Anna knocked softly on the open door, and asked, “Do you have a minute? I wanted to tell you about something. To be honest, it may be nothing, but I’m not sure.” Charlotte quickly pushed the Save button on her laptop and sat back in her chair. “Actually, your timing is pretty good. I could use a break from my screen. Come on in.” Anna came in and sat down. “I was hoping you would say something like that.” Charlotte frowned. “Are you having trouble figuring out that benefit stuff I asked you to do?” Anna shook her head. “No. Well, yes. I am having some trouble with that, but I think I can figure it out. This is about something different. I went out to lunch today with my friend Sarah from accounting. We wanted to check out the new Thai place that opened in that plaza up the street. Well, she invited a couple other people, so there were four of us from the company.” Charlotte said, “Yeah, I know you eat lunch with Sarah a lot. Who were the other two?”

Anna shuffled uncomfortably in her chair. “I don’t know if I should say. I’ll call them P and M for now, if that’s okay. I just don’t know if I should identify them. Let me tell you what was said, and you can tell me if you think I should give their names or not.” Charlotte looked uneasy. “Uh-oh. I don’t like the sound of this. Something tells me this is not going to be a story about how good the food was.” Discrimination? Harassment? Anna chuckled, and said, “You’re right about that.” She jumped up and quickly shut the door. “Now, I don’t know P and M that well. We don’t usually hang out. I can say that they are programmers that have both been with the company for a couple of years, and they work for different project managers. The thing is that both of them seem to think they have been treated badly at this company because they are women. They think they have been victims of discrimination and maybe even sexual harassment.”

Charlotte gasped, and said, a little loudly, “What? That can’t be right! WEC has a great track record when it comes to equity. We both know that we hire and promote based on merit. You don’t believe that we are unfair to women, do you? For goodness sakes, one of our founders is a woman!” Anna shook her head, and said hurriedly, “I’m not saying I agree with it. I am just telling you what I heard. I didn’t mean to upset you. Should I have kept this to myself?”

Taking a breath, Charlotte softened her tone. “No. I’m so sorry. I was just caught off guard. Please tell me what they said. If there is a problem, then I need to know.” Anna replied, “Okay. I’ll tell you what I heard. P is the only woman on her team, and she is the only person in her work group that is not invited to go for drinks after work on Fridays. She said that one of the guys on the team said that his girlfriend was jealous and didn’t want him hanging out with other girls after work, and it wasn’t personal, but it would be best if P didn’t come very often. She had said okay to avoid any trouble. She told me she didn’t really want to go to the bar every time, but after a few occurrences it made her feel left out when they would be laughing over private jokes that originated in the bar. She was trying to just concentrate on her work, but a couple of weeks ago her boss put together a sub-team to do a certain part of the new project, and he didn’t pick her even though it was something she had done before. When she asked him why, he said that he tried to pick a group that got along really well since they would be working a lot of long hours. So now it seems that the fact that she isn’t really close friends with these guys is hurting her career.” Lonely Hearts Need Not Apply Charlotte said, “And what about the other person?”

Anna replied, “M has a different story. She dated someone from here a few times last year. It didn’t work out, but since then there have been three or four different guys who have asked her out. One of them was a manager, though not her manager. She turned them all down, but she is tired of everyone treating work like a singles bar. She wishes the company would do something to let everyone know they should just focus on work, not romance.” Anna sat back in her chair, and added, “Those are the main points. I should say that they didn’t tell me this stuff because I work in HR. This seemed like just normal lunchtime venting. But I thought it might be something I should let you know about. Was I right? Do you think this might be discrimination or harassment?”

Would the situation with P be considered discrimination or harassment? What about the situation with M?

If Charlotte wants to talk to either of the two women, how should she approach them?

Charlotte mentions that she believes the company “has a great track record when it comes to equity.” What evidence is she considering?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Would the situation with P be considered discrimination or harassment What about the situation with M Discrimination based on Ps gender might be consi... View the full answer