Students and professors discuss a prevalent problem
By Brandon Feliz | Observer Contributor
Photo by Betsy Torres
Working in a hostile work environment can be one of the most difficult and confusing things someone can go through.
It can be especially frustrating when it is a full-time job, likely to be the place where one spends most of their waking hours. More time is spent at full-time jobs than anywhere else for the average U.S. citizen. One third of an American’s life is spent at work, according to www.gettysburg.edu. Statistics also show that people’s jobs can contribute to workaholism, insomnia and divorce, and that stress from work is estimated to be the fifth-biggest cause of death in the U.S., according to the Business Insider. When workplace harassment occurs as well, working to make ends meet can become a monumental task.
Take the life of twenty-year-old Ari Summers, who requested her name be changed to protect her privacy. Summers is a student at MWCC who works part-time at a dealership. She says she suffers from workplace harassment almost every day that she’s on the job.
“I get harassed by the owner of my job,” said Summers. “He always comes around my desk, grabs my arms so I could hug him. I always have to turn my face to the side or else he will try to kiss me. Either way, hell still kiss me on the cheek unless Im lying about being sick.”
This type of behavior coming from the higher-ups makes Summers not even want to go to work, but until she finds another job she must continue working there in order to pay her bills.
The worst part of it all, she said, is that the company won’t assist her adequately. “I’ve mentioned this behavior to human resources, and all they said was that he’s been like that for the thirteen years that they’ve known him,” said Summers, “and that it’s probably because I resemble his daughter or because of his culture. ‘He’s just an old Italian man,’ they said.”
In some European and Latin American cultures, it is more common to kiss someone on the cheek as a greeting. Regardless, the justification ends the moment concern is expressed and all advances that make the other party uncomfortable should come to an absolute halt.
“If the person… complains about being uncomfortable, that is hostile to them,” said Elmer Eubanks-Archbold, a business professor here at MWCC who has an abundance of experience in Business Ethics.
“If I am a supervisor and I’m like ‘oh hey’ and then I start kissing my employees, but it makes them uncomfortable, I have to stop that even if it’s what I normally do,” said Eubanks. “And that’s where the definition of sexual harassment would come in. It would have to be based off the person that’s feeling it. So you have to respect their space, even if it is culturally correct or normal to you.”
This can be a big change for some people who have lived their whole lives under a different influence and culture in a different country that is thousands of miles away. “Even though [they] are in a different culture,” said Eubanks-Archbold. “[They] have to make the effor to understand how the culture works here in America.”
At a job where human resources cannot provide one with the resources to keep them feeling human in the workplace, employees can instead reach out to a third party. Luckily, in Massachusetts and even within our own school walls there are resources to help. Steps must be taken, however, in succession in order to make sure all possible solutions are explored.
“The first step is to tell them to to stop,” said Jason Zelesky, Dean of Students. “It’s more difficult with someone higher-up, so if I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously and no one can help me I would call the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD).”
The MCAD phone number can be found under the Resource tab on the MWCC website. There are also a number of alternative resources that help individuals fight against hostility in the workplace such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), information on affirmative action policy, prohibited conduct, and policies against sexual harassment.
“We have strict policies on campus and no tolerance for harassment on campus for our students nor our faculty,” said Zelesky.
If you or someone you know are suffering from harassment in the workplace, please contact the MCAD at (617) 994-6000 or the EEOC at (617) 565-3200.
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