A New York sexual harassment case has demonstrated that an employer, and the offending manager, can lose a sexual harassment case without ever being found guilty of sexual harassment. How you wonder? Let me explain. The case The case involved a professor at Columbia University who claimed she was harassed and then denied tenure for …
Read moreHow to lose a harassment case without ever committing harassment
I happened to be in New York City this past Monday, April 30th. As I was sitting having dinner, by myself, I was watching the television as they discussed the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, proposed changes in sexual harassment law in the city. Already tough to begin with, where standards had been …
Read moreSexual Harassment has a major impact on NYC employers
In my reading, I have run across several blog posts that I think it would behoove you to read. These writers talk about topics that each HR professional should pay attention to, in order to be better prepared to deal with similar situations. Social media Despite the fact that social media use has been around …
Most of us have probably seen the quote “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment”, a quote attributed to numerous people. The important thing to realize is that it does not always have to be your bad judgment that you learn from, you can learn from the bad judgment of others. …
Read moreThree Monday morning HR lessons: Learning from the bad judgment of others
I had to chuckle a bit when I read this story on hugging being declared sexual harassment. After all the 9th Circuit is located on the West Coast, the land of “free love”, marijuana, hippie culture and a governor once known as Governor Moonbeam. Declaring hugging as wrong just goes against the image of the …
I wrote back in 2015 about the importance of having multiple ways for an employee to report sexual harassment. This was based on another post I had done in 2011. In 2015 I said: “…it is important to have multiple ways an employee can report harassment. With many companies this is reporting to HR. However, …
Read moreWho do you report harassment to if the harasser is the CEO?
In a great post on her blog, attorney Robin Shea talked about the new EEOC guidance on sexual harassment that was just released. You can find it here, and you should read it! You have until February 9th to let the EEOC know what you think about it. You need to read Robin’s blog post …
Read moreRegulations written for big companies make life difficult for small companies
Firing an employee because it is in her best interest is never a good reason to terminate someone involved in a sexual harassment situation. It leads to something called “retaliation” which makes the lawsuit even more complicated. Lawsuit filed The EEOC claims that a plastics packaging company fired a female employee when she complained about …
Just after yesterday’s blog post on What retaliation in the workplace may look like was published I received an announcement of an EEOC suit that confirms what I was talking about. Harassment and retaliation According to an announcement by the EEOC published on December 8th “Mayflower Seafood of Goldsboro, Inc., violated federal law by subjecting …
Over the history of mankind men have tried multiple ways to woo women. Obviously many have been successful, but some have not worked. In today’s modern workplace threatening a woman’s job is not a route to success. No hearts are won with blackmail. A recent case The EEOC just published a press release that tells …
Read moreJob blackmail is not the quickest way to a girl’s heart