To refuse to be a witness against colleague??

It isn't astonisthing at all.

What industry do you work in?

It's astonishing that any employer still does this.

All you need is a glass of bubbly when you arrive and half a bottle of wine per person with dinner.

Everything else should be a cash bar. Soon concentrates the mind and people drink much less.

It's wrong for employers ply their staff with so much alcohol. Especially as they are now legally obliged to prevent sexual harassment. In your shoes OP I would have been making exactly that point. Nobody needs that much to drink at a (work) party.

You’re a good egg @Pukkajones

You know the company, you know the people and you applied good realistic logic.

Says it all really, your manager with his own history of overdoing it, video calling you about it. Isn’t that hypocrisy at its finest.

I've been sexually assaulted by women and let me tell you, I felt threatened. I've had a male family member assaulted by their girlfriend and they were terrified.

First of all, it makes no difference whether or not the target was scared, it's incredibly inappropriate behaviour in the workplace at best, and coupled with the alleged groping, a case of sexual assault at worst. She should feel mortified.

Minimisation and complacency around violence and inappropriate behaviour by women helps noone.

I'm not sure how refusing to be a witness would help Jenny. She will hopefully be admitting the flashing incident because if she doesn't, she will in effect be accusing her colleague of lying to get her into trouble, which would get him into trouble. It isn't snitching when a complaint has already been made and you've been asked for a statement. If you're a witness you can say that she did flash at her colleague but it was totally out of character.

Husbands work used to be like this until it was sold.

One Xmas party, someone actually pissed up the front of the bar, there were 3 fights, some puke and I lost track of who went home with who (all partners invited, all alcohol provided). The company owner encouraged shenanigans… poor HR 🤣🤣🤣

Noone ever reported feeling harassed or victimised or whatever. Everyone was forewarned… and the company owner ALWAYS kissed every female on the lips and was unavoidable 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️

The only time I remember it being an issue was when the company got barred from a venue from time to time. (Not a regular thing as 100s of employees and everyone had a room booked for them in case they needed it).

I wouldn’t worry OP.

Exactly op. Imagine if she mugged someone, robbed a bank, kidnapped a small child. All these things could have happened.

What is she were a man .

How would you feel if a male colleague drunkenly groped you at a Christmas party and then flashed someone else?

How would you feel if the people who witnessed it refused to make a statement about it? Downplayed it because he’s normally a nice guy.

Do whatever you would want the witnesses to do, had you been on the receiving end of it.

Would you say this about a woman, your DD, female partner or best friend telling you they experienced this? It’s sexual assault and no different when a woman does it

A drunk lairy woman is no threat anyone. Annoying yes.
This is not the oft quoted 'double standards' on here, it is common sense.

I'd be interested to know who had reported it as the men she flashed her bra at didn't.

If you didn't see anything, then why the fuss? There is nothing to deny having seen so your OP makes no sense.

Exactly

I used to work for a private company a bit like this, we all had to go to a huge boozy event, and you couldn't leave until the boss said you could. Many shenanigans ensued, people sat in laps, danced like idiots, swapped clothes, made embarassing declarations, left in pairs (and there was one threesome I knew of), etc. But that was all in the good old 90s. I have to admit a bra flash is failing to get me riled up.

However. Under sexual harassment laws, if someone says they felt harassed by the flashing, then that's how the company has to deal with it. They are also entitled to ask you what you witnessed, and you should comply with this as it's a reasonable request. What you tell them is up to you, but I'd just be brief, factual, and tell the truth - don't do anything that could backfire on you, it's not worth it (even if it is winding-up the mn crowd).

I mean…if someone grabbed my DH balls in a drunken moment of being paralytic at a works do I wouldn’t care. So long as he wasn’t encouraging it. In fact a couple of years ago a senior manager at my DH work asked DH to suck him off in the toilets! While I was outside 9 months pregnant talking to his wife! DH came out and told me and we both thought it was hilarious.

No, they really wouldn’t.

THIS!!!

Suggest you offer to provide a witness statement for all <list named colleagues you have seen behaving inapproppriately> or none.

A colleague was propositioned by a junior employee at a Christmas party a few years ago. She turned him down, he was known for being leery and inappropriate with the younger women in the office as well but (probably due to their age) none of them would report him. My colleague was not so young and had no qualms about reporting him. Unfortunately HR wouldn’t get rid but the incident did make him apply for other jobs and he left not long after.

Just because it is a woman in this incident doesn’t make the behaviour acceptable. Had she been out generally the police could well have arrested her for her behaviour.

So, keep your report factual but definitely provide your report.

Of course it is. A few posters here think anything that women do to men is fine... Such double standards ... 🙄

I would say I didn’t see anything incriminating. Yes was drunk. Yes drunk on dance floor. No never saw that. It won’t be repeated and she’s not a beast so Id act a bit dumb.

So many ’imagine it was the other way round!’ comments. If you need to use your imagination to conjure up something which didn’t happen, how is that any better than the ‘lying’ you’re accusing OP of?

I’m with the OP I might’ve seen Jan lift her top up to show a flash of bra but I’d have forgotten all about it.