perceived as ethical to one person or group but might not be perceived as ethical by another", but in this case no one would be able to justify his line of questioning to my old co-worker because it is the law and it is in the handbook that sexual harassment is not to be tolerated (Mintz, 2015). This makes it easy for me to work through this ethical dilemma.
Before I go in to see my manager, I will take note that my co-worker said this happened multiple times a day since she had started work there. Next, I will note what kinds of questions he asked her and what he was telling her to do. He had asked her many times to call him "baby" and to "kiss him". I will keep her name out of it, but stress the seriousness of these behaviors against her. I will be sure to name the staff member doing these things, and explain my ethical responsibility for telling him this.
After having a mental list of everything I am bringing up to him and time frames, I will ask him if we could talk privately in his office.
After the meeting, I felt that I opened his eyes to what was going on. He was not okay with what the co-worker was doing, and he was surprised it was happening when they did a sexual harassment training two years earlier. He asked for my feedback, and I told him that training should be done yearly. He thanked me for bringing it to his attention, and said that he would hold a staff meeting to address the policy on sexual harassment. He said that he would not name the name of the person, but would make sure that he would be in the meeting, too.
My old co-worker was really thankful that I spoke for her, and she was happy that it was at least addressed. Since he had affected the way she felt about herself negatively, it was great to hear that she felt better.