Comments on: Court: Hugging Could Be Sexual Harassment https://www.evilhrlady.org/2017/03/court-hugging-could-be-sexual-harassment.html Everything to make HR better Tue, 14 Mar 2017 21:46:01 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 By: Me https://www.evilhrlady.org/2017/03/court-hugging-could-be-sexual-harassment.html#comment-208822 Fri, 03 Mar 2017 00:03:39 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=4261#comment-208822 I’d say that the approach to hugging should be similar to asking out a coworker. It’s not sexual harassment to ask a coworker on a date, but it becomes problematic if you don’t take no for an answer, retaliated for being turned down, or are creepy or inappropriate in how you ask them out. And you don’t ask out people you have power over.

So – don’t hug your subordinates, don’t hug anyone who says they don’t want to be hugged, and no intense, full body, or lingering hugs.

And I would say that if someone disproportionately hugs one gender (or age group) over another, it pushes it a lot farther towards being sexual harassment (like mostly hugging the younger women), but that same gender hugging is not automatically free from sexual overtones or uncomfortableness.

]]> By: Arrows https://www.evilhrlady.org/2017/03/court-hugging-could-be-sexual-harassment.html#comment-208821 Thu, 02 Mar 2017 17:44:38 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=4261#comment-208821 Shrugs not Hugs! 🙂

]]> By: Elizabeth West https://www.evilhrlady.org/2017/03/court-hugging-could-be-sexual-harassment.html#comment-208817 Thu, 02 Mar 2017 15:13:21 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=4261#comment-208817 Suzanne, remember when Ask a Manager had that letter about the receptionist who turbo-hugged everybody and wouldn’t stop? I think the OP asked her to and she wouldn’t. It wasn’t sexual, but could that still be considered harassment?

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