Personal Account on Sexual Harassment Issue
Critical thinking and forces of influence. This paper describes the forces of influence surrounding a sexual harassment issue I dealt with.
This paper will describe a sexual harassment incident that I dealt with as a store manager for Vans. The paper will be formatted as follows: setting, framing, thinking, other forces of influence, and differences.
SETTING A few years ago when I was still working as a store manager, I was approached by one of my part-time salespeople. Michele was a pretty, intelligent, 18-year old senior who worked for me 2-3 nights a week. She visited the store on her day off asking to speak to me. She then relayed to me a series of incidents that occurred between her and my Assistant Manager, Jonathan.
Jonathan was 24 years old. He had been working for me for approximately one year. He was a good-looking surfer and skater who lived in Huntington Beach. Jonathan (I later found out) was also a flirt who liked to compliment the girls who worked at Vans, along with making sexual innuendos or light jokes about sex.
Michele started to tell me her story. Unbeknownst to me, Jonathan had been flirting with Michele while at work for some time. He had made comments that alluded to his wanting to visit her apartment (Michele did not live at home). In her words, she flirted back at him and gave him permission to come to her apartment, thinking he would never show up.
One Saturday, Jonathan and Michele worked an opening shift together. He again made comments that he was going to visit her after work, and she agreed. Later that afternoon, he did show up, much to Michele's surprise. According to Michele, they spent some time giving each other backrubs, which led to kissing. At this point Jonathan started asking her to go further with him physically, stating that he wanted to have sex with her. She then told him that he had to leave and literally pushed him out of the door, as her roommate was supposed to show up.
At work, the same thing started to happen. Michele and Jonathan regularly closed together one night per week. After the store would close, Jonathan would approach Michele to kiss her (which was consensual), and than try to pull her into the back room, asking for sexual favors. Michele would decline, but Jonathan would not stop asking or alluding to the physical relationship...