Telephone Role Play Exercise

Topic: Sexual Harrassment

Introduction:

I was fortunate to enough to have Shannon Mathwig as my partner, she played the role of the HR Manager and I played the employee.

Issue: Employee overhears a sexually explicty conversation between two employees and reports to HR that she has been sexually harrassed.

Summary: I informed HR that I had overheard two employees having a sexually explicit conversation and although this is a regular occurrence I found this particular conversation extremely offensive. HR agreed to bring both employees in to discuss the incident. HR informed me that this would be considered a verbal warning for both employees. HR also agreed to take steps to communicate the company's sexaual harrassment policy at a company wide meeting to prevent future situations like this.

I found Shannon's communication style to be direct, which I could appreciate. As the employee I felt comfortable that immediate action would be taken and that my issue was taken seriously. I was concerned about potential retaliation from the two employees and Shannon informed me that my name would never be mentioned in the conversation.