Racy Photos Cost Firefighters Their Jobs

Looks like some firefighters in the Victoria, Texas Fire Department recently lost their jobs after displaying, in the fire station, photos of people in sexually provocative poses.

Was this the right thing for the employer to do? Well, it would appear that some type of corrective action was certainly warranted. No doubt the displaying of racy photos or posters was prohibited by the City’s harassment policy, as is the case with most harassment policies.

A professor of criminal justice was quoted in the article about the importance of harassment policies in establishing “an expectation of responsible behavior in the workplace.” He asserted that harassment is usually motivated not by sexual attraction, but rather, by the harasser’s desire to “demonstrate power over the victim.”

Whatever the motivation behind harassing behavior may be, the result of such behavior is that it diminishes the power of the person engaging in it. Any time you make an out-of-line comment or joke,  send an inappropriate email, or post a racy cartoon or photo, you make yourself just a little more vulnerable. You’ve empowered someone to make a complaint against you, and you’ve handed them evidence to back up the complaint. Think of each of those transgressions as a live hand grenade that you’ve just given out. You will never know when the recipient may decide to pull the pin and lob it back in your direction.

Some people pooh-pooh harassment policies as “political correctness” invading the workplace. But the law requires employers to have these policies in place, and to be serious about enforcing them. Whether or not you see eye-to-eye with the need to establish “an expectation of responsible behavior in the workplace,” you must surely agree that giving away your power unnecessarily is a bad idea. So for self-preservation's sake, if nothing else, please make sure that harassment policies are taken seriously.