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Articles Posted in Sexual Harassment

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File the “blue collar workplace” defense to a hostile work environment in the trash can

When defending against a woman’s sexual harassment claim, I’ve found that “she was asking for it” is generally a bad defense. So bad, in fact, that you may just want to whip out the old checkbook instead. Another crappy one, apparently, is trying to convince a judge that an industrial…

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HR-101: Did an NFL fan create a hostile work environment by throwing a sex toy on the field?

At halftime of my seven-year-old’s soccer game, I was perusing my slow weekend RSS feed. Of the seven Feedly items, one stood out: a “news” from Deadspin (NSFW) about a fan who hit the five yard line with a phallus toss (video is NSFW) during the third quarter of the National Football League…

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Blaming the victim is a bad way to respond to a sexual harassment complaint

Indeed, it cost a southern baptist church $25,000. According to this press release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the church is writing that check because: One of its kindergarten teachers complained that the pastor, who was also the school superintendent, had been sexually harassing her; Church officials informed…

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This, right here, is why a good workplace investigation is EVERYTHING!

You received a complaint of sexual harassment from a female employee against a male co-worker. So, you promptly investigate, during which you interview the complainant and the alleged harasser, and review documents. When the investigation ends, you conclude that the female complainant — not the male co-worker — was the sexual harasser. So, you promptly…

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This sad, sobering video is a reminder that your company still employs knuckledraggers #MoreThanMean

Most of you have either seen or heard about Mean Tweets from Jimmy Kimmel Live! That’s the segment where celebrities stand in front of the camera with smartphone in hand awkwardly reading the snippets of vitriol that Twitters users can spew about them in 140 characters or less. The celebrities have a…

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GUEST POST: Workplace lessons for employers from Ke$ha and Dr. Luke

We have an extra-special guest blogger today. It’s my mentee, Meaghan Londergan. (Sorry, folks, all of The Karate Kid images were copyright protected). Sadly, I no longer work with Meaghan. But, in her defense, there’s only so much Meyer that a young impressionable associate can take. Since then, Meaghan’s been…