Teenage workers and sexual harassment

Although teenage workers aged 16–19 years old represent a small proportion of the overall workforce (i.e., about 3.3%; BLS, 2017), these individuals are active and growing participants in the labor market. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for July 2017 (historically the highest month for youth employment) reported that 6.15 million teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were employed, which translates to a labor participation rate of 42.5% in this age category (BLS, 2018). In the same month, 20.9 million workers between the ages of 16 and 24 were employed, which translates to 54.8% of young people, a figure that is up by 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier. It is important to note that the actual number of teenage workers is likely to be even higher given that these data do not include informal “freelance” employment such as housekeeping, lawn mowing, and babysitting, where teenagers may be particularly susceptible to sexual harassment due to the unsupervised nature of the employment.

Although the laws prohibiting sexual harassment are designed to protect workers regardless of age, there is an underlying difference between the experiences of teenage sexual harassment at work from that of an adult worker. First, teenagers may become victims of sexual harassment due to a lack of awareness and understanding of what constitutes sexually harassing behavior at work. Teenage workers may not realize that the graphic comments they have been exposed to online or via text messages, or the unwanted touching they may have tolerated in school, constitutes sexual harassment at work (Gunderson, Reference Gunderson2014). Furthermore, teenagers often work in part-time or seasonal positions and may not adequately learn the human resource policies at their organizations, their rights, reporting mechanisms, and the laws in place to protect them. Whereas many employers provide sexual harassment training to full-time employees, particularly at the supervisory level (Smith, Reference Smith2017), teenage workers are often not invited nor are they the focus of such training. In turn, when confronted with difficult situations at work, especially if they involve an adult supervisor, adult coworker, or another teenager, some teenagers may not report incidents to organizational representatives, so the harassment continues. They may be too scared, embarrassed, or in need of a paycheck to speak up (Gunderson, Reference Gunderson2014). They may also not want to make unsettling accusations that might jeopardize their future employment prospects. Some researchers believe this problem has worsened due to social media, given that a sexually hostile work environment can arise via texting, emailing, or chatting online (Greenwald, Reference Greenwald2011). One report noted that teenagers were “texted late in the evenings by their supervisor, with subtle or not so subtle overtures,” proving that cell phones and other communication devices have played a role in workplace sexual harassment (Tahmincioglu, Reference Tahmincioglu2010).

Additionally, the power imbalance and age difference between adult supervisors or coworkers and teenage workers is exacerbated in comparison to that between adult supervisors and adult workers. Teenagers may view their adult supervisors and adult coworkers as authority figures or as role models for whom compliance and obedience is expected (Drobac, Reference Drobac2007). In one sexual harassment case, the court noted that a teenager’s susceptibility to coercion by an adult role model inherently contains the elements of “quid pro quo” activity, which, under the current Title VII standards, invokes strict liability (Bolon v. Rolla Public Schools, Reference Bolon1996). In another case, it was noted that although a state has limited power to interfere with the private relationships of consenting adults, the same is not true when one of the individuals involved in the relationship is a minor (State v. Holm, Reference State2006).

Alternatively, sometimes teenagers are charged with supervising other teenagers, and this can be particularly troublesome given the widespread frequency of peer-on-peer sexual harassment (American Association of University Women, 2001), which is considered to be an extension of adolescent bullying (Stein, Reference Stein1995). Research on peer-on-peer sexual harassment has shown that women more often than men report being the focus of sexual comments, jokes, or rumors; being leered or stared at for prolonged periods of time; being touched, grabbed, pinched, or brushed up against in a sexual manner; having clothing pulled in a sexual way; having been blocked or cornered in a sexual way; and more (Gruber & Fineran, Reference Gruber and Fineran2016; Walsh, Duffy, & Gallagher-Duffy, Reference Walsh, Duffy and Gallagher-Duffy2007). Men tend to experience vulgar and homophobic comments (McMaster, Connolly, Pepler, & Craig, Reference McMaster, Connolly, Pepler and Craig2002). Evidence suggests that the levels of sexual harassment in schools has continued through to universities and workplaces. Considering both the prevalence of peer sexual harassment, and the openness with which it is displayed, employers should take steps to diminish the possibility that “school culture” spills into the organization culture. In other words, employers cannot dismiss the harassment as a regular feature of adolescent social-sexual behaviors and allow it to continue given the considerable negative psychological and physical consequences on victims (Terrance, Logan, & Peters, Reference Terrance, Logan and Peters2004).

Psychological and physical effects of teenage sexual harassment

Although the effects of workplace sexual harassment on mental and physical health have been well documented for adult victims, little attention has been given to adolescent victims. Research on sexual harassment among teenagers has focused primarily on experiences that occur in schools, which has shown that victims no longer enjoyed their usual activities; had nightmares; felt sad, nervous, and isolated from friends and family; and experienced changes in eating and sleeping habits (American Association of University Women, 1993, 2001; Hand & Sanchez, Reference Hand and Sanchez2000). Students also reported school performance difficulties including absenteeism, decreased quality of schoolwork, skipping or dropping classes, lower grades, loss of friends, tardiness, and truancy (Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, 1995).

One study that did focus on working teenagers found that early career harassment can have long-lasting repercussions, including early signs of depression, low self-confidence, a sense of feeling responsible, body image disorders, and suicidal thoughts or tendencies, as well as physical distress even 10 years later (Houle, Staff, Mortimer, Uggen, & Blackstone, Reference Houle, Staff, Mortimer, Uggen and Blackstone2011). Another study found that teenage girls experienced a comparable level of harassment working part-time as their adult counterparts who worked full-time, despite a shorter tenure in the workplace (Fineran & Gruber, Reference Fineran and Gruber2009). This research revealed that teenage girls who were sexually harassed were less satisfied with their jobs and supervisors, experienced more work stress, had higher levels of academic withdrawal, and were more apt to miss school than their nonharassed peers.

Organizational actions

Given the above research, it appears that the very lessons that adolescent employment is supposed to promote, such as responsibility, punctuality, and skill development (Moskowitz, Reference Moskowitz2000), may be negated by the experience of sexual harassment at work. Hence, employers must become better prepared to design training geared toward teenage workers to promote transfer, and also to evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts. It appears that often training provides the same information in the same formats to participants regardless of age, developmental level, job task, or gender (Zierold, Welsh, & McGeeney, Reference Zierold, Welsh and McGeeney2012).

We suggest that trainers examine the vast literature that generally supports the idea that teaching adults should be approached in a different way than teaching teenagers, sometimes referred to as preadults. By contrasting “andragogical” or learner-centered methods with “pedagogical” or teacher-centered methods, Knowles (Reference Knowles1984) argues that adults differ from pre-adults in a number of important ways that affect learning and, consequently, how they approach learning (Imel, Reference Imel1989). Some of the tenets of his model are that adults, unlike preadults, tend to be self-directing, have a rich reservoir of experience that can serve as a resource for learning, and display a readiness to learn that is frequently affected by their need to know or do something which is driven by life-, task-, or problem-centered orientations to learning as contrasted to a subject-matter orientation. Given this, perhaps organizations should provide mandatory sexual harassment training to teenagers that is customized to their shorter attention spans and limited work experience, as well as their greater desire for technological components of training.

When it comes to transfer of training, teenagers have noted that interaction and repetition are key (Zierold et al., Reference Zierold, Welsh and McGeeney2012). Hence, trainers may consider presenting information to teenagers more frequently and in more creative formats such as via interactive videos, blogs, online quizzes, role-playing scenarios, and other engaging activities. The Youth@Work site and the U.S. Department of Labor provide some training materials for teenagers that could be customized for workplaces (i.e., bingo cards, game boards, flashcards, vignettes, worksheets). Besides recasting our thinking in terms of how to best train teens on sexual harassment, there should also be an increased emphasis placed on socialization during the onboarding process, such that teens are provided with opportunities to locate coworkers with whom they can develop a trusting friendship. Assigning a mentor to teens may also assist them in feeling comfortable when discussing issues with which they are confronted.

The goal of teen-focused training should be to educate them on how to conduct themselves on the job. This information is important not only for teens who may become victims but also for teens who may be susceptible to becoming workplace harassers. The training should teach teens how to recognize and address uncomfortable workplace situations and to make sure they understand their rights, as well as how to report incidents and file a complaint within the organization. It should also cover prevention of harassment by teens, by illustrating how informal joking and horseplay that teens engage in with friends could constitute harassment in the workplace. Organizations might consider embracing new technology and develop a smartphone application to report sexual harassment in an effort to combat the problem. The app might use text messaging to contact human resources and use GPS to locate the person reporting. Company newsletters, bulletin boards, and websites are other ways to distribute critical information. Employers may also consider allowing parents or guardians to attend such training in order to become aware of how employees are treated and understand how to help a teen file a complaint.

Finally, it may be beneficial to provide training on workplace sexual harassment, employment rights, and the equal employment opportunity (EEO) process in high schools (see de Lijister, Felten, Kok, & Kocken, Reference de Lijister, Felten, Kok and Kocken2016). This can help reach teenage workers whose employers do not provide adequate training or whose employers are too small to be covered under Title VII, as well as freelance teenage workers. Although the latter types of workers do not have protection under Title VII, they may have protections under criminal law, which should also be addressed in the training. Research has shown that students’ sexual harassment behavior has been reduced through peer education and school theater-based programs (Wolfe et al., Reference Wolfe, Crooks, Jaffe, Chiodo, Hughes, Ellis, Stitt and Donner2009), so these types of dedicated lessons could be explored for teaching about workplace sexual harassment.