We will provide two different situations where the employee was forced to resign instead of being

terminated for sexual incidents inside office premises and subordinate sexual harassment.
First incident:
This happened in one of the organizations where a Manager was accused for sexual harassment by a
female co-worker in the same project. The accused was sending inappropriate messages/videos to his
co-worker. The co-worker first approached the Manager and shared her unhappiness about the
messages and politely requested not to send any such messages in future. Unperturbed, the Manager
continued sending inappropriate messages and finally the co-worker approached HR and complained
about the issue. Because the Manager was a good performer and had support of the senior management,
no immediate action was taken against him and an excuse of inquiry into the issue was given even after
the proof was displayed. Even after no action was taken against the Manager for couple of days,
disappointed, the female co-worker then narrated the incident to her family, to which her family came and
complained to the HR again. Because the Girl's father was an influential person, HR was forced to take
immediate action. As per the company policy, in such cases, the employee need to be immediately
terminated on the behavioral issue, stating the reason for the sacking on the termination in the service
and character letter by the HR. Instead of sacking the Manager on behavioral issue, he was asked to file
his resignation without facing any further consequences for his act.
There could have been two possible ways this case could have been handled by the HR. First, as per the
company policy and looking at the gravity of the crime, the Manager should have been terminated
immediately citing the behavioral issue in his service letter and character certificate. This would have set
an example for all employees working in the company and set the example that sexual harassment cases
are always strictly dealt with irrespective of the designation and position. Second option which actually
happened was looking at the Manager's career at stake and his family and kids. HR asked the Manager
to file his resignation and gave him the relieving letter without citing anything about his behavior in the
organization.

Second Incident:
Sexual Acts within office premises are strictly prohibited in multinational companies. Based on the code of
ethics and conduct, the employees involved in sexual acts within the office premises should be terminated
on the basis of improper conduct.
This issue happened in a multinational company. Two employees of the same project used to engage in
sexual activity often within the premises of the workplace. The security personnel observed for a few days
and even talked to the guy to stop engaging in such behavior within the office premises. But when this did
not stop, one day, the security personnel locked the bathroom from the outside and called the head of
security and HR personnel. The employees were called the next day and asked to submit their
resignation. The employees were star performers of the company and even were due for their promotions
at that time but since the behavior was not acceptable, they had to submit the resignation. Their service
letter and behavioral certificate did not have any mention of the incident and they got jobs within a few
days in another multinational company. This incident definitely taught them a lesson and they have been
successful in the career.
In this case, we definitely think that the HR personnel did a good job of asking the employees to submit
the resignation instead of terminating them since the employees careers were at stake but they needed to
be taught a lesson.