Answers to Quiz

  1. Yes, this is sexual harassment. The cook is using work-related reprisals to force the waitress to comply with his demands or "suffer the consequences."
  2. Yes, this is sexual harassment, specifically unwanted touching. The male co­worker is dismissing and trivializing her clear verbal statement that his behaviour is unwelcome.
  3. This, too, is sexual harassment. Although the young worker hasn't told her boss in so many words, the courts expect reasonable people not to embarrass or offend employees by constant sexual references.
  4. This is typical of multiple workplace harassment. Here, the woman is subjected to jokes and pranks that are both sexually and racially offensive. This is dual abuse of power in the workplace.
  5. Increasingly, courts are less interested in what the harasser intended than the impact and results of his actions. Repeated, unwanted sexual attention, like pin­up calendars and pornography, has no place at work.
  6. Positive performance evaluations and informal praise of an employee's competent work do not constitute sexual harassment.
  7. While the employer was not personally responsible for the sexual harassment, and may not have known about a particular case, the courts may hold the employer liable for all workplace harassment.?

How did you do on the quiz? Were there any surprises? Can you think of other examples of a behaviour that could be sexual harassment? Although the examples in the quiz describe women being harassed by men, the law protects everyone from harassment: woman to woman. woman to man, man to man as well as man to woman.

What do you think a person needs to do if they feel they are being harassed? What do they need to say? Who do they need to tell? What would you do to change a poisoned environment to a healthy environment?

Reflection

Human rights exist to give each of us the freedom to choose how we live our lives. Do we have a responsibility to respect the rights of others?

a clown

The Joke's Over!

What is funny to me may not be funny to you. Many people find circus clowns funny; other people find them frightening. Humour is also filled with cultural references and current information.

The main thing to remember when you are in a Canadian workplace is that some jokes are inappropriate by law. Jokes told about ethnic groups, disabilities, racial groups, or any joke done at someone else's expense are considered harassment as defined by human rights legislation. We may think it is done in fun but it may hurt or humiliate a co-worker.

Harassment occurs when someone makes unwelcome comments that offend you, or are insulting or threatening because of your sex, creed, race, ancestry, age, sexual orientation, place of origin, ethnic origin, etc.