Huge Disservice To All Concerned

Women deserve equal treatment in the workplace. Equal respect. Equal consideration. Equal expectations. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

These basic tenets of American culture are at the core of evolving sexual harassment case law. And rightfully so.

But every so often a case appears that makes one ask if we’ve gone too far. Such a case showed up this week from Seattle.

Five female corrections officers have filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against King County, charging the county’s jail administration allowed the inmates to create a “sexually hostile work environment.”

The female guards allege administrators treat actions and comments directed at them differently than they treat the same actions and comments when directed at male guards. If it is true, it’s wrong and must be remedied.

But the incidents cited in their lawsuit and summarized in recent news coverage don’t point to a double standard - just a lax one.

The heart of the matter should be better work conditions for all guards, not just female ones. But this isn’t all the lawsuit is asking the court to impose.

It is also asking for unspecified monetary damages, and that undercuts the guards’ arguments. Trying to tap King County’s deep pockets for the “emotional distress” these guards have experienced - while working in a jail, for goodness sakes - is going to hurt this case and possibly throw roadblocks in front of other women who want to enter the same line of work.

Let’s face it: jail guards, both men and women, have a tough job, a job most of us would never want to undertake. The ones who choose - and we must never forget it is a choice - to perform this service are confronted each day with an unsavory segment of humanity.

That segment of society, by definition, is inclined to treat others badly; they wouldn’t be in jail if they weren’t. It is the guards who are assigned and paid to deal with these people. When the prisoners are obnoxious, the guards should respond with professional firmness and work with the administration, if necessary, to toughen punishment for inmate misconduct.

A jail always will be a hostile work environment at its very base. Perhaps it is one which could be improved - for all workers equally. But guards who complain and sue for damages when criminals act like criminals merely raise questions about whether they’re equal to the job.