Human Resources Management

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Sexual Harassment

In The Workplace: Europe John Lehman, (E-mail: [email protected]), University of Alaska Fairbanks

ebecca McDonald returned to her office in Leverkusen Germany still angry from her meeting with

Bertina Knies in Human Resources. Rebecca had presented an open-and-shut sexual harassment

complaint, clearly supported both by company policies and the Law, and Frau Knies had not only

refused to do anything about it, but had not very politely insinuated that the whole thing was Rebecca’s fault. The

next step would probably be to appeal to Human Resources back in Detroit, since the Germans clearly had no

understanding of the way things should work in a modern society.

Rebecca had grown up in Flint, Michigan, where her father was a supervisor for General Motors. As a first

generation college student, Rebecca had received a scholarship from the University of Michigan, where she majored

in mechanical engineering and then went to work for one of the major auto companies as a design engineer.

While women design engineers were a distinct minority in the auto business, there were enough that Rebecca

did not feel out of place. While she was a student, she had taken classes which covered the history and legal issues

involving women’s advancement in what had historically been male professions, and she had been happy to find that

the company was sensitive to women’s needs, and that sexual harassment was not a problem.

After five years in Detroit, she was given the opportunity to work on a joint venture with Opa GmbH, a

German subsidiary of her company. The new position would be a promotion, working with a team of German and

American engineers designing a new sports car. The opportunity was especially attractive, since she was considering

a career shift into management, taking advantage of the company policy to pay for an MBA for engineers whom it felt

had the potential to be effective technical managers. The program was highly competitive, and the two years of

international experience would significantly improve her chances, especially given the increasing number of

multinational mergers in the auto industry, and the need to work with international partners. Besides, she had never

been outside of the United States except for visits to company plants in Ontario.

Living in Germany had turned out to be a stressful experience. While everyone at work spoke English, it was

difficult to get through the small problems of day to day life, since store clerks, plumbers, and most of the other

people with whom she dealt spoke little if any English, and she spoke no German. Neighbors and other people with

whom she dealt seemed often to be impolite, and life seemed to be governed by rules of which she was not aware. For

example, one of her neighbors scolded her (in very poor English) the first week for the way she put out her trash –

one was required to separate out glass, paper, and cans, and dispose of them separately. Outside of CNN, there was

little English available on television, only one English newspaper was available, and bookstores had a very limited

selection in English. Fortunately most road signs were in the form of symbols, so at least driving was possible.

Another stressful aspect of living in Germany was the lack of respect for modesty. People sunbathed nude in

parks; television and print advertisements featured nudity as well. Worst, because it impacted her work environment,

was that unlike the United States, co-workers flaunted pictures of nude women at work – it was like a return to the bad

old days of the 1950’s where women couldn’t enter male workplaces without being regarded as sexual objects.

The problem was not that her co-workers put up nude pictures, but rather that they brought objectionable

material to work and read it in front of her. The most popular newspaper, Bild, had a picture of a nude woman on the

front page every day (and probably worse inside). Other newspapers were no better; one or her colleagues even

commented that he preferred to read Express because the nude pictures were of local girls. The final straw came when

she went into her supervisor’s office for a meeting and saw a copy of the magazine Der Spiegel on his desk, the cover

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of which reproduced a French painting of a topless woman waving a flag. At that point, she made an appointment

with Human Resources to complain formally about having to work in an offensive work environment.

At her meeting with Bertina Knies in Human Resources, Rebecca cited the American company policy on

sexual harassment (reproduced below). She pointed out that it clearly prohibited “posters, cartoons, pictures, or

drawings” which had the “effect of interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating,

hostile, or offensive work environment.” Being exposed to pictures such as those in Bild or Der Spiegel in her

opinion clearly met the definition of sexual harassment.

To Rebecca’s dismay, Bertina was not at all supportive. She pointed out that in Germany unwelcome sexual

advances or requests for favors were clearly unacceptable, but that Rebecca should not expect Germans to cater to her

Puritan hang-ups. Bild, which Bertina personally deplored for its right-wing Christian politics, was after all, the most

popular newspaper in Germany, and as Rebecca had observed, its competitors also featured nudity. The painting on

the cover of Der Spiegel was one of the best known symbols of liberty in the world; no one who knew anything about

art could consider it obscene. And basically, the Germans did not consider nudity offensive, and so long as no one

asked Rebecca to do anything which she found unacceptable, she should not try to impose her values on others. For

example, Turkish employees sometimes objected to working with women who did not wear head coverings or who

wore short sleeves; imposing their religious strictures on those who did not share them would be a violation of

freedom of thought and religion. Rebecca’s request was no different than requiring women to wear headscarves so as

not to offend Islamic immigrants. As an immigrant to Germany, Rebecca could dress however she liked, but should

not expect Germans to adapt her old-fashioned values.

Clearly there was no point pursuing the issue with Human Resources in Leverkusen. Equally clearly,

American courts long ago decided that depiction of nudity in the workplace (or anyplace else outside the home) was

unacceptable. An appeal to Human Resources in Detroit would be the next step. However, before doing that,

Rebecca had to consider both the chances of success, and the possible impact on her future.

Excerpts from company policy on sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is a form of misconduct that undermines the integrity of the employment relationship. All

employees have the right to work in an environment free from all forms of discrimination and conduct which can

be considered harassing, coercive, or disruptive, including sexual harassment. Anyone engaging in harassing

conduct will be subject to discipline, ranging from a warning to termination.

Sexual harassment is defined as any unwanted physical, verbal or visual sexual advances,requests for sexual

favors, and other sexually oriented conduct which is offensive or objectionable to the recipient, including, but not

limited to: epithets, derogatory or suggestive comments, slurs or gestures and offensive posters, cartoons, pictures,

or drawings.

When is conduct unwelcome or harassing? Unwelcome sexual advances (either verbal or physical), requests for

favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:

 submission to such conduct is either an explicit or implicit term or condition of employment (e.g.,

promotion, training, timekeeping or overtime assignments)

 submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for making employment decisions (hiring,

promotion, termination)

 the conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an

intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment

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QUESTIONS

1. In a US work environment, would reading a newspaper or magazine with nude pictures on the cover be

sexual harassment?

2. If so, would it be sexual harassment in Germany when working for the same company? Why or why not?

3. Frau Knies argues that Rebecca’s request to prohibit Germans from reading newspapers which offend her is

no different than prohibiting German women from dressing in ways which offend Islamic immigrants

working in the plant. Is this a valid argument? Why or why not?

4. What should Rebecca do?

5. What should Rebecca’s company have done to prevent this problem?