Sexual Harassment Claim Gone Wrong

[alk]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Missouri

About 6 months ago, I filed a sexual harassment complaint within my company against a supervisor for inappropriate and aggressive behavior (many things, but mainly the fact that he would constantly ask me to work in his hotel room with him when we were traveling out of town on business together). I was very intimidated by this person's demeanor as well as the fact that he was my supervisor.

So, I went to our sexual harassment officer with my concerns. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go forward with a formal complaint just yet, because I feared the consequences of such action. However, our company policy states that any conversations with the sexual harassment officer are strictly confidential and if a complaint is made it should be filed by the officer and immediately processed by our corporate HR (which is out of state). No one should be involved until corporate HR starts the investigation, at which time, they decide who needs to be interviewed or informed. Instead, the harassment officer immediately went and told the office manager, vice president, and the offender's supervisor. Before long, everyone knew about the incidents and several people even approached me directly to encourage me to go forward with a formal complaint (because this offender is not well liked around the office). The VP even approached me one day in my office and asked me if we had a problem here or not? I was very taken aback by the entire situation and the office environment has been very awkward ever since. In fact, I have been looking for a new job ever since, but due to the economy I am still stuck here.

I eventually did file a complaint within the company and while I do not feel that the matter was taken seriously, the offender's behavior has improved drastically. While I am grateful for that, it is still extremely awkward at work knowing that everyone knows and that some comments are still made. What action should I have taken to avoid this? And, what options are available now?

 

[commentator]

I don't have much to offer in the form of advice here, but I will say that this is a very common problem for employees of state and federal agencies as well. When the complaints are made, there tend to be assurances of privacy and confidentiality, but then all bets are off when the parties retain an attorney and start defending themselves. They get to hear the exact charges that are against them, who said what, and in many cases, are still supervising the people who made the complaints. And in an office or agency type setting, everyone in the whole agency knows and discusses and it becomes a huge well publicized issue.

About the best it seems that you can hope for it that there will be no retaliation, that people at your work will probably respect you for being the one who was forthright with your problems and went through the appropriate channels to remedy them. Could this stop you from moving upward in the company? Perhaps. Or perhaps they'll think more of you because of it.

HR people...weigh in here please. I'm very interested also in this topic.

 

[cbg]

The problem is that it is simply not possible to conduct a thorough investigation in absolute secrecy. No matter how hard HR tries to keep a lid on things and protect confidentiality, (and believe me, most do) it is absolutely necessary to ask people questions about what they may have seen, heard and said if they are to get to the bottom of the issue. Once they start doing that, it's human nature for gossip and rumors to start. HR could threaten write ups and termination for those who discuss it, but seriously, how are you going to enforce that? It's like trying to capture smoke.

If an investigation is to be done, "absolute confidentiality" does NOT mean that the HR manager will not tell a single soul what happened. He or she will need the cooperation of upper management to conduct any kind of investigation, let alone a good one. It's unfortunate that so many people think that HR can work without ever discussing the matter with upper management or the people involved, but to make that kind of requirement is to tie their hands.