Overview of Situation
Federal Express (FedEx) is a well-known American company that provides high-quality delivery services. At the same time, there are many cases based on sexual harassment and the impossibilities to protect the idea of human rights at work. In 2002, a dispatcher of FedEx, Charlotte Boswell, filed a complaint against the company describing the situations when she suffered from constant physical abuse of her supervisor in the form of kissing and touching her during two years. Because of the woman’s resistance, her salary was considerably reduced, personal leaves were postponed, and work shifts were organized in the inconvenient ways (Court listener, 2010). The first complaint was appealed, and the criminal justice was neglected. The second complaint resulted in the reduction of award from $2 million to $300,000. The final complaint to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals was successful, and the victim got $3 million.
Ethical Issues
The main ethical implications concerning sexual harassment in the workplace are based on such concerns as if such misconduct is acceptable or unacceptable from female and male perspectives. According to the Civil Rights Act (1964), sexual discrimination is not allowed. However, there are no definite ethical considerations. On the one hand, if sexual harassment takes place and both parties get a portion of benefits, such situation may be ethically approved. On the other hand, as soon as one party is not satisfied with the state of affairs, the same situation may be identified as ethically wrong. In the situation under analysis, the ethical issue touches upon the development of too personal relations between the workers with different professional setups. As soon as the actions promote the development of a hostile working environment, the situation has to be investigated.
Choices
There are three parties involved in the situation: the victim, the offender, and the company. The choice made by the victim is evident: she refused the possible development of private relations with her supervisor, still, she was not able to inform about her concern as soon as they began. The choice of the offender is also pretty clear: the intentions and failures to get the required portion of sexual satisfaction made him use his position and abilities to worsen Charlotte’s working conditions without breaking the organizational culture and structure. The position of the company is uncertain. It did not want to make the relations public and appealed the claims for several times.
Reasons
The decisions made by the parties involved in the situation have several reasons. On the one hand, the victim wanted her sufferings and humiliation to be paid. On the other hand, the company did not want to lose a huge sum of money and tried solve the problems by other possible means that remained to be unknown to the public. At the same time, the involvement of Police Officers to the case and the necessity to carry out their daily duties that are related to the criminal justice system could change the situation. The decision of the District Judge, Susan Illston, to cut the awards could be legally but never ethically explained.
Effects on Individuals
Charlotte, as the victim of the case, underwent considerable sufferings and humiliations in her intentions to prove that favoritism in the work place and the intentions to share personal feelings are not always appropriate. In other words, she was ethically abused. Still, her financial rewards may cover the losses she suffered from. The effects on the offender, the supervisor, were dramatic because, at the end of the case, he was fired.
Effects on a Company
The overall effects on the company are also negative because in addition to several case of sexual harassment at work, FedEx is blamed for the same issue again. Not many police officers use their positions of authority to provide female workers with free-from-sexual-abuse working conditions (Pollock 2016). The same situation is observed at FedEx. The company does not find it necessary to consider the conditions under which working relations are developed. The main goal of the company is the delivery of good and providing customers with the required portion of high-quality services.
Effects on Society
Society learns a lot from the case under analysis. Unfortunately, the cases of sexual harassment in the workplace have been bothering people several decades ago and continue taking place nowadays (Solotoff & Kramer, 2014). Many people suffer because of the impossibility to resist the situations when discrimination based on sex is observed. Society should pay more attention to such situation and provide people in need with the required portion of help, support, and understanding.
Personal Decisions
In general, regarding the current situation, I can say that my decision was probably similar to Charlotte except the fact that I could try to solve the problem as soon as it took place. I did not want to wait for two years in order the situation being changed itself. I would address the leaders of the company (not department managers or supervisor’s supervisors) and observe the changes I could get. Anyway, I could quit any time and ask for a legal protection blaming the company for the inability to provide the required working conditions.
References
Court Listener. (2010). Charlotte Boswell v. Federal Express Corporation, 08-15935 (9th Cir. 2010). Web.
Pollock, J. M. (2016). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Solotoff, L. & Kramer, H.S. (2014). Sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the work place. New York, NY: Law Journal Press.