Dear Jewish Fairy Godmother:

I am a guy who&'s lucky to work with a couple of hot women who dress
in a very provocative way. I guess the other day I was checking one
out, and later got called into HR and reprimanded for harassment! This
hardly seems fair. Ladies, if you want to be taken seriously as
professionals, you gotta dress that way, not like someone I’d see in a
bar on a Saturday night. Guys are only human. What do you think,
Jewish Fairy Godmother?

Likes to Look
Dear Likes to Look:
I think you’re lucky you weren’t fired. Some companies have a zero
tolerance policy. Depending on what you did and the company policies,
it could have been one strike and you are out.
I checked the date on your email to see if somehow it had slipped
through some cosmic time warp and was from the Mad Men era. But
no, it’s current. And while it’s hard to imagine that there’s still people
so ignorant of the laws and social issues related to sexual harassment
that they’d think that a colleague would be dressing to attract the
attention of someone stupid enough to ogle them, or that anyone in a
professional work setting would be dressing “provocatively,” you’ve
managed to prove me wrong. Sadly, you and others like you not only
exist but are exactly who the rules were written to protect women
from.
Here’s life in the 21 st century: Women are free and independent
people. They have the right to dress for themselves without somehow
being perceived as fair game or the objects of your in appropriate
attention. While no one can control what goes on inside your head,
they can see what you do with your eyes and hear what you do with
your mouth. If you want to keep your job you’re going to have to
change pretty fast. Here’s some handy tips I hope that the HR Director
conveyed to you. Stay polite and respectful in your words and your
attentions. Do not ask about people’s personal lives. Trust me, what
you will think will be subtle or casual will sound invasive and even
potentially threatening, doubly so after your warning. Do not leer,
ogle, or whistle. Do not think it is a joke if you choose to break the
rules. Do not joke with male colleagues about how the women are
dressing or acting. Finally, start working on your resume, because you
are likely to get much more scrutiny from folks and you don’t sound
smart enough to take good advice.