A California girl just sued Starbucks for sexual harassment on the job. Her claim is that a 24 year old supervisor turned her into his sex toy. She felt like she could not say no and keep her job. Her manager eventually pleaded guilty and spent 4 months in jail.
There are similar incidents all around the country. A Taco Bell Manager recently pleaded guilty to raping two 16 year old employees.
They don’t always get away with it though. A 16 year old worker at a McDonald’s went to her mother about harassment and the manager was quickly fired. For every girl that reports sexual harassment and molestation at work, there are many more who don’t.
There are also many who are too naive to even realize that the manager is doing anything out of line. Back when I was working at McDonald’s twenty something years ago, my mother pulled into the drive through to let me know she was there to pick me up and to order a milkshake. I told the manager, who quickly performed the function on my register to release me to go count it. It was about 15 minutes before I was in my mother’s car headed home. The first thing my mother said was “why did he have to stand behind you and reach his arm around your sides to ring out your register?” Why indeed? My mother ended up having a talk with him while she waited for me.
That was not my only brush with a frisky manager as a teenager though. My biggest issue was with a security guard at a grocery store I worked at. He would come over to the deli when I was closing up, cleaning dangerous machines and make sexual comments and even threats. The shock of one comment in particular caused me to lose concentration and slice a layer of skin off my finger, like a piece of bologna. (It grew back in about 3 months). I quit and had him fired.
The point is based on my personal experiences, and the stories I hear, it is not really safe for teenage girls in the workplace. I am sure many teenage boys are harassed as well.
So what is a parent to do? They need to have a frank conversation with their teens so they know the signs of such harassment and preying and can report it immediately. They should look at the track record of any place their child is looking to work and find out if there have been any reports of sexual harassment in the past. Inform them that no job is worth being harassed and taken advantage of. They need your full support and permission to walk off the job at the first sign of trouble.
You can read more about sexual harassment in the workplace at Equalrights.org
~If you liked this you should also read my other posts at the home blog, the homeschooling blog, the parents blog, and the frugal blog. You can read my recent posts here.
Coping with Sexual Harassment and Assault (1)