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Harassment includes any unwelcome conduct. It creates an intimidating, offensive or hostile work environment, or unreasonably interferes with someone’s work. Sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or other physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature.
Harassment can take many forms, including physical actions, spoken and written remarks, and videos or pictures.
Q: Quentin feels uncomfortable around his supervisor, Nancy. Nancy often makes lewd remarks to him and comments frequently on his appearance. Quentin tells Nancy that her advances are unwelcome, but she laughs and says she’s just teasing him. Quentin is fed up with the harassment, but doesn’t know what to do. Would anyone believe that his supervisor was acting this way?
A: Timken leaders are expected to act as role models – which is why Quentin should speak up when one isn’t. Nancy’s behavior is clearly inappropriate and unprofessional. It doesn’t matter that she’s Quentin’s supervisor – he needs to tell someone about her comments. In this case, he should reach out to his local organizational advancement/human resources representative, or another ethics reporting resource with whom he feels comfortable. Quentin can feel safe reporting this harassment – Timken will protect him from retaliation.
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