Kelly has just completed her Certificate IV in Community Services and is very pleased to be given
Question:
| Kelly has just completed her Certificate IV in Community Services and is very pleased to be given a job working as a youth residential care worker. Kelly enjoys the work and finds the house supervisor to be very helpful in teaching her the ropes. After a few months, the house supervisor advises Kelly that he will be placing her on night shift with the other night worker - Thomas. Kelly is a bit uncomfortable about working with Thomas, especially during the night, but she appreciates the responsibility of working nights. The shift penalties also mean more money in her pay. When Kelly starts working with Thomas, he casually questions her about her personal life. He asks her questions about whether she has a boyfriend and about her first-time sexual encounter. Kelly finds this intrusive as she has never been asked these types of questions by anyone else in a workplace. But she thought this might just be Thomas trying to be friendly and make an effort to get to know her better. Kelly has a strong commitment to her job and a loyalty to do her best for her clients. Thomas begins to give Kelly compliments on how she looks and presents herself, most especially he admires her breasts. He makes comments like, 'If I wasn't already married and I was your age I would be all over you by now!' Kelly's discomfort around Thomas grows when he starts to read sexually explicit content in magazines that he brings from home. He also shows her pornography on the Internet, saying that he has caught his sons accessing it. One night when all the clients were in bed asleep, Thomas asks her to have sex with him. Kelly calls the on-call manager, saying she is sick and needs to leave her shift immediately. She never returns to work. |
Would you need to obtain legal advice for this situation? Explain your response.
How would you ensure you modelled ethical behaviour during this time?
Expert Answer:
In the situation described it is evident that Kelly has experienced inappropriate and potentially illegal behavior in the workplace by her colleague T... View the full answer
