I have been working at a physical therapy office (55 employees with 8 locations) for the past two years, starting as administrative staff. I am now a corporate compliance manager and I have a dilemma. One of the girls I worked with as an admin assistant e-mailed me several times that she needed to tell me something. When I called her, this is what she had to say:
1. Her boss, the director of the clinic, made several comments regarding her going tanning and asking her if she tans without a bra on.
2. Asking her if she had shown her breasts to her new boyfriend.
3. Dictating a tape (that he knows she has to transcribe) talking about her and her new boyfriend, and how her breasts are tanned now and she has more muscle now, because she has been working out.

The person that told me these things, regards me as a friend, and she would call me every morning at the location I was working in and talk about her day at work, etc. (By the way, I have never socialized with her outside of work, just because I don't really believe in doing that.) Now that I work in the HR Department, she does not call as much. My dilemma is that when I asked her if she wanted to file a complaint, she said "No, I wouldn't do that unless I was leaving and had another job lined up, because I am afraid of how it would be to work here after filing a complaint."

First of all, is this sexual harassment? Second, if it is, and she does not want to file a complaint, am I obligated to address/investigate this situation?

Thanks

It could be and yes. If she finds the comments unwelcome, then it's yes and yes.

This is a mistake a lot of people make. They assume that they can tell HR or a friend in management something "just so that someone knows about it", not realizing that by doing so, the company is now officially on notice and MUST legally take steps to stop the unwelcome behavior.

The company would be in serious legal trouble if she were to leave, file a complaint and then have it come out that someone in authority (HR, in this case) knew about it and did nothing. It would then be a question of how many zeroes got written on the check.

I understand the position you are in, but to protect both yourself and the company you need to tell her that you have no choice; you MUST begin an investigation - you cannot legally sit on that information.

Agree with Cbg. Whether it is SH or just inappropriate is less clear but you should either look into it or pass the info along to whomever handles these things. I would never assure an employee that what they tell you will remain absolutely confidential. You can tell them that you will do whatever you can to make sure it stays between those involved and not become public knowledge, but really, you can't just pretend she didn't say anything.