No surprise here, a large number of really bad boss stories in 2009 were directly related to bosses who either took advantage of the boss/employee dynamic for sexual favors or turned a blind eye to workers who did. Here are a few of the most memorable…
Bad Medicine
You’re the director of a major hospital in Queens, NY and over an 8 year period you recieve numerous written and verbal complaints about one of your doctors. You ignore the complaints and allow the doctor to continue working at the hospital. That decision could cost the hospital $15 million. Actually, $7.5 million. A Queens, NY jury found both the doctor and the hospital equally liable. The nurse who brought the suit, Janet Blanco, says she suffered sexual torment at the hands of Dr. Matthew Miller for over 8 years. Read the rest of this entry
No quiero Taco Bell
Another fast food manager gets out of pocket and Taco Bell now has to pay $35
0,000 to two female employees as a result of an EEOC lawsuit. In another case of sexual predator parading as management, really bad boss Terence E. Davis, a former Taco Bell manager, was accused of sexually assaulting a 16 year old female employee on her first day of work. When she left to go home following the assault, he even followed her. During their investigation, the EEOC also uncovered evidence that Davis had raped another 16 year old employee just five months earlier. Davis plead guilty to raping both women and is serving two concurrent eight year sentences. The EEOC tried to reach a voluntary settlement with the Irvine, California based Taco Bell Corporation, but was unsuccessful. In addition to the $350,000 payout, Taco Bell must maintain a written policy against sexual harassment and will distribute the policy to all employees. Read the whole story here.
Have your way at Burger King
Not to be outdone by the Taco Bell manager, a Clemmons, North Carolina Burger King Manager upped the ante. Kathleen Joyner, a teenaged employee at the fast food restaurant, sued Burger King after she was repeatedly propositioned for sex by her General Manager. When she reported the sexual harassment to assistant managers, they did nothing. Now Burger King Inc. will have to fork over $85,000 for damages and provide sexual harassment training to its supervisors.
Regardless of where you work, if you’ve reached the level of General Manager, I’m pretty certain you ’ve rubbed up against at least one sexual harassment policy along the way. The truth is, men and women who stalk their employees like prey usually know exactly what the company’s sexual harassment policies are. They simply choose to ignore them.
Former Israeli Prime Minister charged with rape
This story was in the news non-stop a couple of years ago, but now Israel’s ex-president, Moshe
Katsav, has been formally charged with several counts of rape, sexual harassment and indecent acts. The 63 year old father of 5 was forced to step down from office in 2007 after accepting a controversial plea agreement that would have had him facing lesser charges. Katsav was instead accused of sexually harassing two women and performing indecent acts, but later withdrew from the agreement.
Katsav’s former secretary accused him of raping her when she worked for him in the late 1990’s. He denies all charges and says he’s the victim of a “lynching.” If convicted of rape, he could face up to 16 years in jail. Read the full story here.
David Letterman and his worldwide pants…
When David Letterman revealed he’d been the target of a $2 million blackmail scheme carried out by a CBS 48 Hours producer, not everyone was shocked. But it did raise the question about the “consensual” nature of boss/employee relationships in the workplace. Here’s how we saw it then…
Let’s be clear here, the criminal in this story is the CBS 48 Hours producer who attempted to blackmail Letterman. Let’s also understand though that Letterman’s a married man with a 6 year old child who’d been in a relationship with his now wife for over 20 years. Infidelity is old news, and frankly, Letterman’s cheating comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone. The big story here (aside from the cloak and dagger blackmail plot) is Letterman having sex with his employees. Read the rest here.
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