Sexual discrimination and harassment at work

[pleasehelpmeout]

I have a number of legal problems and hope I can get some help here. I work in a professional office and have a boss who likes me. He didn't say so straight out but a lot of times he suggests that we have working dinners because we need to get stuff done. I have heard from other women that he has an eye for the ladies and everything he does at work makes me believe he wants to get me in bed.

Recently there was a position open in my department. I am the top rated support person. After I didn't go out with this guy for his work dinners to discuss things he gave the job to a guy who is clearly not the best person for the job. It's really frustrating. I know it and every woman in the office knows it. Some of the guys suspect it too. What can I do?

 

[army judge]

I suggest you seek new employment.

That is, unless a lousy (or even a great job) is worth your dignity, integrity, and pride.

 

[disagreeable]

If you do not like your work environment, change jobs. Your boss has done nothing out of line. Being the best salesperson, does not always qualify you to be the one promoted. At times, it can cause you to be held in place.

 

[esteele]

I would respectfully suggest you "decouple" the harassment issue from the disparate treatment issue in your thinking. The fact your boss may or may not want to sleep with you is of little consequence here. Based on your post, he has never explicitly or implicitly sought to have sex with you. He has not said or done anything untoward to you. Consequently, you do not appear to have any basis for filing a sexual harassment complaint against him.

However, a question remains concerning the promotion. If you are "the top rated support person" and a less accomplished, male support employee was promoted, then you could have a potential basis for charging your employer with gender discrimination with respect to said promotion. With such a claim, you will have to establish that you possessed objectively superior qualifications for the position in order to advance a claim that your gender served as an impermissible causal factor in making this promotion decision.

What you and your friends feel in this regard does not matter much. (While your feelings may be spot on, they do not constitute evidence.) Whether you should go forward or not depends on the evidence you can adduce or at least point to in support of a gender based promotion claim.

 

[pleasehelpmeout]

Thank you everyone for your advice. Yes, I know I have to leave but it's one of those things where you don't want to leave it unsettled. I am trying to do some research on this guy's history and it appears it isn't the first time that he has been involved in accusations of sexual harassment. He has some relation to his boss and that explains how this idiot harasser is still in his job. He has just perfected his act so he knows how far past the gray area he can go where it makes it tough to prove that he's pressuring me. I just won't fall for it and I know how these guys work. Not only wouldn't I sleep with this slime but even if I did there is no guaranty of a promotion that you deserve and it's not like you can prove the deal and get the return on investment.

I will figure it out. Perhaps I may not be able to sue them but I can always leave and make sure that he will get his when I have nothing to lose in my current place of work.