Penny, a waitress, complains to her boss, Sheldon, that Leonard, a frequent patron of their restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, has been engaging in what she considers to be sexually harassing behavior.
She details her experiences with Leonard to Sheldon. She provides three specific incidents to Sheldon, all of which occurred over a six-month period. The incidents she describes include Leonard:
• Making several sexual innuendos about Penny’s body and overall appearance, including one time in which she overheard Leonard commenting to another customer, “Boy, she has a nice rack;”
• Patting Penny on her backside at the restaurant’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration and playfully exclaiming, “Girl, you must be wearing space pants because your butt is out of this world;”
• Remarking to Penny that that he was “kind of lonely tonight” and that he may have “bad intentions” since his wife was out of town for a meeting.
Penny requests that Sheldon take immediate action and that she not be required to wait on Leonard in the future. Sheldon assures Penny that he will look into the matter, however he is concerned how his handling of her complaint may impact his business. He doesn’t want to risk losing a loyal customer like Leonard, but he doesn’t want to Penny to be upset either.
After two weeks, he confronts Leonard about Penny’s complaints. Leonard tells Sheldon that he was just “horsing around” with Penny. Sheldon suggests to Leonard that Penny is “very sensitive” and that he should go a “little easy” on her in his future interactions with her. He reports back to Penny that he addressed her complaint by talking to Leonard and assured her that the customer won’t further engage in this type of behavior towards her. However, he denies Penny’s request to relieve her of any obligation to wait on Leonard.
Penny is not satisfied with Sheldon’s resolution and is contemplating filing a sexual harassment complaint with the EEOC.
Does Penny have a valid complaint of sexual harassment? If so, what type of sexual harassment can she potentially assert? How would Penny need to go about proving her claim of sexual harassment? Finally, what would the employer need to prove in order to avoid sexual harassment liability?
Penny, a waitress, complains to her boss, Sheldon, that Leonard, a frequent patron of their restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, has been engaging in what she considers to be sexually harassing behavior.
She details her experiences with Leonard to Sheldon. She provides three specific incidents to Sheldon, all of which occurred over a six-month period. The incidents she describes include Leonard:
• Making several sexual innuendos about Penny’s body and overall appearance, including one time in which she overheard Leonard commenting to another customer, “Boy, she has a nice rack;”
• Patting Penny on her backside at the restaurant’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration and playfully exclaiming, “Girl, you must be wearing space pants because your butt is out of this world;”
• Remarking to Penny that that he was “kind of lonely tonight” and that he may have “bad intentions” since his wife was out of town for a meeting.
Penny requests that Sheldon take immediate action and that she not be required to wait on Leonard in the future. Sheldon assures Penny that he will look into the matter, however he is concerned how his handling of her complaint may impact his business. He doesn’t want to risk losing a loyal customer like Leonard, but he doesn’t want to Penny to be upset either.
After two weeks, he confronts Leonard about Penny’s complaints. Leonard tells Sheldon that he was just “horsing around” with Penny. Sheldon suggests to Leonard that Penny is “very sensitive” and that he should go a “little easy” on her in his future interactions with her. He reports back to Penny that he addressed her complaint by talking to Leonard and assured her that the customer won’t further engage in this type of behavior towards her. However, he denies Penny’s request to relieve her of any obligation to wait on Leonard.
Penny is not satisfied with Sheldon’s resolution and is contemplating filing a sexual harassment complaint with the EEOC.
Does Penny have a valid complaint of sexual harassment? If so, what type of sexual harassment can she potentially assert? How would Penny need to go about proving her claim of sexual harassment? Finally, what would the employer need to prove in order to avoid sexual harassment liability?
State if this is a Quid Pro Quo or a Hostile Work Enviroment ? Put yourself in a managers position and employee position, how would you handle this ? (Analyize)
What will they have to prove ?
Make a solid Argument. (State your position and defend it)
