There are reasons why a victimized employee may be reluctant to report acts of workplace harassment. In most cases, employees have the fear of being ridiculed by other co-workers. Other employees also find it rather demoralizing to report other instances that can further lead to them losing their jobs; still other cases can be misinterpreted (Saunders et al., 2007). It is, however, the responsibility of other employees to ensure that the harassed coworkers are well supported to report cases of harassment. The management of this company need realize the seriousness of the situation and the potential legal responsibility that cases of harassment would do to the enterprise. Harassments such sexual harassments can have serious consequences for any company large or small, and must be resolved in the appropriate manner and with qualified personnel.
The fear that most coworkers have is that once the job is lost, it is usually very hard to retrieve them back in other companies, so they choose to keep their harassments to themselves despite the fact that it robs them of all pride in workmanship and destroys joy than they may experience from their efforts. Workers do not enjoy their jobs when they are worried about losing their jobs (LaVan & Martin, 2008). However, despite the fact that the coworkers would have chosen to file the case to the appropriate board, they were not sure of the outcome. Usually, lawsuits consume a lot of time and can at times prove financially exhausting. This can be a possible reason employees do not file their cases. Federal employment laws have set particular conditions for employees. These rules can assist in protecting individuals to define prohibited derogatory or demeaning behaviors towards co-workers (Einarsen, 2000). Employees have a legal responsibility for enforcing federal and state laws in their workplace.
References
Einarsen, S. (2000). Harassment and bullying at work: A review of the Scandinavian approach. Aggression and violent behavior, 5(4), 379-401.
LaVan, H., & Martin, W. M. (2008). Bullying in the US workplace: Normative and process-oriented ethical approaches. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(2), 147-165.
Saunders, P., Huynh, A., & Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2007). Defining workplace bullying behavior professional lay definitions of workplace bullying. International journal of law and psychiatry, 30(4), 340-354.
