Fire him, give no reason.
A dumbass like that can easily cause major problems down the line
Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
191–200 of 622 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#192I guess going forward, there should be clear employment policies that forbid this type of behavior so the soon to be departing employee can not state that he was unaware that this was not apprioriate behavior.
If you are not aware that sending crude sexual messages is not appropriate behavior you have nobody but yourself to blame.
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
"since no one will want to be the first one to make a move." It's a work environment, not a bar. No one should normally need to make a "first move" in this context. Sure, work romances do sometimes happen, but I don't think our population is in any danger if they do not.
That ignores the fact that you've hired human employees. Maybe chemical castration should be a part of the onboarding process these days?
Please stop.
Edit: Actually we've banned this account for trolling.
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#194Lawyer lawyer lawyer LAWYER lawyer LAWYER . I think the consensus in the grown-up business world is "fire immediately for cause." I would bet substantial money that when you lawyer lawyer lawyer they will advise you to do that and document the heck out of it. The calculus is really, really simple: if you don't, then you will with probability approaching one get this incident or a similar incident cited during a threa…
Really? If he's _just_ hired him, I presume any probationary period would be ongoing and you can let the guy go consequence free? Thus, the most obvious least path of resistance is just to let him go and not really give him cause. I'm not from the US, thus I'm genuinely asking the question.
With that said, aren't we potentially overreacting here? Quite a lot of romances spark in the office. The guys tried it on, he's been rubuked, hopefully he got the point and will settle down. If he doesn't, then I you do have a problem, but the reaction here seems to be like he's just ran over your dog.
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#195So, I am female. When working at a Fortune 500 company, I once emailed a colleague and copied our two bosses. I advised him to never speak that way to me again. It went to HR. I got interviewed. I assume he got interviewed. He was not fired. He never spoke that way to me again. I eventually reestablished trust with this man and we got on well. I suspect he got sensitivity training. I was not told what went down. It w…
Why will firing him worsen the problem? I would fire this guy immediately. > Men and women need to learn to interact at work. Men should not need sensitivity training to interact with women at work.
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Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#196I'm baffled by this thread. Yes it might not be appropriate and yes it might necessitate action, but fire him immediately when the "milf" handled it, ended it, and the situation was finished? He didn't push it further than his perception of her comfort level. Furthermore, the term "MILF" has transcended its literal meaning. It doesn't, at this stage in time, literally mean "I want to fuck you". It's a normal Pop Cult…
It absolutely is an aggressive, invasive term. It literally means he wants to fuck her. "Mom I Want to Fuck". That's the thing it means. And his 'i have a secret' junior high bullshit sort of cements that as his view.
Your perception of my comfort level means nothing. Maybe you shouldn't be in a situation where you have to worry about my comfort level?
>I can only guess that this occurred in the US; you all make it sound like a seriously stressful environment to be in.
So sexual harassment is only a US thing?
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#197Not 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.
This. If she didn't think it was an issue, she wouldn't have brought it to the OP's attention.
What she's really saying is: "I don't want to be embarrassed and it would make me feel guilty if he was punished because of me, so I don't want to advocate for a course of action"
But she is right to have brought it to the OP. Now he is obligated to take care of it discreetly and professionally.
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#198So, I am female. When working at a Fortune 500 company, I once emailed a colleague and copied our two bosses. I advised him to never speak that way to me again. It went to HR. I got interviewed. I assume he got interviewed. He was not fired. He never spoke that way to me again. I eventually reestablished trust with this man and we got on well. I suspect he got sensitivity training. I was not told what went down. It w…
Ding ding ding, first cogent, non-hysterical, mature comment on the page!
Edit: In the spirit of trying to actually add some worthwhile content in my comment: Harassment sucks, just like not knowing a core skill of one's job, sucks. But demanding perfection in either case is not a reasonable approach. When someone joins, and they don't meet expectations, you have to tell them they didn't meet expectations, show them the difference, let them know what the expectations are, tell or teach them what they need to know, and give them a chance to remedy it. You document this and all related conversations, in the presence of a third party if possible... usually and preferably an HR rep. If expectations are not met after this point, you are now fully able to eliminate the possibility something was inadvertent, accidental, or due to ignorance, and you have solid grounds for disciplinary action. Most times the employee will learn the lesson and it will never even reach this point.
When this woman requested a big deal not be made, she was talking about the type of panicky hyper-sensitivity on this comment thread. MY PRECIOUS GENITALS!!!!
Life is full of easy, simple snap-judgments when you haven't lived much of it yet.
Firing someone is costly, and in more than one way.
People can learn. Think of stuff you did ten years ago, that you cringe at now. You know better now. You learned.
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#199Have 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.
And yet, companies have sexual harassment policies that employees agree to - probably because the harassment is more prevalent than murder in the workplace.
By having them agree to the policy, it makes it easier to settle the dispute.
Re: Ask HN: How do I deal with the first sexual harassment complaint at my startup?
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Asking somebody out isn't sexual harassment. Insisting and making crude work-inappropriate remarks is harassment, and that's not just in the US: [76/207/EEC] Article 2 § 2 > harassment: where an unwanted conduct related to the sex of a person occurs with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment > sexual harass…
Though were "crude work-inappropriate remarks" the case here? We here know too little to really make educated statements.
milf