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Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#81

Post by cybin »

I once worked at a company where my wife was the director of HR. Her boss the president of the company was being "serviced" my a girl in marketing. On day she didn't get a promotion. Then she sued for sexual harresment. The delema put my wife in the hospital. Ruined my marriage. Ruined the ceo's marriage. Ruined the company.

Fire them both! Make it very public that you will not tolerate your time being wasted by idiots. If two employes can't resolve their own issues without involving you then you don't need them.

If the innocent party was truly free of blame you can always hire them back.

Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#82

Post by masklinn »

beilabs wrote: post #5

Have you a sexual harassment policy? Did they agree to it when they took the job? Fire that person immediately, it's a clear breach. You need to show your employees that you will support them when something like this happens. This may not be the first time this has happened, might only be the first time that you have heard about it. You need to be proactive in creating a safe work environment and as the founder that…

> Have you a sexual harassment policy? Did they agree to it when they took the job?

The United States of America have a sexual harassment policy. They also have theft and murder policies. This isn't a matter of company policy, although covering up these things may be.

Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#83

Post by Someone1234 »

jdc0589 wrote: post #61
icebraining wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean?

it means that once it's been reported, it is extremely unwise to just "let it go". Now that the employer known that sexual harrasment took place, if they do nothing about it then they will be HUGELY liable if something worse happens later on (which seems likely, seeing as this guy did this as a relatively new hire). Additionally, you generally don't want ass-hats that do this kind of shit working for your company, wh…

> it means that once it's been reported, it is extremely unwise to just "let it go".

That isn't a quote from the person you replied to and that isn't what they said at all. Not even ballpark.

You seem to be replying to a strawman argument rather than the person you hit reply on.

Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#85

Post by wilsynet »

When an employee makes you aware of a possible occurrence of sexual harassment, your obligation as the employer is to investigate and take appropriate action.

Tell the employee that your company isn't one that believes this kind of behavior is acceptable, tell her you're going to talk to a lawyer, tell her you need to investigate this, and that she isn't causing trouble and you're glad she brought this to your attention.

Get an HR professional, lawyer or not, and deal with this immediately.

Let me assure you, when she said she doesn't want to cause trouble, she didn't mean she wanted you to do nothing. It means she wants you to do something, and she doesn't want to be blamed, she doesn't want the office to talk about it, and she wants you to own it.

If you do nothing, one day, if she (or someone else) ever decides to file a lawsuit for sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment against your company, you saying "but she told me she didn't want to cause any trouble" is not an excuse to sit idly by.

Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#86

Post by onion2k »

icebraining wrote: post #47
peteretep wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, that's not the employee's decision to make.

What do you mean?

While it's good to respect her wishes, the outcome of downplaying the problem could affect many more people. There's the cultural impact of leading people believing that sexual harassment isn't taken seriously, and the very real problem that leaving it alone could lead to it happening again which might result in a key employee leaving (or suing, or initiating criminal proceedings). At the very least there needs to be some sort of written warning to act as evidence that the business took it seriously.

Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#87

Post by lucb1e »

darkerside wrote: post #13

Not a lawyer. When the female employee says she doesn't want to cause trouble, it just means that, if you are going to do something about this situation, then you better own it. Make this a problem between you and the employee who acted inappropriately. i.e. if/when he demonstrates understandable reasons for acting the way he did, you don't turn this around on her.

Many people go "lawyer lawyer lawyer", making your first sentence ambiguous: I first read it as "don't get a lawyer" but reading it again a minute later (after different context) you could mean "I am not a lawyer". Which do you mean?

Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#88

Post by icebraining »

littletimmy wrote: post #45

When you say, referred to her as a milf, do you mean to her face? Or to someone else in a private conversation? If you take that out of the picture, then talking on Whatsapp, and asking to hang out, and telling a secret, do not constitute any sexual harassment. This is particularly true if we are talking about just one conversation after which the person did not persist. Should investigate that milf comment, however.…

I think people here are assuming that the other employee had a reason to go to the OP and show him the text, and that OP has a reason for being "really upset by th[e] guy's behaviour".

Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?

#90

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Just to play devil's advocate: how hard is it to spoof whatsapp/slack messages if one wanted to get someone fired?

If he denies that he sent the messages, or says he sent messages but the content has been altered where could the employer go then? "She's trying to get me sacked because ...". Where could you go from there to prove he committed an offense against propriety/policy?

Also, a perhaps more realistic issue is the move to WhatsApp could be seen as a move to personal interaction away from business interaction - if the employee alleged to have committed sexual harassment called her a milf once in a private conversation that was not a work context do they deserve to be fired?

Did he stop when asked, doesn't that mean it's not harassment? Still could be inappropriate and ultimate lead to firing but to me harassment is an ongoing series of incidents.

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