Legal Question in Discrimination Law in Florida

I am a store manager for an airport retailer and in the month and a half that I've been here my regional manager has displayed not only acts of blatant sexism but also sexual harassasment and what I would consider to be indirect threats and I'm wondering if there is anything I can do about it. The Regional manager is a family friend of the president of the company so I am concerned about retaliation.

example one: I am an out lesbian and he made the comment to one of my staff members that I don't look like much of a lesbian. My sexuality should never be a topic of conversation if I am not present.

example two: While on the phone with his Inianapolis store who had only made $9.99 the previous day he told the male manager he was on the phone with "Tell her (the girl who had been working in the store the previous day) that she needs to put on some tight jeans or something. Whatever it takes to sell more than a $9.99 neck pillow." We were alone in the store together and I figured I could just brush it off as a joke and that he would be gone soon so I wouldn't have to hear anything more like this.

example three: He regularly calls the women in Home Office dumb or stupid in conversation.

example four: My keyholder, himself and I were all behind the counter and he accidentally grazed my backside with his hand. when he realized he immediately apologized but followed it up with "It's because you have that J.Lo booty." He said this in front of myself and the keyholder. I did not respond at all.

Example five: He told me a personal story about his online dating history and how irritated he was with a woman who he drove all the way to Michigan to see and she wouldn't even come up to his hotel room afterwards.

Example six: I was recently reprimanded harshly for ccing the president of the company on an email to David where I cought him lying (the president directly told me when I met him that if something was ever not getting done or not getting done right to cc him on an email.) and he immediately called me and yelled at me "If you ever email my boss about something we talked about ever again we're going to have a problem!" I reminded him of what the president had told me and left it at that. I have since sent an email to HR exclusively about this situation but not about the sexist and sexual harassing situations. I should hear back tomorrow. Should I also inform her about the sexist and sexual harrassing situations? I don't want to lose my job over this. Also I have heard that there is a law requiring male supervisors to have a female of equal or greater position present when reprimanding a female employee. Is this true?

I am the only female manager the company has. There was one woman prior to me in Indianapolis and I took the place of a woman who had been here for a month and went back to her old company after being harshly reprimanded by the vice president for something that turned out was not her fault. David commented that the woman in Indianapolis didn't work out because she made the uniform too skanky by always having her shirt unbuttoned and hitting on pilots and other men who came in with their wives. It is my feeling that he simply does not know how to treat women in the workplace.

The company is based out of California and follows a lot of California laws here as well.

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Other Discrimination Law (Age, Race, Sex, Gender) questions and answers in Florida

Looking for something else?