by Joseph Wardy

Created on: October 05, 2009   Last Updated: October 06, 2009

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a microcosm of the extremism that exists in our society. When I graduated college in 1972, men took advantage by sexually harassing women to fulfill their libido needs proving in some cases the ego and testosterone renders a man slave to his penis. They got away with this behavior...dead wrong.

A change that was fair was required but fairness is not part of the equation. The law changed that required the employer to conduct an investigation when a woman filed charges for sexual harassment. Here's an example of the current extremism: A man compliments a woman by stating " nice dress" and now can be accused of sexual harassment. This extremism is dead wrong again.

There are examples of men wrongfully charged with sexual harassment and their careers ruined by the accusation regardless of the outcome. Please allow me to be specific: I was wrongfully accused of sexual harassment. Here is a brief review of what occurred:

After retiring from public school teaching in 2004, I was offered a position at a four college as an Associate Professor of Management. After completing my first year successfully, I taught a five hour once a week management course to Nurses who were adults in the workplace and ranging in age from maybe 30 to 60. One of the woman in the course earned an "F" and she was appalled.

She challenged her grade and lost her appeal. At this point, I felt justice was served. However, I was then accused of sexual harassment by three of her classmates and asked to resign with one month's severance.

When I rejected the Dean's plea, the college was forced to conduct an outside investigation in September of 2006. I taught the semester in isolation as the faculty and students looked at me as guilty until proven innocent as the process here works the opposite. During the week of Thanksgiving, the Dean offered me a full year's salary if I agreed not to go to court.

My attorney wanted me to proceed. As a Zen practitioner and a believer of living in the now, I refused the possibility of suing for additional money for the the liberation of "letting it go". Almost four years later I have never looked back and regretted it.

In my case, there was no career at stake as I was already retired and comfortable financially. What if , however, I was a 40 year old professor building on an academic career? What happened to me is a microcosm of what is happening to men in the workplace. Two wrongs again don't make a right! Here, the price of integrity was a loss of a job!

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