Undesirable Sexual Behavior: Sexual Harassment Research (Essay Sample)

Sexual Harassment
Date
Institution Affiliation
Sexual harassment is any undesirable sexual behavior, which can makes a person feel humiliated, offended or intimidated. It can be physical, verbal or written. The issue of sexual harassment is an offense under the criminal law and needs to be reported immediately to the relevant authorities. There are certain laws that protect employees from sexual harassment in the workplace. This paper will discuss the sexual harassment issue present in Sidebar 20.6" in Ch. 20 of the text.
An employee working as a sales person in one of the company felt that the male workers were frequently abusing their counterparts by calling them abusive names. It was evident that the behavior has been going on for a long time and the female employees were even getting comfortable with it. For a fact, none of them ever reported those sexual harassment behaviors to the management or even report to the relevant authorities. Sexual harassment under Title VII explains that any vulgar language, even if it is not specifically directed to an individual should be termed as an offense (Dank, 2010). Based on this law, Reeves was right by taking that case to the court. In fact, the employee had violated the law by calling other workers abusive names.
It was evident that the other female employees were comfortable with those abusive names since they did not report such issue. However, they may also have reasons that made them remain silent all this time. First, they may be afraid of losing their jobs by reporting the offenders to the relevant authorities. In addition, the employees may not be aware of their rights that protect them from sexual harassment behaviors. The employee was acting according to the law by taking them to court since she finds that language abusive on her side. Every person has the right to either decide to press charges regarding any person violating his or her right or take no action (Gerdes, 2011). The other female employee were also acting within the law by not pressing those charges against the organization. The interpretation of the court will be that they did not find those language offensive to them.
Reeves also claimed that the male employees were a discussion about female body parts and a pornographic image of a woman. This was against the codes of conducts for any working environment. As a matter of fact, pornographic materials should not be used in a place that another person finds it offensive. This means that Reeves had the right to sue that organization for not observing her right as an employee. In some cases, other female employees might be used to such issue that they may end up joking about them. This is only right if they did not find them violating their rights as female employees.
According to the 11th Circuit, if the court rules the possibilities that the management was exercising sexual harassment behaviors, then tough measures will be taken against it. The common law Act also explains that as much as the sexual harasser may be liable to for that offense, Employers can also be liable for not protecting their workers. The management of any organization is responsible for enhancing strict rules that forbidden any time of sexual behaviors. Based on Reeves argument, she tried to report the matter to the co-workers, supervisor, and even manager but there was no action taken to prevent it. In fact, they argued that the offensive conduct was accepted and tolerated. As such, this explains why the management of that organization is also liable for that offense.
The organization in which Reeves was working was also not observing the gender equality act. It is evident that the male employees were not facing the same challenges from the female workers. This explains that only the female employees were exposed to certain behaviors while their counterparts were protected. For a fact, this criminal offense is outlined under the Common Law Act.
The court ruling was based on the argument that none of the employees who had worked in that organization reported such issue. This indicated that it could not rule the fact that the organization was involved in sexual harassment before Reeves was employed. The Common Law Act is based on the argument that there must be valid evidence or witness regarding a particular criminal offense. In that light, if any of the employees had reported the same issue earlier, the court will have to investigate that case. Also, Reeves should present real evidence to that court that proved the male workers...