It is one of the more bizarre harassment stories to cross the Cluttered Desk in quite some time. A Courthouse News story carried in our newsletter yesterday morning tells of a man experiencing a case of same sex harassment on a construction site. Apparently another man on the job site started making sexual advances towards him, including asking the man to “draw him nude”. Later that day, ostensibly at some point during their shift, the man who had made that request actually drew a nude picture of his newly found intended.
Apparently it was that point when things started to get weird. Or weirder.
According to the story, the victim complained to his boss, an excavating subcontractor on the job site. When that resulted in no action, he went to the General Contractor foreman, who ejected our perverted Jack-From-Titanic wannabe from the premises. However, the victims co-workers apparently learned about the incident and continued the harassment by insinuating that he was a homosexual, exposing themselves to him, singing a song about him being raped, and trying to urinate on him.
Fun loving crew. “Construction Harassment, The Musical.” It didn’t help that the guys boss was one of the people engaging in that activity. It seems as if, both as a businessman and an excavator, that idiot really knew how to dig a hole. Frankly it doesn’t sound like much construction work was being performed at all that day. Everyone was apparently busy celebrating the testosterone infused holiday Sausagefest.
The man was fired by the subcontractor within a month, with the reason cited being “lack of work”. It is hard to believe that a businessman of such high caliber couldn’t keep enough work on the books. Frankly I’m surprised the victim stayed beyond that day. I don’t know about you, but I have a low threshold of tolerance when my co-workers try to urinate on me. It is a pretty well defined line in the sand. Or yellow line in the snow. Whichever.
The reason this story made the news was the lawsuit associated with the alleged actions of these men. Our hapless victim of this weirdest case of harassment chose to sue the General Contractor. It was a poor choice, as the court ultimately dowsed his attempt by determining that he was employed and supervised by the subcontractor on the site. Therefore his case against the GC was dismissed. It is unclear whether he will pursue his claims against the sub, or just piss – I mean pass – on that. I suspect the insurance or available assets of the sub are not adequate, which is why the GC was targeted to begin with.
It was a good decision. Not only was the guy not employed by the General Contractor, they also were the ones who acted properly when the initial problem came to their attention. There was no mention if the follow up issue was noticed by the GC. A gang of workers exposing themselves and singing a song about rape while chasing a man they are trying to urinate on would probably not be noticeable on a large job site. Really.
Psychologists could have a heyday with this story. A man was singled out and harassed by a person of the same sex. In what can then only be described as pack mentality, the co-workers who caught wind of it then ganged up on the weakest perceived member – the victim, not the perpetrator. There is a lesson in this for employers.
Same sex harassment can happen in the workplace. When harassment of any kind occurs, don’t attack the victim. Instead, urinate on the aggressor (metaphorically or otherwise). Or you could just not condone any such behavior at all.
But where is the fun in that?