Flirting And Sexual Harassment

Q: I wonder if fears of charges of sexual harassment at the office can lead to a reluctance (shyness?) on the part of men, and women, to flirt at the office and even elsewhere. Any comments?

A: Edit the following as necessary and send it to your Human Resources Director: Dear HR Director: I would like to make a suggestion regarding the interests of single employees at Acme Corporation. Basically, my suggestion is that HR should take every measure to enable single employees to flee the workplace. In our line of work, the technical means exist to implement my suggestion through telecommuting. The workplace has become hostile for singles as a result of the fight against sexual harassment. Of course, these days the term ‘victims'

encompasses the recipients of unwanted lunch invitations. It should be of equal concern that proximity and regular contact are also exploited by those who would manufacture a claim of sexual harassment for whatever reason. Telecommuting would eliminate proximity and regular contact for those who opted for it. Therefore, I would like HR to allow single employees to be given the option to telecommute. The single employee would then be free to carry out the days work in coffee shops, businesses that provide ‘a new to office', libraries and other venues where their social interactions are governed by social conventions and not by the intrusive misapplication of Civil Rights law.