Comments about ‘Utah ranks high in men claiming harassment at work’

I think the reason it is coming out is because of the recession and job loss. While working, men and women, are threatened by losing their jobs if they complain. It has more to do with employer neglect that allows and perpetrates harassment. When you are an employee and the state has no workers rights laws it deters friendly working conditions.

Workers rights are overshadowed by the Right To Work laws protecting employers from workers and complaints. An employee in Utah must choose between a job and being harassed by supervisors and management. Workers in Utah cannot unite and file class action complaints against an employer for any reason. The Right to Work laws should be repealed and replaced with state labor laws.

The states Right to Work laws are specifically designed to protect employers so that they can fire any individual for any reason without cause. The state nor the federal government are not willing to investigate and confirm complaints by an individual worker. They require many complaints in a limited time period to take workers serious. Most of the time a worker complaint is considered a nuisance complaint with no validity to them.

Women in Utah know the laws are geared towards protecting them. The harassment is their way of abusing men they don't like.

There are two numbers missing in this article: How the percentage of women who complain compare with natioanl rankings, and how many of the claims are discovered to be frivolous.

I never filed a complaint because I knew it had no chance of getting any where, especially in a state agency, but when we had our first female director, we always knew that her main drive was to prove that she was as good at anything as "the guys" were; therefore she was always trying to "out guy" the guys - but she always dressed like a bomb about to go off, talked in meetings about running around nude in her home or on the beach, and made sure we all knew she was sleeping around while travelling. She created the "hostile work environment" cited in the law, and when I told her so, she just threw her head back and laughed about us "prudish Mormon boys." Thank goodness, she quit just before being fired for being so inept (and so she could leave her husband and to move to where her lover lived). If she were here today, I would not be so afraid to file a complaint - but back then, sexual harassment was only a one-way street.

The number reported is lower than the number that actually happened.

Honestly I'm surprised the numbers are as low as they are. I'm the only guy where I work and though I've never been a victim of sexual harassment, it's made plain that my opinions don't matter.
To the lawyer at the end of the article, I doubt he has any real facts at all. Making a sexual harassment claim has nothing to do with where women do or don't belong.

At work I feel like a piece of meat

Your comment makes no sense. How are "women in Utah" more protected than women elsewhere? How does the law favor women who harass?

People like to sue each other. It's a way to for lazy or greedy people to make money without having to work for it.

how many complaints are filed to protect one's job, say for instances if someone files a complaint, then gets laid off because the company is down sizing, would the complaintant have reason to bring a lawsuit against the company claiming they were laid off because of the complaint, not because of the down sizing?

I also was harassed several times by a female director but did not file a complaint due to lack of confidence in the system to do the right things. I ended up leaving that position due to the stress of the situation.

sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me desmond.

There is a common misconception about "Right to Work." It means that union membership cannot be a factor in employment (whether the employee is a union member or not).

"Always There" referred to the "Employment at Will" doctrine, which states that the employment relationship may be terminated by either side, for any reason (except for discriminatory reasons). Employment at will is common throughout the United States.

Union activity is not illegal in Utah. Workers may form a union and exercise whatever rights they can.

Thank you, Deseret News, for reporting this instead of printing only information that perpetuates negative male stereotypes and portrays women as the only victims of harassment, violence, and discrimination. We need to see more of both sides of this issue.

I realize there are all types who sexually harass. That being said, I wonder how many homosexuals there are per capita in Utah.

My sister was being sexually harassed by a lesbian who happened to be her supervisor. She quit her job. If she had not found another job due to the old supervisor giving negative references - I wonder if she would have filed a sexual harassment claim.?

Since this article is about the relative proportion of complaints filed by men compared to those filed by woman, a valid consideration the article fails to consider is that because of Utah's predominant culture a higher percentage of female victims of harrassment may not be filing claims, thereby boosting the percentage of claims being filed by men here.

I know just how most of these men feel. As an attractive and financially well-off single man in Utah, I get this all the time. I wish women would like my mind instead of my body.

Its because Utah men are to overly sensitive. It's all this religion. Anywhere else it'd probably just be a friendly gesture or flirting.. here its sexual harassment.

I would think most people would like to be employed in a safe work environment. Is a person being too sensitive when they have what they consider to be offensive (pornography) material shoved in their face by a co-worker? It would be nice if people would be considerate of others feelings and focus on their work.

I honestly feel many more men face sexual and other forms of harassment that often goes without complaint of filing for many reasons. It's not just in UT either but men are taught to suck it up, to just deal with it, or to internalize, to see sexual advancements only as compliments, and many men and women are taught incorrectly that only women and minorities can be harassed, which is just as wrong as those that claim only blacks can face racism, or that only women can be sexualized.

Men are one of the few last groups that in our ever growing efforts to protect the weak or the powerful special interest groups that are not really protected culturally or otherwise.