Sexual Harassment

**Lance** · 4 November 2016, 15:46

Originally posted by Lockhouse View Post

My daughter has come across an email from two (female) company directors discussing certain of my daughters "assets" in not the best terms. She is not sure what to do next. It is a small company with no HR and the email has got into general circulation. My daughter joined nearly six months ago and she is still on formal probation for the next two weeks. My daughter has done absolutely nothing wrong here, directors have been making personal comments via email behind her back. She is quite young, very impressionable and is rightly very upset. She loves her job and works very hard. Any sensible advice gladly received. This is a serious question so keep snarky comments in General please.

Does she love her job so much that she's willing to ignore this?
The alternatives will almost certainly make working there intolerable.

Gather evidence (legally of course).
2 weeks before probation may be a little difficult as the law prefers you act swiftly, but then again 2 weeks isn't that long to stew about what to do.
Can she (or you) afford legal advice? Is she in a union?
Could she join a union? They love this sort of thing and may be willing to represent a younger person even if they joined afterwards.

Constructive dismissal is likely to get suggested here, but it's very difficult to prove.

Good luck.

**DaveB** · 4 November 2016, 15:47

Originally posted by Lockhouse View Post

My daughter has come across an email from two (female) company directors discussing certain of my daughters "assets" in not the best terms. She is not sure what to do next. It is a small company with no HR and the email has got into general circulation. My daughter joined nearly six months ago and she is still on formal probation for the next two weeks. My daughter has done absolutely nothing wrong here, directors have been making personal comments via email behind her back. She is quite young, very impressionable and is rightly very upset. She loves her job and works very hard. Any sensible advice gladly received. This is a serious question so keep snarky comments in General please.

Sit tight for two weeks to get past the probation period, then raise it.

If she doesn't feel she can continue working there then you probably need to get some proper legal advice.

**eek** · 4 November 2016, 15:49

Originally posted by Lockhouse View Post

My daughter has come across an email from two (female) company directors discussing certain of my daughters "assets" in not the best terms. She is not sure what to do next. It is a small company with no HR and the email has got into general circulation. My daughter joined nearly six months ago and she is still on formal probation for the next two weeks. My daughter has done absolutely nothing wrong here, directors have been making personal comments via email behind her back. She is quite young, very impressionable and is rightly very upset. She loves her job and works very hard. Any sensible advice gladly received. This is a serious question so keep snarky comments in General please.

You need legal advice and you probably want to wait until the probation period is over....

**Lockhouse** · 4 November 2016, 15:57

Thanks for the advice. She is not just going to walk into a new job if she leaves plus it's going to be difficult to keep it on her CV. This compounds the problem.

As the email is in general circulation it might be difficult avoiding it until her probation has finished. Also she has to go to work every day now with people talking behind her back. I think her situation is now untenable and it's not going to end well.

I will suggest she gets legal advice asap.

**northernladuk** · 4 November 2016, 15:57

Exactly what the other two said. What you will do after that I think is down to how your daughter feels. The fact it's two female directors is a very odd situation and quite different to male ones. If it's totally ruined the job for her and she can't get over it then she's only got one choice really.

I'd get some advice on exactly where she stands in the background though. It's difficult to understand the situation here with them being female directors and so far no evidence of discrimination. Could it be a case of bullying or some other legal term rather than discrimination? I've no idea about all this but it doesn't sound quite as clear cut as if it were men.

Again I don't know much about the legal situation but you might want to look in to 'how' she got the email. I remember a situation decades ago where a young lad knew two people were joking about him so when one of the guys was away he jumped on his station and printed it out, so breaking the security policies making everything a right bloody mess.

Get your situation clarified, wait for the probabtion has passed and then see what your daughter feels like. If she can no longer work there then you know your option. If there is a possibility the job and opportunity are more important to her than whatever the legal term for what the ladies have done then she might have to look at how she deals with it and keeps working.

Very poor situation and I'm sorry to hear it's happened.

EDIT : Was typing so didn't see the update.

**Lance** · 4 November 2016, 16:00

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

The fact it's two female directors is a very odd situation and quite different to male ones.

Yes odd.
Legally makes no difference though. IANAL.

**mudskipper** · 4 November 2016, 17:01

Sorry to hear of your daughter's problem.

Her first step is to decide what outcome she wants from the situation, then whether that is likely to be achievable.

Is there another senior colleague that your daughter could raise this with?

**Lockhouse** · 4 November 2016, 17:06

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately the situation has further deteriorated and it's all gone legal. Not what my daughter wanted but after speaking to the sender of the email she was left with no choice. All very sad.

**SueEllen** · 4 November 2016, 17:13

Originally posted by Lockhouse View Post

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately the situation has further deteriorated and it's all gone legal. Not what my daughter wanted but after speaking to the sender of the email she was left with no choice. All very sad.

I've sent you a PM was sent before the update but still contains useful information.

Sexual Harassment