Flying the Not So Friendly Skies – A New Kind of Sexual Harassment?

Consider this scenario – a male manager tells his female subordinate that he is requiring her to allow a third party to take nude pictures of her but if she prefers, she can instead elect to be groped by a total stranger.  This is part of her job and if she refuses she could be terminated or face other adverse action, e.g. discipline or demotion.  That manager should be fired immediately, you say?  How about this scenario: a male manager tells his female subordinate that he is requiring her to take a commercial airline flight to visit a customer.  That one happens every day and could hardly be objectionable, or could it?

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What Can Be Done About Workplace Violence?

Sad news from Connecticut yesterday as another workplace shooting claimed 9 lives.

I’m not going to suggest that it could have been prevented, and in fact I have my doubts that such incidents can be completely prevented in a free society such as ours. Moreover, it would be inappropriate to second guess the company involved based on news stories that may or may not be complete and accurate. Nevertheless, it is timely to consider what steps employers can take to minimize the risk of workplace violence.

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Alleged Harasser's Sexual Orientation Relevant in Same Sex Harassment Cases

There has been a lot of news coverage lately of Rep. Eric Massa’s resignation and apparently related allegations of harassment of male staffers. 

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Eleventh Circuit Rejects "Equal Opportunity Jerk" Defense

Every now and then, I encounter an argument in the context of a harassment claim that inappropriate comments were not directed toward the complaining party but were made for all to hear.  The argument goes that if the comments were offensive, they were offensive to all and therefore not actionable.  This is sometimes referred to as the “equal opportunity jerk” defense.  

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Tiger Woods

If you have turned on the television or radio, read a newspaper or looked at the internet in the past few days, you have probably heard about Tiger Woods’ car accident last Friday and the speculation about the circumstances surrounding the accident.  It is safe to assume that employees are discussing it and all the salacious speculation as well. 

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