441–450 of 622 posts
What people say and what people do are two different things, that and it could open you up to further legal issues. Talk to a lawyer, then talk to him (preferably with the lawyer).
I agree with Patrick: you should terminate the employee, immediately. Try to understand how lucky you just got here. Here's a simple tweak to the story you told that creates a nightmare scenario: the person who reported this to you, who was called a "milf" by the bizdev guy, was on a PIP. I disagree with Patrick on the mechanics, subject to one condition: If, like a sane person, you consulted a lawyer before you bega…
Can you translate to human why " the person who reported this to you, who was called a "milf" by the bizdev guy, was on a PIP." is a nightmare scenario. If she is on a PIP (just checked out what that means), she is on a final warning basically?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you go to the police?! This is an employment matter, not a criminal matter. And she needs to tell the boss, because she wants to head off retaliation in the workplace. I get tired of hearing these excuses about age, background, I didn't know what the word meant, in my old workplace I got to harass ladies all the time and it was fine. Just act like a professional. I'd even give the guy a pass if he said, "Lo…
> Why would you go to the police?! This is an employment matter, not a criminal matter. When you call it sexual harassment it's criminal. Otherwise you're basically saying that sexual harassment is not a crime. With regards to going to the boss, I'm perplexed with the role of the boss and the company in an interaction between two adults. Maybe that's a cultural issue, but I think it's the court's job to decide if an…
No. Sexual harassment is not always a criminal offence.
> With regards to going to the boss, I'm perplexed with the role of the boss and the company in an interaction between two adults.
Those two adults met at work, and this meeting was a work related meeting - she had said that. The employer has a duty of care to the employees, so that's why its gone to the boss.
> Maybe that's a cultural issue, but I think it's the court's job to decide if an action was a sexual harassment or not
If the boss doesn't do anything it might go to court. Or if the boss does something like fire the man, and he disagrees, it might go to court.
> neither a lawyers (If lawyers were to decide on cases, oh dear god...).
Well, if it goes to court everyone is going to have lawyers, right?
From your critical incident report here there was no inappropriate physical contact or attempted coercion between these two people. Make sure that's correct. If your senior HR person or some other executive of your company is experienced with this (meaning: has done it before) have her/him conduct an investigation. If you don't have experience in house get your lawyer to do the investigation. Get it done; don't let it sit.
Base your decision about disciplining or terminating the guy with bad boundaries on the results of the investigation. Ask your investigator how to confront him, and follow that advice. As hard as it is to imagine right how, anti-harrassment discipline is a dish best served cold, not hot. It's also best served promptly.
You need to do the anti-harassment seminar. You need to let your whole team know this kind of stuff is not condoned or ignored in your company, because it's not who you are. Your lawyer's office can probably provide the seminar. (Our lawyers did a great job with our seminar.)
You need to establish a policy about harassment if you don't already have one. There are plenty of good template policies around. If you work with a payroll service they probably have one you can use. And you need to require all your people to take the seminar. It should be part of your onboarding process.
If you sack this guy don't worry about a wrongful termination suit. Do what's right for your business. You'll have the investigation paperwork, and the state commission on such matters will very likely look at it and say "case closed," if the guy bothers to go after you.
Also don't worry about people in your company worrying about who's going to get whacked next. Just make it clear that respect, civilized behavior, and good interpersonal boundaries are a vital part of your company culture. You could even go so far as to say "no aholes."
Good luck. But you won't need luck. You'll just need the strength to get through it, which you have.
The information we are presented with is minimal. This is perfectly understandable but it means that no one in this thread has anything like enough detail or context to make any judgement on firing someone.
What if the man was simply making a pass at someone he liked but unfortunately was clumsy and inept at doing so? Should it never be possible for a man to ask a woman from work out on a date? What if the woman has a reputation of being a social justice warrior that hates men and loves any excuse to complain about any perceived slight. We have no idea on the ages or marital statuses of the two people. What if he is a married middle aged man with three kids and she is a young intern? That makes it sound a lot more creepy. What if they are both single and the same age and seem to have the same hobbies? Does that change things a little? You cannot judge this scenario based on a couple of sentences from the OP.
My point is not to defend him, I have no idea if he is a predatory creep or a good guy that made a simple mistake. But then neither does anyone else here. Get a lawyer so you can follow a sensible policy of sitting down with the accused and ask about his side of the story. Depending on the response determines your next action.
I agree with Patrick: you should terminate the employee, immediately. Try to understand how lucky you just got here. Here's a simple tweak to the story you told that creates a nightmare scenario: the person who reported this to you, who was called a "milf" by the bizdev guy, was on a PIP. I disagree with Patrick on the mechanics, subject to one condition: If, like a sane person, you consulted a lawyer before you bega…
Can you translate to human why " the person who reported this to you, who was called a "milf" by the bizdev guy, was on a PIP." is a nightmare scenario. If she is on a PIP (just checked out what that means), she is on a final warning basically?