Is that the guy runs a clothing company yet conducts meetings in the nude.

Not much of a recommendation for their products.  No wonder the place is in trouble.

How stupid does someone have be to attempt something like this?  Obviously, this company didn't have attorneys conducting sexual harassment seminars like the places I worked at.  It was so bad at one company I worked at in the 90's that the men quit talking to the women except for business purposes.

But like any well intended law, it can have unintended consequences.  In this particular, large, well-known company, one of the mid-level married executives started having a consentual affair with one of the women that worked for him.  Of course, this was stupid, but this 30-year old thought she'd fuck her way to the top while she still could.

My secretary was her best friend and she told me that this woman basically went after him because he was kind of a nerd with no social skills.  Then after all the employees had been trained by the company about sexual harassment, this woman had an epiphany and realized that the affair she started had actually been sexually harassment and she wanted the payday.

She went to HR and they said she didn't have enough evidence.  So she went out with her boss for another month and got "sexually harassed" some more in some of LA's best hotels and restaurants.  When she went back to HR with her additional proof, he got fired and she got two years salary.  She totally gamed the system and couldn't stop laughing- she was still laughing when she came over to say goodbye to my secretary.  It was only then that she admitted that she'd planned on leaving the company anyway and moving to Seattle, and this just meant she could take a couple years off before looking for a new job.

I'm sure it didn't take her long to find a new position where she could get "sexually harassed" again.

this case proves the economy of using an escort, even a high priced one.....

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/8979535/american-apparel-founder-hit-with-250-million-sexual-assault-claim/

Another anecdotal story about some fanciful harassment experience.

You really think HR would tell an employee "you don't have proof," and then have the employee return later with the same story, this time with "proof?" What proof did she have the second trip to HR that she didn't have the first time?

And what HR department responds to a claim of harassment with a statement of "no proof, go away?" Any reasonable HR department would have at least interviewed the guy, which would have clued him into what was happening. Even if HR then didn't find in her favor, no way the guy goes back to the same woman for more hanky-panky.

And why would HR fire the guy anyway? It's not illegal or unethical to have a relationship with an underling. The problem comes in if he stated or implied that her career would suffer if she didn't have the affair. If he's such a nerd, I doubt he would have made any statements like that. And if relationships between bosses and underlings are explicitly mentioned as being against company policy, would they really just fire the guy? Wouldn't they put him on probation, or an improvement plan? Or if they do fire people on a first offense, wouldn't they fire the woman also?

To many holes to believe this story. It's the usual BS told by people who hate sexual harassment and racial discrimination laws. These stories get told and repeated, to "prove" how unreasonable these laws are.

I didn't post every detail because I didn't want either me or the company to be identifiable.  It was actually much worse than I described- for example, the guy's pregnant wife also worked at the company and she divorced him when this became public. He also used company expense accounts to pay for his dalliances so the wife wouldn't be able to trace it.  By the time it was over, he got fired, his wife divorced him and got the house, and his "GF" took the money and ran.  And it couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.

And BTW, don't ever accuse me of being a liar again.  I don't post hearsay, rumors or bullshit.  I was on the executive committee of this Fortune 100 company and I knew all sides of the story. This was in the early 90's in a very PC company.  Since there was so little experience at that time with sexual harassment lawsuits, most companies overreacted with their response to even the possibility of a lawsuit.  If that doesn't match with your experience, too fucking bad, because that's the way it happened.

And for your information, I've owned two companies and I support the concept of sexual harassment policies in the workplace.  I've even terminated an employee because even after four warnings, he kept making inappropriate sexual comments around the women, including in my presence.  So don't lecture me about sexual harassment in the workplace.

-- Modified on 3/17/2011 1:07:20 AM

I'm a lawyer who defended employers from this type claim - and beleive me, more often that not (and unfortunately very hard to prove) there are very crafty attractive women who seduce executives or supervisors, and it seems like whenever the relationship ends, the harrasment claim soon follows, and most lcients have insurance, so the insurer usually wants to settle - and payouts of 1-2 year's salary are considered a "cheap" way to end the matter. And usually the end comes with a mutual confidentiality agreement, so nothing is publicized, and the woman is free to move on and do the same thing again. (but insurers are getting smart about this and now keep databases with names of plaintiffs so that they can spot a repeat plaintiff)  If reincarnation is true, I've often though how great it would be to come back as a sex knowledgable hot 22 year old woman - I'd just go from company to company seducing senior execs, filing claims (being sure to pick companies that used different insurers) and in 10 years makle enough to retire.  And after 10 years of making a retirement fortune, I'd snag a really top exec as a sugar daddy, let him pay for a nice apartment and F*** him 2-3 times a week, accompany him on out of town business trips, and get enough evidence to insure he kept it up for 20-30 years.  

I hate to sound cynical, but there are an unbelievable number of women out there who do just this, most cases known only to the lawyers, insurers and HR departments since between confidentiality laws and confidentiaility clauses in setltements, nobody invovled wants this type story getting out there.
That's why providers are so wonderful - its simply pay, play, and go.

Once she discovered the formula and saw how easy it was to get easy money.  I'm sure it was hard to resist since her career wasn't going anywhere.  I also think it's why my secretary was so disgusted with her, despite the fact they had been friends.

I always suspected one of the reasons she moved out of state immediately following the settlement was so she could start the process again.  We always assumes when a woman accuses a man of sexual misconduct that she's telling the truth.  But not everyone that claims rape was raped, and not everyone that claims harassment was harassed.  Some do it for revenge, while others are just opportunists.  Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell the difference, and these women use that to their advantage.