My husband was recently terminated for either sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior. Let me give you some details. His company outsourced him to another client for which he did IT support. He worked at this client 40 hours a week for almost two years. Keep in mind this client has over 200 poeple and 90% are women. Most of these women would play with his hair, make sexual comments, flirt, etc and it was perfectly ok for them to do this, apparently. I also worked for the client company for about a year so I know these women, one in particular.
My husband joked around with these people on a daily basis and most of them started jokes WITH him. So, after almost two years of joking around with a particular person, he was called in by his boss and fired. His boss didn't really explain WHY he was fired but it was obvious because his boss asked him if he had touched or otherwise acted inappropriately toward anyone at the client. My husband was very confused and didn't argue because he wasn't sure what he had done or said to be terminated. In fact, no one has given him any concrete thing he did to be terminated at all!

The particular person involved claims to have tried to 'handle it herself' but is usually the one to INSTIGATE things with my husband.

He lost his job, may not get unemployment, not to mention his emotional state is ruined and I'm absolutely furious about the whole thing.

Is there anything he can do about this? The only investigation we know of is being done by Unemployment and it's just to determine if he'll get it. We feel he was falsely accused and terminated with no explanation. I don't understand how it's fair, or even legal that this women can touch my husband or make comments to him and it's ok, but he jokes back (repeating things she's said TO him) and he gets accused of sexual harassment and fired!

Please help us figure out what to do!

Did your husband report that he had been sexually harassed?


Most of these women would play with his hair, make sexual comments, flirt, etc and it was perfectly ok for them to do this, apparently.

And what was your reaction when your husband told you this?

Did your husband report that he had been sexually harassed?


Most of these women would play with his hair, make sexual comments, flirt, etc and it was perfectly ok for them to do this, apparently.

And what was your reaction when your husband told you this?

This is her husband, so I'll put in from my point of view.

No, I never reported it. I spent 45 hours/week with these people for over a year so after the first few months it seemed normal to me. Normal in the sense that you are familiar with these people. You know they are married, have kids, go out drinking, don't like this manager, etc. And as such it seemed like normal behavior for people that familiar and friendly with each other. Many employees at the client would vent to me about certain situations because I didn't work directly for the client so their complaints would go no further than me, but it got it off their chests rather than blowing up to a manager and getting fired. Many of the women were older, had children my age, and as such would touch my shoulder, rub my shoulders or flick my pony tail while I sat in front of their computer fixing it. Maybe I'm just not easily offended, or maybe it was their motherly instinct coming out. Either way it didn't seem to be a problem until last month. I was careful around people I knew offended easily, or would run to a manager about anything. So I was very careful about how I acted and what I said around those people. It was mentioned that I touched her shoulder. Which I may have done on occasion while asking her to move over or back so I could look at the computer to fix it. It seems as though they could touch me (in what seems to be an innocent gesture), but I could not reciprocate.

The person in question actually chased me around the cubicles once, and a few times joked about taking me "out back" (she has a black belt, and there are no witnesses out back). To me, it was a way of relieving stress as she was ready to quit her job and just walk out. But after that, I sat in her cubicle for a few minutes letting her rant about the company. Later she thanked me for listening, and said she no longer wanted to quit.

Most of the people in the client company are under pressure to make sales goals, call, quotas or have to deal with rude people on the phone. Humor relieves the stress they are under, so I would participate if it seemed ok.

Well, I didn't LIKE it, but it was innocent and I didn't fear for our marriage over it. I felt like any other woman would when other women touch her husband, you know? I didn't feel it was my place to say anything because everyone supposedly felt comfortable around each other enough that some of them would even flirt with me! Quite a few people that worked for this client company had some relation working in another department so it was all rather casual when we dealt with each other, usually because we were dealing with family.