521–530 of 622 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most employment agreements (in the US) absolutely do not have a probationary period of that kind. That would be quite unusual.
Yes; most employment agreements in the US are at-will so you can fire an employee at any time without cause no matter what your seniority :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
She's someone you're trying to manage out of the company. Maybe you were harsher on her performance metrics than you needed to be, because in the back of your head, getting rid of someone who complained about sexual harassment was easier than dealing with the problem. Presto: colorable sexual harassment and/or retaliation claim.
How does firing the accused harasser clear the path to PIP firing? It still looks just as much as retaliation for pushing another employee out.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its a shame to see how aggressively this is being down-voted. All you're saying is to take a step back and try to improve the behavior before firing the guy. Face to face dialogue, communication, etc etc is much more likely to prevent this in the future. Just firing him is kicking the can down the road to the next company.
Would you do the same for embezzlement? Jobs are jobs, not training programs. It's not wrong to expect someone to just be able to do their job without opening the company up to lawsuits. People are fired for incompetence of all kinds -- no one is guaranteed a job. And do you really want to spend an hour a week discussing with this guy that MILF isn't appropriate workplace language and then checking in with all the co…
> Jobs are jobs, not training programs.
As a manager, I'd say this couldn't be more false. Learning and development is a critical part of any job and if your manager isn't actively concerned with helping your L&D, look for a new one.
Also, if it were an "hour a week" he wouldn't last more than a very few weeks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. I see your point, but if you're an employee and you're sharing that "so and so texted me this ", what's the motivation behind that? She said she doesn't want to cause problems, but if it's something between two adults and not…
> I see your point, but if you're an employee and you're sharing that "so and so texted me this ", what's the motivation behind that? She said she doesn't want to cause problems, but if it's something between two adults and not involving work, I would imagine she would just not say anything, particularly to management. I think you're dangerously into all women are always resonable logic there. It's entirely possible,…
Uhh... seriously? I hope I'm misreading what you wrote here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I applaud you for this comment and how you handled your situation. Hopefully the man in your story also apologized to you. People are people and in a moment of idiocy can make stupid comments. Every single person has said something stupid at some point. It is how we handle things afterwards that matter.
No, he did not apologize. Nor did I expect him too. I expected him to treat me with respect, not kiss my ass, curry favor or fear me. I spent some time making sure he understood that I was not a threat to him, not out to get him and that I was also going to do all in my power to respect him. This is how I won his trust. He was a very good looking man in a female majority department. Eventually, he seemed to take a fe…
Could you explain what you mean by this phrase?
So, not during working hours, not using work-related tools, he send some inappropriate messages. It's not a big deal.
> these things aren't acceptable in the company we're building.
Sure. But this conversation did not happen in the company, not during work hours, and not using work tools. You were made privy of a very personal conversation happening between adults outside of work.
> The employee came to me in confidence
And you posted about it in great detail on Hacker News, making it a topic of water cooler conversation of about 80% of startups world-wide.
> she'll know and it will be a violation of the trust she placed in me
Exactly.
> So what do I do HN?
Preferably nothing at all. Don't make a big deal about what your employees do in their spare time.
> she shouldn't have to deal with it
She shouldn't have confided in you, because you can't seem to handle it. This dude is poison now. He may as well be fired. And your employee made it a business issue, which is a big thorny issue. You shouldn't have to deal with it, but now you do.
Good luck!
So, 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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
She explicitly brought it to the boys, which means it is impacting the work environment. You are responsible for the work environment of your employees, including for addressing known low-leveling issues before they become higher-level issues perhaps involving other employees from the ones involved in the earlier issues. Which is why you need to consult an employment lawyer and/or your internal HR expert.
"the boys"?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alas, you don't know what will happen until it does happen. It could be as simple as "Wow, Joe reported Bob for sexual harassment, but Bob didn't do anything wrong - I was there. Now I have to be extra-careful around Joe to avoid getting reported myself!" And there you go - Joe is now suffering from "retaliation" and being treated special for speaking up.
That is already happening in many professional contexts though - and without Joe ever having to speak up about anything. Male professors avoid being alone with female students. Male colleagues refuse to work with or to a lesser extent, refuse to be friendly on any sort of casual level with female colleagues entirely just because of the small risk that an accusation could cost them their job/career. This fear actively…