Friday, May 10, 2013

Is it sexual harassment to make employees work on sexually explicit projects that make them uncomfortable?


In a recent discussion on LinkedIn, Barbara Miller, a self-employed Special Markets Rep in the Greater Boston Area, posed the following two questions:

1.  Is it sexual harassment if an employee has to work on a printed piece that is sexually explicit, even if it's a utilitarian/non-fiction book or publication--and handling the job makes the employee uncomfortable?

2.  What should an employer do if an employee has moral issues with a piece s/he is working on (which tends to be an even greater issue if the content is heavy on graphics, but could also happen with text only)?  

Barbara thought some employers make accommodation for employees in these cases, and some find ways to avoid it.

My reply was:  Interesting points. When I was working as a recruiter, I vividly remember meeting a candidate who worked for a company that produced dvds and who attended church regularly. The fact that the company had started reproducing a lot of porn was what motivated her to look for a new job.”

We would be interested to hear related anecdotes or your analysis of these or similar situations.

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