A Case of Sexual Harassment

Panther House, Mumbai, is the international home to nearly 250 editorial and creative
independent publishing imprints. It comprises of fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade
book publishing businesses in U.S., U.K., Canada and India. Panther house is an eclectic mix of
employees, 80% of which are below 30 years of age. Being a publishing house, the employees
are expected to be creative and expressive with their writing and networking skills. Their job
profile requires them to interact with various PR firms, media firms, writers and journalists.

Two months ago, in its India division, a young woman named Sneha was hired as a copy editor
for one of the journals printed by the company. She was a 22 year old bright and ambitious girl
with a degree in English Honours from Delhi University. She was a beautiful free spirited girl,
who was very passionate about her work. She was well known in her college for writing, editing
and presentation skills. In addition, her charming personality always garnered her a lot of
attention, as she was the ultimate combination of beauty with brains. However, she was always
very focussed and aspired to become a director of a top publishing house in the country
someday. Thanks to her innumerable certificates for extempore, debates and writing
competitions she had wonderful recommendations. She wanted to start her career as a copy
editor in one of the best publishing units in the country. She applied to Panther House, and
looking at her aptitude and enthusiasm for the job of copy editor, they hired her immediately.

She was thrilled to bag this job as it was in sync with her skill set and long term goals. She found
it not only interesting, but challenging, motivating and extremely satisfying.

In her team there were six other employees including a senior editor named Tom. The team
gelled very well together and she also effortlessly had fit into the team. They had a great
camaraderie and their work sensibilities were in sync. The team members not only constantly
helped and encouraged each other, but also pushed to achieve one’s best. Their senior editor,
Tom, who had been with this organization for over 5 years, was very well known for his editing
skills. Being extremely driven and devoted towards his work, he hardly had life beyond his
office.

The publishing house had to churn out a monthly journal which resulted in extremely high
workload and tight deadlines. Hence, the team had been working rigorously on the latest issue
for the past few weeks. Upon meeting the deliverables per the deadline, the team decided to
celebrate the success with dinner and drinks. The entire team comprising of Tom, Sneha, Sneha,
Priyanka, Raj and Dev, chose to go to Global Fission, a fancy bar, near their office, for the night
out.

With every one leaving for their respective homes, only Tom and Sneha were left behind
engrossed in a deep conversation. During the conversation,

Tom said, “By the way, I have been trying to tell you something the whole evening...you look
really beautiful! And this red colour really suits you.”

Sneha smiled and replied, “Thank you Tom, you yourself are looking very handsome.”

Although Sneha took this compliment very casually, Tom had been secretly attracted to her ever
since they started working closely on the journal, which often involved late nights as well. This
was the first time he got an opportunity to socialize with her in an informal non-office setting. He
got a bit carried away and kept flirting with her. Sneha didn’t mind his behaviour and took it
casually as he was under the influence of alcohol. She gave him the benefit of the doubt thinking
he was just trying to be friendly.

While heading home Tom offered to share a cab with Sneha, which she accepted. Once she was
inside the cab, Tom suddenly made an aggressive sexual advance towards her. “What the hell
are you up to?” Sneha shouted and pushed him away. She was mortified and yelled, “GET OUT
OF THE CAB”. Tom was shocked and slinked out of the cab.

The next day, Sneha went to office with apprehensions and anxiety. Many thoughts crossed her
mind while she was heading to her cubicle. “How will I deal with Tom? Was it just a
misunderstanding? Was I too harsh on him? Would it effect my job? Although he is not my boss,
would he try to get me fired? After all, I have only recently joined and am still to gain a place for
myself in the organization.” She was tensed.

When she arrived in her cubicle, Tom immediately went to her and apologized for his
inappropriate behaviour in the cab. “I am really very sorry about last night. I was drunk, we
were having a good time and I thought you had feelings for me. It was a total misunderstanding
and I am ashamed of my behaviour last night”. Sneha responded by saying “I accept your
apology. It should never happen again”. To which Tom replied “Thank you, I assure that it
would never happen again”, and he left.

Sneha decided not to pursue the matter through any formal channels in the office. Their
organization has a sexual harassment discipline committee where an individual acted as an
organizational ombudsman. In case of any grievances, the committee was notified and the
employee would get to meet and discuss the issue with the ombudsman, in complete secrecy.
However, Sneha figured that since Tom apologized, there was no need to dwell on the incident
any further. Moreover, Sneha was a new employee, still in the process of learning the tips and
tricks of being a competent editor, gaining new experiences and learning the office politics. She
did not want to rock the boat or bring negative attention to herself. Besides, she though it could
have been a genuine mistake at Tom’s end and decided to forgive him and move on.

Everything would have been okay if Tom had stopped at just one sincerely expressed apology.
However, whenever he found himself alone with Sneha, Tom apologized again. And again.

One week post the incident, during lunch, in the canteen, he said, “I am sorry about the incident
last week. Whenever I see you I recall the unfortunate incident and feel terrible.” Sneha told him
“Its’ alright. Let bygones be bygones. No point discussing it again and again. I have accepted
your apology. Anyway, I have to get back to work. Take care.” However this was just the starting
of his apology spree. He apologized at every opportunity he had for the next three months.

A few weeks ago the team was discussing a paper on body language for their latest article on
“Relevance of non-verbal communication in the media”. Sneha had made some excellent
observations and the team was very happy with her ideas. As soon as they had a coffee break,
Tom came behind her and said “Body language is so important in expressing yourself. Wish I
had known better that day. Feel so weird and stupid that I did what I did. Sorry again”. Sneha
just looked at him and nodded, and then she left. This constant apology was very awkward and
annoying for her. Ironically, by Tom apologizing continuously for his behaviour in the cab, he
was foisting another form of unwanted attention upon Sneha. She wanted to forget the entire
episode but by bringing it up again and again, he was actually disturbing her by reminding her of
it continuously leading to social embarrassment.
Finally, after three months of multiple apologies, she reached a point where she asked him to
stop apologizing, but alas, it was to no avail. Frustrated, she confided in a few co-workers about
her unusual dilemma. She said, “I know it was unintentional, but I want to forget it, however he
keeps on reminding me. Moreover, people have started to think that something is wrong between
us. I don’t want this unwanted negative attention”. Consequently, their co-workers also started to
become vary of Tom and began distancing themselves from him. Neha, another member of the
team, started avoiding Tom and would usually walk off with her phone if she was alone with
him. Priyanka, who had heard about this incident from Sneha, doubted his intentions every time
she was called alone for a discussion. Noticing this, Raj and Dev, who were also part of the team,
passed sly comments and made fun of Tom behind his back.

Although the cab incident was not common knowledge in the office, Tom sensed that others
knew about it by the way they had started to interact with him. The incident became the
"elephant in the room" that the employees noticed, but didn't explicitly acknowledge.

Meanwhile, Sneha was tired of this incident being the central point of her life and gossip at the
office, and her discomfort increased. So, when another editor position opened up in another
journal division of the company, she applied for the job and got the transfer. In her new position,
she didn't have to deal with Tom bothering her anymore. The team worked in another division of
the company in different part of the city.

However, few days into the job, she was unhappy with her new profile. The journal content was
very boring and not challenging enough. She didn’t get the opportunity to do writing pieces that
challenged and excited her. The standards and expectations of work deliverables in the new
journal were low. It involved documenting facts and figures rather than creativity and expression
through writing and presentation, which Sneha used to excel in. She realized that she really
enjoyed her old job and the company of her team. She used to be cheerful, enthusiastic and
revered the company of her old teammates. However now, not only she felt distant and detached
from her new team but also started feeling low and stressed. She felt that the lack of good
company and work quality has started to make her feel depressed. She began to regret her
decision and wanted to get her old job back. However, she didn’t want to put up with Tom’s
antics.
In an effort to seek advice as to how to solve her problem, Sneha decided to consult with the
organizational ombudsman. The primary reason Sneha came to the Ombudsman for advice was
that the conflict was private, and she wanted to share her problem in confidence. “I want my old
job back as I enjoyed my work there and I was performing very well. However, I want to keep
this incident in your strict confidence because I don’t want to create nuisance in the office
environment. I just want to work like this thing never happened!” she said.

Had Sneha made a mistake of changing her job?

Questions

1. Can Tom’s actions be construed as sexual harassment? If yes, cite instances.

2. Using the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, cite the actions that
can be taken against Tom in this particular case.
3. Discuss the repercussions of change in department for Sneha.