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CVA02 wrote:

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Jim WH wrote:

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Well, for what it is worth, senior navy and department people clearly felt that this woman's conditions were real enough.

If that is indeed the case, it indicates a patronizing attitude towards women and a complete disregard for government accountability. This is the sort of decision that leads to public ridicule, and rightly so.

Jim WH wrote:

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And rightly so too: pathologically depressed/anxious individual is a liability to their unit, and if there is a cure/solution that allows that person to work at full capacity again (i.e. not have to medically discharge them) then it's idiocy not to use it. And this doesn't even begin to consider the armed forces' moral obligation to look after it's people (i.e. would it be right for the navy to say "Right, well we're determined that you need dental work to stop problems from developing in five years time; but since your tour is up in three years, we're not going to pay for it. If you don't like it, then sod off."?).
But yeah emc, your average fan-boy (with the maturity of the average 11 year old) doesn't quite seem to grasp that psychological illness is very real.

There is a big difference between narcissism and medical necessity. If the suffering of the "pathologically depressed/anxious individual" has been caused by the harassment of male coworkers, the solution is entirely disciplinary: punish and fire the offenders. By you own admission, this sensational news report underlines a pattern of sexual harassment in the RAN. Individuals need to be held accountable.

Regardless of the cause of the psychological problems -- and harassment can cause quite serious psychological consequences -- the victim will still need treatment. In any case, if the harassment is endemic, it's probably also considered completely acceptable by significant portions of those who would be responsible for preventing it: the offenders wouldn't be subject to any real consequences for the very simple reason that they would not be considered guilty of anything.

Incidentally, I suggest you remove the scare quotes from "pathologically depressed/anxious individual;" they imply that the person's problem was not real. Depression is a matter of neuro-chemistry; it's not something that can be solved by a few random acts of punishment.

StevoJH wrote:

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skipper101 wrote:

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I might also point out that for the chain of command to deal with the situation it needs to be reported. Which quite often makes things worse especially on a warship. You can't escape these people and quite often the people responsible are the ones with the power to deal with it or are at least besties with the ones with power. The Reality is Junior sailors are rarly supervised by anyone higher than a leading seaman who are just kids themselves. Most petty officer's don't leave the mess unless they have to. and Chiefs are busy regulating there department. Kellics are the ones that run the show and are the only ones that can deal with these situations on the spot. and quite simply they have the mental maturity of a pistachio nut.

They were both Officers according to the article.

While I'm sure that RAN officers are likely to be older and ostensibly more mature, and almost certainly better educated than RAN ratings, pretty much all the comments from Skipper101 still apply. Quite a few twenty-something males don't have the maturity to to have their brains and manners override their gonads, regardless of their level of education. Indeed, I suspect that it may be even more difficult for women who are officers to report harassment, as the RAN's officer corps is probably small enough so that everybody knows everyone else. I wouldn't underestimate the tendency of "old-boy" networks to protect their own; it is, after all, part of the reason why such people as Aldrich Ames and Kim Philby were able to get away with some quite serious criminal activity.