No Witnesses
System
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One of our employees went to her boss complaining about her male co-worker speaking innapropriately to her, referencing his sexual antics, inviting her and her friends to "get kinky" with him. Well last friday he went as far as to question her about oral sex and invite her to, er, well, you can probably gather what. She only came to her supervisor about this yesterday and they came to me immediately. Obviously this is beyond the pale (anyone know the origins of that phrase?)and I want to terminate immediately. The managers are with me but are concerned that there were no witnesses to any of the aforementioned. Her supervisor doesn't feel that she has any hidden agenda. I feel comfortable moving forward. What do you guys think?
Deez
Deez
Comments
Good luck.
Susan Fentin
Associate Editor, Massachusetts Employment Law Letter
[email]sfentin@skoler-abbott.com[/email]
(413) 737-4753
"He said, she said" sitations are very difficult to prove. What generally happens (but not always!) in these cases is that two people start kidding around
about stuff and the conversation eventually gets out of hand and degenerates into something that the "accuser" may did not intend to get into. The accused might have thought since the conversation had already been started, that it was okay to proceed with the "proposition" stage of the conversation. Is this acceptable in a workplace. No way!! But these are the types of things that happen.
I would do a full investigation and get the scoop on what the story was - how these conversations got started and who started them. I would emphasize to the accused that his comments were TOTALLY unacceptable in the workplace even if he felt the behavior was welcome. I would go back to the accuser and advise her that you had investigated this matter and had made it clear to the individual that this was unacceptable behavior and if it happened again, he would be terminated.
I would reiterate to both individuals the importance of keeping conversations on a professional note and stopping the conversation when it deviated from what is acceptable, normal interaction between individuals at work.
Unless the accused just simply said "I am a oversexed jerk preying on unsuspecting females on purpose and unprovoked",it is difficult to prove what really happened here.
>Unfortunately the alleged victim insists on remaining anonymous which further
>complicates the issue. What are our obligations in keeping her
>anonymous.
This brings up an interesting issue. How much input should the alleged victims have in the process? The answer is none. You should let her know immediately that once the ball starts rolling down hill it rolls on it's own accord. The process moves forward regardless of what the victim wants.
Company brought me on to do investigation. It was clear from the start that the company was very skeptical of the allegations, which were made by a terminated employee and her best friend (who also worked for the company and who quit after her friend was fired). The accused employee was one of the company's "golden boys." The accused employee denied everything. Sat across from me and showed me pictures of his wife and children. He seemed to be so genuinely saddened by the accusations. In retrospect, he was one hell of a performer.
I ended up calling a former employee, who had recently left the company on good terms. Asked her if I could talk to her about her former manager. There's a strange silence and then she says, "You want to talk about the slimeball? I'd love to talk about the slimeball." Apparently, on day one, "golden boy" pushed her up against a van, stuck his tongue in her mouth, etc., etc. She was bigger than him and slammed HIM into the van. She proceeded to tell him that she believed in second chances and that this was his but that if she ever, ever, heard that he had tried this with some other women, she would fry him.
On my recommendation, company ends up (grudgingly) firing the guy. Two weeks later, I get the most grateful telephone call. Turns out that "golden boy" got another job pretty quickly and, within two weeks, had been accused by three employees at the new company of sexual harassment...
Anyway, all of this is to say, as some others have, that a thorough investigation can sometimes ferret out information even in a classic he-said/she-said situation.
Good luck Deez!
I told her that we couldn't go forward without her cooperation. I decided to bite the bullet and told her that he had an idea that something was going on.
Well she agreed to go forward and we will be meeting with him today.
Ugh this is sticky and I can't shake the feeling that I am doing everything wrong. This is the third harassment allegation I have dealt with but all the others had witnesses etc.
Another thing that always chapped me, in a union situation, was that, right out of the chute, the union rep had to be included in sit down pieces of the investigation. That was always the source of leaks, but we cannot exclude the union representation, even in sensitive investigations like this.
All our supervisors and managers are trained to immediately inform me of any harassment complaints and they know I will investigate. Usually, more comes out of the woodwork than what appears on the surface.