Harassment and legal repercussions

[DrFaroohk]

There's this old guy who shops at my store a lot, and he likes to pick fights with whoever he can. Staff, customers, etc...anyone. He'll just start screaming at some people, sometimes he'll even step into sexual harassment and try to proposition the young girls who work there. i've never had a problem with him personally, but I've seen it with other people. It's pretty annoying.

Anyway, time and time again, someone has complained, and our HQ always decides its not worth banning him over. Ok, fine, but some day, this guy is going to cross the line with the wrong person, and its going to come to light that this has been an ongoing issue and the company refused to do anything about it...isn't that opening us up for a potential lawsuit?

[blas]

Unfortunately, it takes a situation to come to a head before corporate and the big wigs will even do anything about it. Forget the "zero tolerance" bullshit and the videos you watched at orientation, claiming that they won't tolerate sexual harrassment. And since it's a customer, most stores are more concerned about not losing a customer over an employee's mental health and the damage that sexual harrassment can cause. Sad but true.

They might change their mind if a young lady at your store pounds the living shit out of this dirtbag.

That's nearly what it took at the factory to get the 30 year old to leave me alone. He kept following me around in the halls and in the breakroom, and it was to the point where I had to schedule my breaks so that I'd always have someone with me.

It just so happened that I trapped him. I was walking back to my area, my supervisor was about 50 feet behind me, and Creepy 30 Year Old was coming right at me. He grabbed my arm and said "We need to talk"

I pulled my arm back hard and yelled "Don't you ever fucking touch me again!"

My supervisor saw and raised an eyebrow, and Creepy booked it back to his work area. I told my supervisor what was happening (it had sprung from an outside of work experience where this guy tried to get me drunk and have sex with me, and when I refused, he got mad, and then he started to harrass me at work to talk to him), and he said if I felt comfortable, I could schedule a meeting with HR. I was about to do that....until...

Creepy walked out two days later. He didn't quit without leaving me several text messages begging me to talk to him, though. Oh well, at least he's gone!

It really does take a major event to happen before something will get done. Usually, though, the offending party will get scared away and run away before anything legal can happen, just like Creepy did.

[Argabarga]

Two words:

Hostile Workplace


If he's making the employees uncomfortable, and management is brushing it off, they are setting themselves up to take the fall

[Daphne]

Argabarga is entirely right. When the asshole customer pulls something, employees need to let management know that his actions are creating a hostile work enviornment. They need to indicate that it's impeding their ability to do their jobs. Litigious talk makes management nervous. Whenever I have an unreasonable sucky patron, I take the power back and tell management that the particular patron is creating a hostile work environment for me.

[ArenaBoy]

Again, Hostile Workplace. Those words will make even the most roughest, toughest, owner squirm. If he's harrasing customers and I mean customers who are actually buying things and they've done nothing to him then something needs to be done. Then seeing as he's hitting on young females (What is the age of this man by they way?) and it's making them uncomfortable, sexual harassment. Combine those words with hostile work environment and they'll be bricking it in no time. Good luck!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Ditto what everybody else has said regarding hostile work environment and sexual harrassment.

The suits aren't doing anything because like all good corporate suits, they believe every customer is worth retaining, and if this moron spends anything at all in the store, it's well worth the aggravation to the employees. It's all about the bottom line.

The employees need to make it clear to HQ that if they keep letting this guy come in and be abusive to the staff, then they will seek legal recourse which will hurt the corporate bottom line. You don't sign away your right to be treated like a human being when you accept a job anywhere.

[MystyGlyttyr]

There's always mentioning that, of course, there's the right good possibility that some day he'll hit on the wrong chick in the wrong mood, and then you'll have to call in the bigwigs about the biological hazards that are now spread from one end of the store to the other...and the police about the abrupt appearence of body parts jammed in the cash drawer (arms go in the twenties slot, toes go in the dime slot, etc.). Make a note that big black trucks full of folks in hazmat suits and flashing blue lights tends to draw the attention of not only other customers, but quite often the local media. And the media SLAVERS at a chance to expose some big business tripping all over human rights violations...

(I personally have never redecorated the inside of a store with anyone's blood, but that's mainly because of quickwitted and fearless cashiers who would jump in before said intention came to fruition.)

[Geek King]

(arms go in the twenties slot...

Only if the SC's name is Bill.

[blas]

Isnt that just pathetic that most places care more about keeping unwanted, evil, rotten customers who harrass employees than they do about the people who work for them?

It's sick, sick sick...

[Jack7957]

Forget the "zero tolerance" bullshit and the videos you watched at orientation, claiming that they won't tolerate sexual harrassment.

But the video I was shown said all you had to do was tell the person they were making you uncomfortable and to stop. And the person would say ok, they didn't realize you were uncomfortable with their behavior. And then the sun would shine, flowers bloom, and bunnies would bounce around.

I added the part about the sun, flowers and bunnies, but the dialogue is correct.

[BookstoreEscapee]

But the video I was shown said all you had to do was tell the person they were making you uncomfortable and to stop. And the person would say ok, they didn't realize you were uncomfortable with their behavior. And then the sun would shine, flowers bloom, and bunnies would bounce around.

I added the part about the sun, flowers and bunnies, but the dialogue is correct.

That's a good point. The "video" always shows the best case scenario, not real life. In real life, people either ignore the complaint or just get sneakier. (Well, not always, but still.)