Sexual harassment in organizational settings

Sexual Harassment

Legal Problem that a Hospitality Operator Might Face: Sexual Harassment

Of the many possible legal problems that hospitality managers might face, sexual harassment may be one of the most difficult to eradicate, because hospitality managers deal with such a huge variety of clientele and have tremendous numbers of workers. To fully understand the scope of the sexual harassment problem, this paper is going to take a look at one area where a hospitality manager might encounter sexual harassment issues. Many larger and more expensive hotels operate upscale nightclubs on their premises. These nightclubs are inevitably staffed with young, attractive women working in positions as cocktail waitresses. While hospitality managers can establish very effective policies regarding sexual harassment by their coworkers and supervisors, how does a manager keep guests from sexually harassing these cocktail waitresses? After all, a huge part of the appeal of a cocktail bar is the illusion that the attractive, somewhat scantily-clad waitress is actually flirting with the patrons. Moreover, if a hospitality manager institutes a no-flirting policy, that would undoubtedly have a very negative impact on the tips received by the waitresses, and might actually give the waitresses grounds to file suit against the hotel for some type of sexual discrimination. Therefore, the hospitality manager needs to be sure to outline the limits of acceptable behavior and to hold all employees and clients to those standards.

One important component of any sexual harassment program is that all parties involved be given notice of their expectations. In a traditional work environment, where people in different businesses are interacting in a business setting, it is clear that the environment is a work environment. However, in the hospitality industry, the reality is that the patrons are not usually engaged in work functions while on the premises. Instead, many of them are there on vacation, or, even if they are staying at the hotel because of work, they are not working during their hours at the hotel. Because they are off-duty, they may have the tendency to treat hotel staff as if they are also off duty, and presume an unwarranted familiarity with members of that staff. Therefore, the hotel needs to provide all registered guests with a copy of its anti-sexual-harassment policy, and clearly outline the steps that the hotel will take against patrons accused of violating that policy. The hotel manager needs to make sure and preserve the right to eject a guest or patron on suspicion of violating that policy.

Furthermore, because this scenario deals with a hotel-operated cocktail lounge, it is very likely that some of the establishment's patrons will not be hotel guests. Therefore, the hospitality manager needs to post a sign stating, at the minimum, that the hotel has a policy protecting its staff from sexual harassment, that patrons have a right to review that policy, and that by gaining admittance to the hotel or any of its clubs or restaurants, the patrons agree to abide by that policy.

First, the hospitality manager has to recognize that flirting is an important component of being a successful cocktail waitress, and cannot institute a no-flirting policy at the hotel-owned bar. Moreover, the manager has to make it clear that every guest is expected to be treated in a friendly, courteous, and even flirtatious manner. This requirement does not, in and of itself, constitute sexual harassment, because it is merely dictating the persona that the waitress needs to assume in order to work at the hotel's cocktail lounge. However, the manager also needs to ensure that her waitresses have the right to psychological and physical safety. Therefore, it would be wise for management to institute an inappropriate touching policy. Any patron who touched a waitress in a manner that had already been deemed inappropriate would be approached by the manager and given a warning. It would be important to delineate what type of touch would be deemed inappropriate, because in the hectic and noisy atmosphere of an upscale cocktail lounge, it is conceivable that guests would touch a waitress in an innocuous manner in order to get her attention to place a drink order. A short list of inappropriate places would include the buttocks, the legs, or the chest, but could be expanded to include anywhere other than the arm or the shoulder. A second offense, or any harassing of the waitress or manager because of the warning, would eject in the patron being ejected from the cocktail lounge. In the case of a lounge patron who was also a hotel guest, the guest would be barred from re-entering the lounge during his or her stay.

Furthermore, while it would be impossible for a hospitality manager to try to prevent flirting by the customers, the fact is that some behavior is obviously inappropriate. Workers in any other industry would not be expected to put up with over sexual offers or demands, and cocktail waitresses should not be faced with that type of behavior, either. In fact, to permit patrons to treat waitresses in that manner would contribute to a hostile work environment on the basis of sex, and would clearly violate those waitresses' rights to be free from sexual harassment. Therefore, the manager would need to immediately step in and inform a patron that his behavior was unacceptable, if a waitress reported that a patron's advances were making her feel uncomfortable in any way. A second offense would result in the patron's ejection from the lounge. However, the hospitality manager also has to be certain that no group of people is being discriminated against; it would be untenable for a waitress to accept advances from one patron and reject them from another patron on the basis of a protected characteristic, like race or national origin.

In fact, because of the atmosphere created in a cocktail lounge, which suggests a certain availability of its waitresses to the patrons, a hospitality manager might find that it is wise to institute a no-romance policy in the workplace. These policies, sometimes referred to as love contracts, can be difficult, if not impossible to enforce. However, they do provide some protection for management in the event that a romantic relationship goes awry. For example, if a waitress begins seeking a customer and he comes to the lounge every night when she is working, that behavior would seem acceptable. However, if that couple broke up and the patron continued to come to the lounge and seek out her service, that could clearly constitute the basis for a sexual harassment claim. However, management would have a difficult time making a legitimate request that the patron not come back to the establishment, as long as the patron was not engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior. Therefore, if management instituted a policy that its waitresses were not permitted to begin dating someone that they met at the lounge, nor were they permitted to have husbands or boyfriends at the lounge with them during working hours, it might be able to protect itself from some potential sexual harassment claims.