My secretary had gone on leave for a while and I had to hire a temp to replace her. Previous years I'd borrowed a secretary from one of the other managers but for some reason they seemed reluctant to work with me. Geez, the way they talked you'd think I was a slave-driver, standing over them with a whip.
Whatever the reason (HR called it a personality clash) I wound up have to hire a temp. As far as I could tell she was doing a reasonable job, not that I took much notice of her as a person. She was just someone there to do what I wanted, when I wanted, hopefully without bitching about needing overtime if she had to stay back a few hours.
I was quite honestly surprised when the HR manager came to me and said they had a complaint. Several, actually.
"A complaint?" I said, aggrieved. "What did I do now?"
"Surprisingly enough, nothing," the smarmy bastard said. I gave him a nasty look and he continued.
"We've had some sexual harassment complaints about your temp," he said. "As you're her immediate supervisor it's up to you to have a word with her."
I gave him an even nastier look, at the same time indicating more information would be helpful.
"The complaints have been that she's inappropriately dressed for the office," I was told.
I thought back over Kerryn's appearance. Nothing that I could remember as being inappropriate. She always seemed nicely dressed to me. Maybe her skirts were a little short but who was going to worry about that?
"Who's the idiot who complained?" I asked. "Kerryn always looks fine as far as I can recall. Just because some guy gets upset over short skirts isn't really cause for a sexual harassment complaint."
"You know I can't tell you who lodged the complaint. Anyway, it wasn't one of the men. It was several of the women."
"Kerryn's harassing the women?" I was honestly astonished.
"No. She's fascinating the men and the other women think that the way she dresses is unfair competition."
"Oh. All right. I'll talk to her."
"Today?" the pushy bastard pressed. Geez, anyone would think I wasn't going to do it.
I looked at the work on my desk. I really was frightfully busy.
"Today," came the insistent voice. "We don't want you putting it off for a few weeks."
I gave him my insulted look. As if I would.
"You would and you know it," he pointed out when I didn't say anything.
"Fine," I said. "Send her in on your way out and I'll talk to her now."
Kerryn came in and I focused my attention upon her. Up to this point she'd just been an adjunct to the office, a tool that I used and generally ignored. She must have been doing a good job because I'm quite sure I'd have reacted if she hadn't. Now I was looking at her and actually seeing her as a person.
She was in her early twenties and very nicely built with all her curves full and in the right places. I wondered what she'd been doing that counted as sexual harassment. Maybe I should have read the reports.
As she came closer I could see her breasts swaying under her blouse. A very thin blouse. She wasn't wearing a bra, I noticed, and she was showing some nice cleavage. Her skirt was short and tight, leaving some long luscious legs on display. I was starting to get an idea of what the problem was. Unfair competition, especially if she was a flirt.
"Take a seat," I told her and watched as she did so. Yes, definitely a flirt and a tease, I decided. I'm quite sure she could have taken her seat without bending forward so I could see down her cleavage, which revealed enough to confirm the no bra I'd assumed.
"Kerryn, as you know the company has very firm rules about sexual harassment. There have been some complaints made and I have to follow them up. That's why I've called you in."
"Sexual harassment? Me?" She seemed sincerely surprised. "Who's been complaining and what about?"
"Someone. HR don't reveal the names of whiners. And I told you what about. Sexual harassment."
"Can you be a bit more specific than that?" she asked, sounding a little irritated.
I sighed and grabbed for the complaint forms and quickly read through them.
"Um, the gist of the complaints seem to be that you're fomenting unrest amongst the staff by undue flirting and teasing of the male staff."
(Like I thought. Whining about unfair competition.)
"That's not fair," Kerryn protested. "I don't go out of my way to flirt and tease. A little bit of friendly camaraderie is all it is."
"Um, going without a bra and flashing your breasts is a little more than your normal friendly camaraderie," I pointed out. "While the men probably enjoy it, it does cause some hard feelings amongst the women."
"I do no such thing," she protested.
"Bullshit," I said with a smile. "You did it to me when you sat down. You've probably been doing it to me ever since you got here without me noticing because I'd be concentrating on my work."
I hit the nail on the head with that one. She blushed quite fiercely, giving me an angry look at the same time. I suspect she was annoyed that I hadn't been noticing.
I rose to my feet, stretched to get the kinks out of my muscles, and strolled around to the other side of the desk.
"It's at this point I'm supposed to assign some sort of penalty and issue fearsome warnings of how your career is going down the toilet if you don't toe the line like a good little wage-slave. Problem with that is you're a temp. You don't have a career with us and I'm not in a position to deny you a promotion or a salary increase because you're on a fixed term contract. It wouldn't be fair to give a bad report to your agency as apart from this you do an excellent job. This means I've got to come up with something that will serve as a penalty and warning."
