U.S. Department of State: Public Policy Issue

U.S. Department of State: Public Policy Issue and Sexual Harassment

U.S DEPARTMENT OF STATE: PUBLIC POLICY ISSUE AND 1

Policy Issue 7

Resolution Procedures

Policy Outcome

Leaders Influence

Role of technology in the process

Diversity Issues Involved

Ethical Concerns and Implications

Protection for Employee

Insights

U.S Department of State: Public Policy Issue and Sexual Harassment

Sometime back in 2010, the Albany Fire Department in Georgia established a newer "sexual harassment" policy that was in accordance with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's course of action and Federal Law. At first, the idea of sexual harassment occurred merely in sexual related claims that were against an employer. Ever since the approval of the department's policy, sexual harassment has now been spreading into every part of employment discrimination as well as the creation of a work environment that is hostile. Research shows that hostile work environment claims are founded not just on sex, but likewise on religion, race, disability, national origin, veteran status, age, pregnancy status and even matrimonial status (Cates, 2013).

The Albany Fire Department was first put together in 1969 by property owners who lived within the precincts of the proposed region. The fire department is the individual organized organizational unit that is under the direct influence of the public of Dougherty County. The community of Albany is comprised of approximately 47 square miles, with an additional 19 square miles of Native American Indian land under fire contract with the Albany Fire Department. The community is reliant on visitors who utilize the Flint River and relish the gaming prospects that are obtainable on tribal properties and in the public of Albany, GA.

The workplace environment was changing very quickly at the Albany Fire Department. The culture or diversity of the workplace generates new challenges for management and employees. Whenever dissimilar cultures come together or the diversity within the culture changes, conflicts sometimes occur. The researcher explores the recent workplace environment dealing with sexual harassment and the creation of a hostile place of work at the Albany Fire Department. The research facilitated in developing the understanding of a sexual harassment, hostile place of work environment state of affairs, how to deal with it, what allowed avenues the employer and employee and has, the human rights of an victim to file a complaint, and how to cope a hostile condition.

Over the past year, the Albany Fire Department experienced a high wear and tear rate with six full time fire suppression personnel finding other fire service. Furthermore noticed all through this year, the department has gone through a high employee turnover rate with an increase in the use of vacation time and sick leave. During that time, all of that excessive leave started creating a suffering on the Albany Fire Department as fill-in personnel are required in order to keep up with the continuous manning policies, while having an effect on the budget with increased overtime expenses.

However, an exit interview was done conducted with all six suppression personnel who happened to have been women on their last day of employment with the Albany Fire Department. The exit interview was conducted by the Albany Professional Firefighters Organization, Worldwide Association of Firefighters, Local 6789. Every one of theses six interviews were directed separately with the responses given to the Fire Chief of the department.

The exit interview consisted on numerous questions that were all connecting to the improvement of the Albany Fire Department. The six suppression personnel responded in a different way when asked what changes need to occur in order to assist in helping improve the Albany Fire Department. All six of these women felt that a hostile work environment had been well-known within the department by a few chief field marshals. The hostile environment was not entirely sexual, but then again contained rude remarks, unwelcome touching, shouting, screaming at employees, employees deliberately being placed in awkward circumstances, harassment, all producing a painful work environment, full of aggression. They believed if the hostile work environment continued, more women would find it uncomfortable to want to work there.

The women that left the department were extremely accomplished firefighters with paramedic level certifications. Every one of these six firefighters had been with the Albany Fire Department for a minimum of five years, and was being substituted with male firefighters of less than one year service time with undeveloped level medical documentation. The loss of these women workers will have an intense effect on the department's capability to deliver service to our community in addition to having a most important influence to the department's financial plan. Replacement price of the six employees along with the training costs necessary to bring the new firefighters up to an experienced level will go beyond one hundred thousand dollars, all owing to a work setting that affects an individual's capability to be original and do their work in a way that is most dynamic. It was proven here at the Albany Fire Department that hostile work environments are deadly to production.

Policy Issue

It was obvious that sexual harassment had been an ongoing thing at the department and one of the six women decided to do something about it. Dependable's legal department was informed that Melody, a former worker, was to file a sexual harassment complaint against John, the present CEO, within the next 48 hours. Melody made the claim that she had been enforced to travel and live in sin with John so as to keep her job. Despite the fact John's interest in Karen and overt unsuitable conduct toward her in the company of others was far from a secret, senior management Jackson was, "This woman must have liked it if she keeps going along with what is going on."

The Tactic

To respond, the Albany Fire Department had fundamentally three decisions.

Choice one: not to lift a finger other than prepare for the hearing. In response to outside inquiries, the communication approach would be to deny every one of the charges with not much comment.

"The Albany Fire Department believes these charges to be unsupported and the emotions of a discontented former employee. We will be victorious at trial." "The Albany Fire Department does not know what Melody is talking about; we are not able to comment further because the matter is in lawsuit."

Choice two: Prepare for trial and its associated advertising, work to determine the facts, evade making any statements, and subdue evidence through pretrial motions. Get ready to dishonor the plaintiff if need be, but particularly for the trial.

Choice three: Straightway divide the legal team in two task groups: lawsuit and settlement. Also, have the settlement team come up to the plaintiff, if possible, before filing happens. Effort to attain an assigned settlement at the most primitive time possible. Courts in general support any grave efforts at settlement at any time throughout the litigation development.

The Result

It turns out, the company sought advice too late, already having chosen option two, a destructive anti-victim strategy to discredit Melody. However, when a lawyer was picked as the one that will be the spokesperson, the company did not say that much. Company litigators were the ones arguing energetically against any form of settlement, making the point that it would make John look very weak. When people disagreed, they were excluded from company litigation method gatherings. Mark even advised on being terminated, but they kept him on as chief executive, and that went ahead to suspend him right at the last minute, right before the trial even started.

The trial went badly for Albany Fire Department. Melody was a credible, sympathetic witness. When the defense attorneys started badgering her, it only just made things much more badly. All the way through, Mark upheld his innocence, reinforced by his colleagues and his peers. He was eventually separated from Albany Fire Department with a noteworthy payout, ultimately taking a job with a startup company in Atlanta.

As for Melody, she had been assailed continually by John, who abused his point of power to take advantage of a worker, while his buddies stood around and looked. It is obvious that not even a good day in court will help Melody heal, but some believed that it could be a start.

Objective

After the case, The Albany Fire Department had to go back to the drawing board and reinforce a sexual harassment policy. The purpose of this policy was to be able to define sexual harassment and then go on to give out certain procedures for the investigation of sexual harassment claims. Every kind of workers, including managers and supervisors, will be subject to severe punishment, up to and containing discharge, for any act of sexual harassment they commit.

Resolution Procedures

Albany Fire Department now had to address Incidents of sexual harassment or inappropriate sexually oriented conduct and make it clear of what should be reported following an incident that would similar to the above complaint procedures. One of the things implemented is to initiate a formal investigation into a supposed violation of this policy, employees will often be asked to provide a written sexual harassment complaint with human resources (Dellinger, 2009). Complaints will need to be submitted as soon as possible right after an incident of the alleged sexual harassment takes place. The Albany Fire Department then set up a system where the manager of human resources will be the ones that would assist the complainant in finishing a sexual harassment objection form at the department. In order to make sure the quick and detailed investigation of a sexual harassment complaint, the complainant should deliver as much of the following information as is likely:

The department, name, and position of the individual or persons supposedly causing the harassment.

A report of the incident(s), as well as the date(s), location(s) and the attendance of any observers.

The supposed effect of the occurrence(s) on the complainant's situation, salary, benefits, promotional chances, or other terms or circumstances of employment.

The names of other workers who might have been subject to the same or similar aggravation.

The steps the pursuer has taken to attempt to halt the pestering. Any other evidence the complainant trusts to be applicable to the harassment objection.

Policy Outcome

For the reason that this was such a severe case, for the county, the organization then began adopting some sexual harassment policies to put in place immediately. Sexual harassment is considered to be unwanted sexual attention of a determined or offensive nature made by an individual who recognizes, or sensibly should be acquainted with, that such attention is known to be unwanted. However, Sexual harassment consist of sexually oriented behavior that is adequately severe or to pervasive irrationally inhibit with an worker's job performance or generate an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment (De Coster, 2009). Sexual harassment can be looked at as being physical and/or mental in nature. A combination of a series of occurrences can establish sexual harassment even if one of the occurrences deliberated on its own would not be considered as harassing. However, Workers will be prohibited from harassing other workers whether or not the events of harassment take place on employer evidences and whether or not the incidents take place throughout working hours.

Despite the fact sexual harassment includes a wide range of conduct, some examples of precisely prohibited at the Albany Fire Department conduct includes:

A. Physical attacks of a sexual description, for instance rape, sexual battery, molestation or efforts to commit these assaults, and deliberate physical behavior that is sexual in nature, for example pinching, touching, patting, grabbing, brushing against another employee's body or poking another worker's body.

B. Sexual advances that are unwanted, proposals or other sexual comments, for instance sexually oriented signs, noises, jokes, or remarks, comments about an individual's sexuality or sexual experience (for the most part when engaged at or made in the attendance of any worker who agrees or has detailed in any way that such behavior in her or his presence is unwanted).

C. Special promises or treatment of special treatment to an worker for deferring to sexual conduct, in addition to petitioning or making an effort to solicit any employee to take part in sexual activity for recompense or reward.

D. Subjecting, or threats of imperiling, a worker to unwanted sexual attention or conduct or deliberately making performance of the worker's job more difficult for the reason that of that worker's sex.

Responsibilities

Employees

The Albany Fire Department also started to implement the point that if workers believe that they have been part of some kind of sexual harassment or any sexual attention that is unwanted, they should make their nervousness and/or disapproval openly and directly recognized to the harasser whenever likely. If the circumstances are not directly taken care of or if the employee is unable to or not feeling comfortable to speak to the alleged harasser openly, they would report the occurrence to the worker's manager, human resources or his or her own manager. It possibly will be cooperative to create a written record of the time date, and description of the incident(s) and the names of any observers.

It is imperative to report worries of sexual harassment or unsuitable sexual conduct irrespective of the solemnity to human resources or a manager / supervisor the moment possible. Management cannot help in discontinuing the harassment from going on if it is ignorant of the issue. Broadcasting data about supposed harassment without following the reporting events could be considered indication of an irritating intent on part of the challenger.

Leaders Influence

For the reason that supervisors are in positions of power at Albany Fire Department, they need to continually be aware of how the way they interrelate with their workers is apparent. The department at the time did not understand that an accepting and acquaintance of what creates gender or sexual harassment can be dangerous to aiding in preventing harassment at work and remaining free from rights of harassment. In the situation, the leaders had to learn from their mistakes. It was obvious that some of them did not step forward and enforce any kind of policy that could have prevented the situation.

Some of the things that they failed to do in the previous case were things such as neglect to pass along a complaint or to take it seriously. They also failed to establish policy and pass along all harassment complaints to human resources directly. They also made the mistake of supposing that quid pro quo is the lone form of gender harassment (Hunt, 2013). There were also complaints from the women that the supervisors failed to keep their workplace professional in order to avoid creating a hostile work situation. It was obvious that some of the women felt as though they were being treated unfair by the leaders and also some of the male employees. With that said, the leaders did not do a good job when it came down to treating every employee in the same way, because obviously they were not consistent, or fair. The supervisors also failed at thinking that "we were just playing around" are a good excuse. It is evident that some jokes are never pleasant in the workplace. One grave mistake that one of the leaders made was acting alone. It is important that you not try to act unaided in reply to complaints of sexual harassment.

Role of technology in the process

The role of technology played a huge role in the policy process and also in the issue. Much of the problem is that newer technology such as -- e-mail, IM, texting or posting on social-networking sites had made it much easier for comments to be misinterpreted on a lot of levels. For example one of the employees mentioned: "When are able to talk in person, 90% of what a person, says about is in their tone and body language. When it comes to technology, every part of that is completely gone." If a person admires an employee's new haircut even though she is more than likely in the office, she can read your body language and tone; and a guy is able to even can read hers. Nonetheless, a late-night text message esteeming your worker's new haircut can take on a tone that lascivious, even if that is not the purpose.

For example, A 27-year-old professional woman at the Albany Fire Station tells the story of how one of her superiors, a flirty married man that had four children, who, after overhear something on a previous comment she had written to a female co-worker about export a new dress, sent her an e-mail late at night from his personal account, telling her he could not wait to see her in the outfit.

"I think you would look awesome in it," he wrote. The woman answered that she did not escalate him sending an e-mail like that the account that she had at work and he claimed it was an error and "half-sorry." Later on down the road, he sent her an IM that she feels was "totally unsuitable." She remembers telling her co-employees she would have to obstruct him.

The woman employee at the says she never described the incidents to her manager or human even the human resources. "With a staff that is small at the station, I knew that any kind of complaint would be public information before I could even think," she mentioned, "and I did not even have any kind of person that I feel that I could talk to in respects to the sexual harassment policy." One of the problems that Albany Police Station had was the following when it came down to the technology: "Sometimes employees do not even really understand that if you are at the house, and then send something from a private e-mail account to a person at the workplace, that it can still possibly be used against you." (De Coster, 2009)

And for the reason that electronic conversation is such an integral part of office communication at the Albany Police Station, people might possibly believe or even feel compelled to reply to it, even if the message does not make them feel very comfortable. "it is possible that someone could write back something like 'LOL' just to say whatever they want, and then the person starts thinking what they had written was welcomed," mentions Bowman, who makes the point that emoticons can likewise be a source of misinterpretation: "Individuals utilize those little winks. Those things can be totally misinterpreted, on both ends of the situation." (Sara, 2006)

Basically, Social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace turned out to be another potential source of trouble at Albany Police Station. What had happened was that sites like these have turned into fertile ground for some of the workers fantasy life. A lot of the employees did not understand that much of the problem is that newer technology such as e-mail, IM, texting or posting on social-networking sites allowed it to make it a whole lot easier for comments to be misconstrued on a lot of different levels. A lot of time words got tangled up and people took the wrong meaning away from it which caused some friction with the women in particular.

With technology, all of that is basically non-existent. If you admire an employee's new haircut while she is in your office, she can read your tone and body language; and you can read hers. For example, a late-night text message flattering your worker's new haircut can take on a lascivious tone, even if that is not the goal (Hunt, 2013). In the Albany Police Station this was the case a lot of the times because people were not careful with the things that they were saying. It had been told by one of the supervisors that if they were trying to keep a professional stance at work and did not want any kind of entanglements, then they all needed to be careful about what they were putting up. The women were also told that innocent looking vacation photos of them wearing your bikini may unwittingly lure unwanted attention at work that may not be good. Brenner recommends having distinct sketches for specialized and personal associates, or just sticking to a certified site like LinkedIn for their work associates (Newman, 2003).

Diversity Issues Involved

The word "diversity" covers all significant differences among individuals, not just the evident ones. It consists of age, education, abilities, role, and experience in addition to gender, race, language, ethnicity, and literacy skills (Cabrera, 2010). Managers will have the hard duty of identifying and joining workforce changes into all organization and leadership purposes to inspire participation and the full influence of all staff to the goals of Albany Fire Station. Managing diversity consist of managing legal obligations for instance security and equal opportunities for those at the station. In the past, diversity was not recognized with Albany Fire Station and that is how sexual harassment was able to get out of hand. Diversity at the station was clearly not respected.