Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentine Cards - unwanted sexual advances

According to Radio 4 this morning (I'm sure it will be on the web somewhere if you look,) sending a Valentine's card to a work colleague can be seen as an unwanted sexual advance and therefore grounds for sacking. Well of course it would be unwanted if the person receiving it decided so; in the same way that any advance can be seen as sexual and unwanted by those receiving them. But we should remember any advance to another person the way human relationships friendships and relationships start.

Now if someone, having been refused once or twice, continues with these advances I accept that it is harassment and employers should start to look at harassment. But before it gets to that stage the employer will probably be more concerned about the impact on efficiency.

Oh, and another point, do those who claim that sending a single Valentine's card can be a sackable offence realise how difficult it is to sack someone these days? Especially if it happens to be, say, a pregnant woman who is doing the harassing.

Its bad enough living in the unfriendly "darn sarf" where trying to strike up any conversation is seen by most as the work of a nutter without idiotic stories like these getting air time.

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