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Sexual harassment and hospitality (Read 11907 times)
mothra
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Sexual harassment and hospitality
Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:20am
 
“I didn’t understand the gravity of what was happening”

Sleaze, assault and even threats of rape are all on the menu for young women who work in hospitality – so why does no one stop it?

Along with her first ever pay packet, 15-year-old Erin Thompson’s after-school and weekend job at Hungry Jack’s came with her first experience of sexual harassment.

Co-workers, some also just 15, would corner her in the dry store area or the freezer and make sexual comments about her body, leaving her scared and uncomfortable.

“They were pressuring me to engage in activity I didn't want and wasn’t interested in at all, let alone at work,” Thompson, now 24, says.

When she tried to report them, managers would brush off the incidents or tell her that security cameras weren’t working so there was no evidence of what she alleged.

“I didn’t know who [else] to go to,” she says. “These things were not in the manual or discussed in training.”

Thompson felt helpless to take it further because some of the managers also liked to hit on the youngest women – still girls, actually – and invite them to after-work parties. There they would ply them with drinks and have sex with them. It didn’t happen to her but it did to her friends. They told her – and the managers would brag about it at work.

“I didn’t really understand the gravity of what was happening, for a 25-year-old man to be having sex with drunk 14 or 15-year-old girls,” Thompson says.

During sex education classes at school later that year, she understood that the girls couldn't legally consent due to their age, that what had allegedly occurred was statutory rape, she says.

“Had we had access to that earlier in high school, I would have known; I would have gone up the [management] line.”

A statement from Hungry Jack’s said the company “had zero tolerance for any actions that harass … and strict policies concerning the behaviour of any of its employees”. Past or current employees with concerns could call the customer service hotline, the statement said.

Thompson has worked in 11 hospitality jobs since that first one. She has experienced hundreds, possibly thousands, of other frightening and humiliating experiences. It’s happened in fast-food places and big-brand coffee shops, as well as city and suburban cafes. In some workplaces, it was several times a week. In a few, it was virtually every shift. The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.

“It is absolutely part of the reason I’ve moved around so much,” she says.

Her experiences are borne out in a national survey by the union United Voice, which found that 89 per cent of hospitality workers had experienced sexual harassment at work. (The law defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexual behaviour that makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.)

Women made up 90 per cent of the 300 people surveyed. Most respondents were younger than 34 with about half (49 per cent) younger than 24.

Three-quarters said they had experienced unwanted sexual advances (73 per cent) and inappropriate touching (69 per cent). Almost nine out of 10 reported sexist remarks (87 per cent), comments on their body (85 per cent) and sexual innuendo (84 per cent).

About one in five (19 per cent) said they had been sexually assaulted.


http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/harassment-in-hospitality/
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rhino
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #1 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:42am
 
Women made up 90 per cent of the 300 people surveyed
Lol.
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mothra
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #2 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:45am
 
rhino wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:42am:
Women made up 90 per cent of the 300 people surveyed
Lol.



Well, that invalidates them then i guess.
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Postmodern Trendoid III
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #3 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am
 
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.
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mothra
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #4 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:51am
 
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am:
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.


The father would have tracked down the customers after he was told when his daughter got home?
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rhino
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #5 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:52am
 
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:51am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am:
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.


The father would have tracked down the customers after he was told when his daughter got home?
co workers you dufus.
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mothra
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #6 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:53am
 
rhino wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:52am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:51am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am:
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.


The father would have tracked down the customers after he was told when his daughter got home?
co workers you dufus.



The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.
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mothra
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #7 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:55am
 
Poor Rhino. I know you try.
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Postmodern Trendoid III
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #8 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:56am
 
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:53am:
rhino wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:52am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:51am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am:
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.


The father would have tracked down the customers after he was told when his daughter got home?
co workers you dufus.



The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.


I am talking about the co-workers or bosses ... obviously not customers.
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rhino
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #9 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:56am
 
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:55am:
Poor Rhino. I know you try.
No , I dont try. I just read the link you posted.
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mothra
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #10 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:59am
 
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:56am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:53am:
rhino wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:52am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:51am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am:
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.


The father would have tracked down the customers after he was told when his daughter got home?
co workers you dufus.



The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.


I am talking about the co-workers or bosses ... obviously not customers.



So you think vigilante justice is the way to go to defend us women folk, do you Mistie?

Bit of biffo to sort it?

You don;t think the law is a more appropriate vehicle?
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mothra
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #11 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 2:00am
 
rhino wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:56am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:55am:
Poor Rhino. I know you try.
No , I dont try. I just read the link you posted.



Maybe you should start trying? Or does it hurt?

From the link i posted:

The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.
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Postmodern Trendoid III
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #12 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 2:04am
 
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:59am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:56am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:53am:
rhino wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:52am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:51am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am:
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.


The father would have tracked down the customers after he was told when his daughter got home?
co workers you dufus.



The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.


I am talking about the co-workers or bosses ... obviously not customers.



So you think vigilante justice is the way to go to defend us women folk, do you Mistie?

Bit of biffo to sort it?

You don;t think the law is a more appropriate vehicle?


If the law doesn't work, as the op indicated, then yes. Anyway, any real father would protect their daughter against such things. 
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mothra
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #13 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 2:08am
 
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 2:04am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:59am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:56am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:53am:
rhino wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:52am:
mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:51am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 1:50am:
Thompson should have told her father (if he was in the picture) and he should have sorted it out.


The father would have tracked down the customers after he was told when his daughter got home?
co workers you dufus.



The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.


I am talking about the co-workers or bosses ... obviously not customers.



So you think vigilante justice is the way to go to defend us women folk, do you Mistie?

Bit of biffo to sort it?

You don;t think the law is a more appropriate vehicle?


If the law doesn't work, as the op indicated, then yes. Anyway, any real father would protect their daughter against such things. 


Then don't you think the first step is addressing the law?

Don;t you think companies should have better protections in place for women?

Don't you think we need to address why so very many men are considering women to be objects?

I would have thought these were sensible steps along the route to a bit of biffo. Y'know, considering there are laws against that ... and it's not going to have any effect on the customers anyway.
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Postmodern Trendoid III
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Re: Sexual harassment and hospitality
Reply #14 - Apr 28th, 2017 at 2:19am
 
Around the merry go round.

mothra wrote on Apr 28th, 2017 at 2:08am:
Then don't you think the first step is addressing the law?


The op says the law didn't work in this case.

Quote:
Don;t you think companies should have better protections in place for women?


Such as?

Quote:
Don't you think we need to address why so very many men are considering women to be objects?


Everyone uses others, or thinks of others, as 'objects', so I guess you mean something else here.

Quote:
I would have thought these were sensible steps along the route to a bit of biffo. Y'know, considering there are laws against that ... and it's not going to have any effect on the customers anyway.


Forget about the customer. I've not mentioned them. I am talking about co-workers.

Here's a secret in regards to some men: they only fear superior violence or extreme ridicule. Rationalising with someone who has no regard for rational discussion is a waste of time.
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