Imperium Omni

Shonda works for a large private security firm, Imperium Omni, in the Chicago O’Hare
International Airport. Before working in this position, Shonda worked for a few years with
the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Once offered the job, Shonda was
excited about her new role as a guard in charge of screening vehicles and individuals on the
runway. However, on Shonda’s first day, she witnessed some incidents that were hard to
overlook.
After one of the senior guards trained her on the basics, he put her in charge of screening
people. “I’m just going to go manage the security booth for a while. I think you can handle
this.” However, when Shonda came to check in with the guard after her shift was over, she
was shocked to see from the outside that he was on a sexually explicit website. Shonda was
very conscientious and had read the employee handbook front to back, so she knew this was a
clear violation of company policy.
Nonetheless, she did not want to stir up trouble on her first day, especially with a senior
guard. She figured there must be some reason he was a senior employee. She thought, “It’s
probably just an isolated incident,” and decided to try to forget it. Unfortunately, this was
only the beginning. Her supervisor, Richard, started to make comments about her appearance,
and she noticed he would do the same thing to other women at Imperium. At first, she
thought maybe she was just overacting. After all, he was complimenting her. But then he
began to find excuses to do things that made her uncomfortable. Several times while she was
using the copier, he would approach her from behind and then push up against her. When she
would give him a disapproving look, he would simply smile and say, “Oh, my bad.” Then,
there was the time he and a group of guards were standing around laughing at a photo that
was supposed to be funny but was very explicit. They called her over and asked her what she
thought of it. When she said, “You all are disgusting,” they just burst out laughing. Shonda
now dreaded coming to work every day. Despite this feeling, Shonda continued to focus on
doing her job well. After two years of working tirelessly, although she was not noticed by
Richard, a manager at the airport recommended her to be promoted to a supervisor.
Shonda finally felt a sense of relief. Now that she was a supervisor, things would be different.
She was at the same level as Richard and above some of the other guards. She would not
have to deal with their demeaning comments. It was not long after she became a supervisor
that she would overhear the other supervisors making inappropriate comments about the
female guards’ appearance.

Shonda realized she had to do something, especially now that she was a supervisor. It was no
longer just about her; other women were also impacted. Although she did not necessarily
have proof, she figured there was strength in numbers. Shonda did what the employee
handbook says: She filed a formal complaint. She kept waiting for the other supervisors to
give her a hard time about it. But months went by, and no one followed up with her. It was as
if she had never filed the complaint.
At this point, Shonda started to wonder what she was doing wrong. She decided to do some
more research because she had no formal training or education in management, much less
experience teaching or training anyone. After reading The Essential HR Handbook, she
decided to rethink her strategy. She had been trying so hard to change Richard and the other
supervisors’ behavior, but with little success. Shonda realized she had been looking at it all
wrong. She needed to change the culture from the beginning. When someone was needed to
train the new guards, she jumped at the opportunity.
Shonda believed she could train the guards to focus on the critical work the guards were there
to do. She could teach the female guards to speak up and report sexual harassment. Initially,
Shonda felt like she was doing just that. During the training sessions for new guards, she saw
that the guards were motivated to do the work, and they found the training valuable. For
Shonda, the goal of the training was to make it clear that this was a sexual harassment–free
environment, and there were specific rules about how employees should act in the workplace.
She also held refresher classes for the existing guards during which she reviewed the
protocols for reporting issues of harassment. She would remind them that she was a support
person—if they did not feel comfortable reporting incidents, she could do so on their behalf.
One day when Shonda was teaching a refresher class, a guard shared that she overheard a few
guards making inappropriate comments about another guard. Shonda immediately takes
action by reporting the incidents and reminds the class, “You all should continue to share any
incidents like this with me. That’s what I’m here for, and you can trust that I will tell
management so that there are consequences for this behavior.” At the end of another training
session, a woman guard privately shares with Shonda that she was sexually assaulted by a co-
worker outside of work. With Shonda’s encouragement, the woman decided to report the
incident. Over the next few months, Shonda continues to report incidents of harassment to
HR. With time, the sheer number of complaints became hard to ignore. This was evident
when Richard and another supervisor were finally suspended. Although it had been a long
and slow process, Shonda felt a sense of relief that individuals were being held accountable
for their actions and she hoped that the work she was doing would help to reduce the number
of harassment incidents at Imperium.
Questions
1. In what ways did Shonda leverage power and influence tactics to combat the toxic culture
of workplace harassment at Imperium Omni? Were there any other tactics she could have
used, and would they have been effective? Why or why not?
2. In this case, there was a sexual harassment policy in place, Shonda was persistent in
reporting these incidents, and she was even promoted. What allowed workplace harassment
to continue without consequence?
3. How do you think the company should handle these reports of workplace harassment?
What strategy would be most effective in preventing future instances of harassment from
happening?