TOO much sleeping around

lorrie

Our night shift is mainly males in their 20s. Of the 30 night shift employees, 4 are females. Female #1 had a baby with a married co-worker (whose wife also had a baby around the same time.) The male eventually quit work here and stayed with his wife. This female employee is rumored to have slept with several of her co-workers and at Christmas became engaged to one. Shortly after that she slept with another one and the guy she was engaged to is now in legal trouble for going after (harassing) the guy she slept with.

Female #2 dated, and had a baby with, a co-worker. They have been together off & on, since he has been sleeping with Female #3. (Female #4 is not a problem. She is living with a former co-worker who is 38 years her junior- but I don't think she sleeps around.)

Our night shift manager does a nice job of keeping the actual problems out of the workplace, and if you can believe it - the girls work around each other pretty peacefully. They are all well aware that any problems at work will result in termination.

My question: What, if any, is the company's liability for problems? (Is it a stretch to be concerned about legal liability if we are made aware of the antics, but do nothing to try & stop it?) After the recent legal trouble of the engaged guy, I am considering a morality type rule about unmarried employees sleeping together. I realize this is not really a good option for LOTS of obvious reasons, but I would like to find a way to 'change the culture' of the shift so these type of things are not so acceptable.

Anyone have any ideas?

POPEYE

Call the Fox Network executives and see if they will come out and begin filming a new series. Sounds like it would rival anything on the screen right now. How about calling it "Desparate Night Shift Workers"?

safety

Maybe add condoms to your list of required PPE.

Balloonman1

Actually if they can show the babies were conceived during working hours workers' comp might be responsible for the birthing costs. It would technically be a work related baby. YOu can only hope that you never find two of them going at it..........has been know to cause blindness when average people like HR folks see naked plant workers fornicating.
My $0.02 worth,
DJ The Balloonman

marc

DJ, how can you leave this type of entertainment? Surely your new job cannot be this exciting?

As a reply to the thread, unless you become aware of this activity between people who are in the direct reporting line, in my opinion, there is little you should do, or could do for that matter. Consenting adults do not have to be intelligent about their consenting relationships - just a few Springer episodes will convince anyone of that fact.

If you become aware that one of your EEs is threatening other EEs, you could get involved then with respect to workplace violence policies, but otherwise, you will not be successful trying to institute your sense of morality through policies and procedures, and I can imagine all sorts of big liability exposure even trying to go there.

Don D

Workers' Comp would apply only if he 'threw his back out' during the act and there is clear evidence they were on the clock, standing and perceived by others to be working.

Don D

Lorrie: I know you're going for the annual "Forum Fun Flipoff" award for 2005. You ain't foolin' me! Have you considered hiring a tack welder and stationing him at the plant door to arc weld zippers as workers enter the building?

Rockie

Not really anything you can do about it unless they are fornicating on the job or unless they start not being able to work "peacefully" together. That, in itself, is a major accomplishment.

We have had similiar issues in our medical environment (not on the job) - coworkers having babies with married coworkers, etc. Just not to this extent!

Whatever

>

>(Female #4 is not a problem. She is living with
>a former co-worker who is 38 years her junior-
I just found my latest idol.
xclap

szemcumo

How old are these two people?!

Don D

Hmmm. Let's see. If he's 30, she would be 68. If he's 21, she's coming up on 60. Who's cataloging all this stuff?

lorrie

I believe he was 24 when they became 'a couple.' If I did not know them I would think either he must be some strange piece of work or she must be some bombshell, but neither is true. I think he is a nice looking young man, and while I like her also, she is what you would expect of a woman in her early 60's who works the night shift in a warehouse. Seems strange to me but from what I hear they are happy together and both families approve. (I had a hard time believing the families would approve, but that is what I am told.)

At least I am not concerned about any fights with them. My concern is violence in the workplace when the scorned lovers can't hold back anymore.

Don D

Hold on now...I know a 63 year old woman who works nights in the Sam's warehouse. When she gets off, she works half a shift at Hooters. Quite a babe! I saw her in Victoria's Secrets a couple of times.

lorrie

She must be the exception to the image that would usually come to mind. I don't want to get myself in trouble here because I hope to be a woman in my 60's someday (20 years from now), but the simple fact is most young men do not lust after a woman that much older than themselves. Especially if there is no ulterior motive, such as money.

When you say you saw her in Victoria's Secret did you mean as a model in the catalog, or you actually saw her in the store as a customer? The meaning could be quite different.

TN HR

I hope it wasn't the "two ton momma" that parks her 26 year old Pontiac in the blue spaces in front of Victoria's Secret.

This, together with women in their 60's shopping for thong underwear and sexy thigh highs makes for some very disturbing thoughts.

Gene

Balloonman1

Thanks Gene,
I was eating lunch, now I am struggling to keep it down........
My $0.02 worth,
DJ THe Balloonman

HRinNH

You mean to tell me that there's an age limit for shoppers at VS? I better tell my mom.

mwild31

Okay, a couple of things. First, why mention the women (female #1, female #2, female #3, and get-it-while-you-can-sister, female #4) - why not, male and female co-worker A, etc.? Sure, the females are the ones getting preggers, but when I attended birds and bees classes in middle school, I believe the male has some part in the "action".

Second, you wanted to know how you could change the culture on the shift. Not, mind you because you are having problems with the performance of work, but because you don't like the "acceptance" of those "types of things" on the shift. So, how about this, why not fire them? No unions, right? No, contracts, right? We have talked many times on this forum of how an employer can discipline or let folks go if they don't like the clothes someone wears to work or if their haircut/style isn't in keeping with policies, etc. People having sex with each other isn't protected (no pun intended), so let the offenders go - equal opportunity of course. This way you clean house and only hire folks that hopefully won't follow suit (awkward to interview for though, :-? I wonder how to phrase the questions...) Unless you take this very drastic step, you will really be getting into headaches and wasting your time if you try to institute some sort of morality policy (very interesting by the way - who exactly determines what's moral?) and become the morality police. Keep your sexual harrassment policy, your violence in the workplace policies and if you have it, your Friends and Family policies & call it good.

Don D

HR in TN and Balloonman are on ice so thin it's almost invisible! If Ray had posted those comments he would be run out of Dodge.

But to answer your original question, which was: "My question: What, if any, is the company's liability for problems? (Is it a stretch to be concerned about legal liability if we are made aware of the antics", employers are in no way 'responsible for' the bedroom antics of employees.

If you think getting old is an unattractive visual image, just think of the only alternative.:-?

HRinNH

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-17-05 AT 04:39PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I do agree with you that the employer is not liable for the immoral antics of their employees off the clock and out of their plant.

lorrie

To be slightly more clear on the question: I know we are not liable for the bedroom antics (or I WOULD fire the whole lot and start over!), but what if one guy comes in and shoots another guy for sleeping with his girl, or worse yet - shoots up the whole place, and the innocent employees complain that the company did not do enough to diffuse the situation, since we were aware of all the antics.

Perhaps I got caught up in the wierdness of the whole situation and didn't focus on the actual concern. I should have just specified co-worker disagreements. It seems to me that as long as we do what we can to keep it out of work, just like any other co-worker disagreements, then that is all we can do. If we know that one employee is in legal trouble, although I don't know specifically what, for harassing another employee outside of work, do we have any responsibility to address it at work? It sounds like I am still best to just leave it alone unless, and until, it comes to work.

Thanks for all of your good advice (and continued laughs as well x:D )

System

Lorrie, your original post was fine. Your mention of males and females by number was clear. Using the term 'co-workers' may have been confusing. I'd like to meet this lady over 62.

Balloonman1

Still scratching my head over the 62 year old. Did she used to be a gymnist? A dancer?
My $0.02 worth,
DJ The Balloonman

lorrie

Sorry, I don't know much more about her, and I'm not about to ask. x:-8

safety

Maybe she has a good plastic surgeon, you know, like the Hollywood types.

System

Good point, Safety. Look at Cher. She's over 60. If I was rich, I'd be beautiful.

Whatever

If you were rich, you wouldn't have to be beautiful because you'd be rich. And, have you ever noticed that some of them that have had a lot of plastic surgery look sort of freakish (except of Michael Jackson who just looks freakish).

Don D

One of my goals is to someday sleep with a 62 year old woman. That means my wife and I will still be alive. If I don't reach my goal, I reckon I'm dead. Is this going over anyone's head?

System

I got it the first time through.

lhill

Let me speak for the over-60 females (I'm one myself). I cannot imagine being romantically interested in a man young enough to be my son. I've raised my kids, don't want to raise someone else's. I'd rather have an older man who has made his mark in life and knows more than "youngster" will ever know. (The only thing I have from VS is a terry cloth robe. Believe me, I look much better in it than some see-through nightie!)

Whatever

I agree. However, considering how society talks about men who date much younger women compared to how it talks about women who date much younger men, it's a joy to know that an older woman can be attractive to a much younger man.
(I've always wondered why the much younger man is called "Boy Toy" with no equivalent term for the younger woman).