Picture This!!

[MadCow4now]

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

I am a manager in a branch office of a large corporation. A young lady who works as an assistant recently made a charge of harassasment against me. I am a photographer in a previous career and have maintained that as a vocation for about 25 years. I am known to sometimes have camera in my possession for a variety of occassions. I have taken pictures in the office, at company events such as luncheons, seminars, meetings, etc. During one day this young lady stated she had spilled coffee in her office cube and during her lunch time she went home and brought back a steam cleaning machine. Now although I thought this was unusual I let it go as 'quirky' and not problematic. I was taking some pictures of some coworkers later that day and spontaneously took a picture of her cleaning. She was down on the floor cleaning the walls of her office cube. The day passed without incident and I probably deleted this digital picture because I no longer have it. Two months later this young lady was written up for insubordination, charged by myself, for failure to perform a job task & inappropriate language to a manager. Others who witnessed this occurance were asked to write their observations down and each one of them agreed that she was out of line. When she was called in for the formal counseling session with her manager, myself and my manager she threatened us with' ..if you don't tear that up I will file a grievence against all of you..." and " ...you don't want to go toe to toe with me...". Now she is filing a complaint with our HR department stating that I 'took a picture of her ASS'. Although the decision of our HR department is days away a 'leak' of information has indicated that I will be punished for this picture. I find this very disturbing because there was no intent or malice on my part. The picture was never shown to any person, never printed, published or posted. It was deleted and does not exist. She was facing away from me at that time so even she did not directly witness this taking of the picture. Is a picture a 'picture' if it has never been seen? Am I at risk here?

 

[Beth3]

Credibilty is VERY much against this woman.

She raised the issue two months after the fact, she only raised it after she was properly disciplined by you for insubordination, she threatened the company, nobody can produce the picture or even claim to have seen it, plus you routinely take photographs in the workplace.

Your HR group would have to be on another planet not to see what's going on here. However the employer does have a legal obligation to investigate every complaint of prohibited harassment, no matter how ludicrous.

What I don't know is how "risk avoidance" your employer is. There are some employers who fall to their knees whenever SH allegations are made and let the tail wag the dog, disciplining or terminating the accused just to be on the safe side. In other words, should the accuser file a gov't complaint or suit, they can respond "We terminated the guy she accused - if their was a problem, we took care of it immediately and permanently."

I absolutely do not agree with that approach and hope your employer is not one of those - that appears to be the only thing you have to be concerned about. I wish I could give you 100% reassurance you're in the clear but I can't.

I have handled some very similar situations, even several where the employee had an ambulance-chasing attorney coaching her behind the scenes (gee, that was fun - not!) Handling those takes some fortitude on the part of the employer not to take the easy way out and just be done with it. Those situations ended up with the accuser eventually being terminated and with no basis to pursue a harassment or retalliaton complaint. (And their shyster attorney who took the case on contingency without a penny in his pocket. )

Here's hoping your employer does the right thing. Please post back if you have further concerns or questions. Good luck.

 

[MadCow4now]

Picture This 2!

Thank you for your thoughts on this matter. Well, the HR folks came to my office today. Apparently their wisdom was dispatched in the following way: The young lady was chastised for her behavior and was told that the insubordination charge will stand as-is. She was told that all her co-workers have written statements or have have given oral testimony indicating that she has been a difficult person to work with and that she has alienated them to the point where they desire minimal involvement with her. Her credibility is thin here but her claims have been registered. I do not know if there is punishment for her other than the act of the counseling action. Personally I think she will quit within 30 days.
As for myself, they suspended me for a week with no pay for taking her picture while she was cleaning her cube. The female HR representative indicated that she too, would have felt 'put off' by having someone take her picture while she was on her hands & knees on the floor. Whether the picture exists or not was not her issue, but rather that it was 'taken' and that she was aware of this. To me this is a area of perception and I have to say I feel bad about her perception of the 'act' but not the act itself. It was not my intent to cause harm by taking a picture, but that apparently carries no weight. This HR rep also informed me that taking pictures in the office is 'against company policy' ; I will be scanning our company policies that are on our web site as I have never heard of this one and I've been with this company for over 20 years.
My manager was also written up for, well, I guess alowing it all to happen on 'his watch'. He is usually a very aggressive personality and regularly fights for what he believes is the right thing to do. Here, though, he apparently just complied with the HR action and encouraged me to do the same.
I believe the are making broad strokes here; lining all parties up and running down the line slapping everyone in the face.
Do I have a case for reverse discrimination? Now I am losing money as a result of enforcing authority and having the guts to say 'no more of this bad behavior...'.

 

[Beth3]

No, you don't remotely have a case for reverse discrimination. (In fact, there's no such thing as reverse discrimination. There's just discrimination - and you don't have a case for that either.)

Here's the miserable position your employer is in. They probably want to be rid of this woman in the WORST way but she's already demonstrated that she's a real piece of work and any disciplinary or other steps the employer takes against her will result in her screaming "retalliation" for making a SH complaint so fast it'll make your head spin and head for the nearest ambulance chaser and the two of them will start playing with how many zero's they want to add to the amount of money they're going to demand.

I applaud your employer's decision to let the previous discipline stand and appreciate that at the moment they feel their hands are tied in dealing with her.

Yes, it looks like they took the safe way out and disciplined you and your manager as protection for everyone should she pursue a trumped-up SH and/or retalliation claim. I know you are totally ticked-off and undoubtedly embarassed by the whole thing. Plus you have that nut-case, nasty subordinate still working there that you have to see every day. For what it's worth, it's pretty clear that everyone who works there thinks you got a raw deal and that SHE's the problem, not you.

Can I suggest you give this a little time - you may have a different perspective after some time passes, especially if everyone's fortunate enough that this chick quits. Not that you're ever going to feel good about what happened, just not so irate.

Lastly, just for future reference, what the intent of the accused harasser was is completely irrelevant under the law. I've never investigated a SH case where the harasser was indeed guilty where he didn't claim they didn't intend to harass anyone. ("Gee, I guess everyone misunderstood what your intent was when you touched that co-worker in an inappropriate place. Nevermind.") The only thing that matters is what the perception of the harassed individual is and whether a "reasonable person" would interpret whatever took place as SH.

I don't think you remotely harassed this co-worker nor do I think a reasonable person (which is the legal standard) would interpret your actions as harassment. But your employer is allowed to make their own judgement in the matter and take a very conservative reasponse if they feel that is appropriate or necessary.