Does she have any legal recourse for the sexual pressure her new boss was putting on her?
A friend of mine has been the target of sexual harassment at work by her new boss. Let me provide a little background:
Her husband passed away a couple months before, and she was unemployed. Needing money badly, she took the first, best job that came her way.
The interview:
They went to a resturant for the interview. During interview, the male boss started talking about his sex life. During the interview he did offer her the position. She accepted. He then told her he wanted to show her a corporate video at his residence. They went back to his residence. Once there, he said he would help her financially, which he had done with other employees whom he did not name, since she was in a bad financial situation. He started the coroprate video. During the video he asked her to take off her dress. She refused. He asked why. She said this was an interview and it was very inappropriate. She then asked to return to her hotel, since the interview was out of town.
First day at work: She went to a company meeting, then a reception immediately afterwords. After the reception she asked him for a loan of $500 for her car payment (which would be repaid back to him)because he said in the interview he would help her out financially. He said no but asked why. She responded that her car payments were 2 months behind and she was afraid her car will be reposessed. He still said no, but asked her to go back to his place to go “hot-tubbing”. She told him that she had an appointment to get her hair done with her rommate, who is a hair dresser. He then asked her to call him later to see if she could make it later. She called him at 10:30pm to say she wouldn’t make it. She left a voicemail. He called back immediately. He was extremely upset that she wasn’t going to show up.
The next day (8:30am) he wanted to talk to her. He mentioned the reason he was upset about her not coming to his place the previous night is that he wanted to talk business. Around 11:30am he asked her to go to lunch with him. On the way to the resturant in the
car, he said he was going to give her $60 to get her nails done. During the walk form the car to the resturant he told her he wanted to take her clothes-shopping because of the company dress code. He wanted to make sure she had enough outfits. The company dress
code is nylons with skirts/dresses only. It was sent in an email to her from him, it is not technically a “reqired dress code yet”. After they left the resturant, she told him that she was not going to sleep with him, that he was her boss and it wasn’t a good idea. He did not respond.
The next day she had to pick him up from the airport. On the way to the car in the airport parking garage, he
said he wanted to help her financially. When they were driving out of the airport parking garage and paying the parking fee, he asked if she wanted to hear something “nasty”. She responded “okay” apprehensively. He said that morning when he got up, he said “I was fantasizing about you. I touched myself and got really hard.” She did not make any comment. He asked how much her rent was - she told him $500, which included a furnished room and utilities. She took him to his residence at his request. He asked her to come in. When she came in,he made coffee and went to take a shower while she waited. When he got out of the shower and started getting dressed, he came out into the living room where she was, wearing only a dress shirt and underwear (and nothing else) holding a tie and asked her if the tie went with the shirt. This obviously made her very uncomfortable. While he was getting dressed, he said that he would like to take her shopping over the weekend, that he would like her help picking out clothes for him. He then sent her on an errand to go pick up bagels, gave her $60 and said to keep the change. She left his place, picked up the bagels and proceeded to work. Early afternoon he asked her if she wanted to go “hot-tubbing” with him that night. She said no. He asked what she was doing that weekend, and she said she would be working on her laptop. Then he asked if she wanted to work with him this weekend. She said yes with the intent
of just working, since he was teaching her about product marketing.
She called him at 11am since she hadn't heard from him and he said that he couldn’t make it this weekend, he was doing other errands and wouldn’t be able to work with her.
Three and a half work days later, she quit the job because of the sexual pressure and comments that her boss was making.
My question: Does she have any legal recourse?
Answers (2)
Yes, your friend does appear to have a claim for sexual harassment and constructive termination. If your friend would like to set up a consultation, I can be reached at 949-727-2630(Irvine office) or (909)680-1182(Riverside office)
Sincerely,
Geoff Morris
posted by Geoff Morris | May 6, 2002 7:54 PM [EST]
if this company is in southern california, please have your friend call me for an appointment.
janet koehn
805-658-0655
posted by Janet M. Koehn | May 3, 2002 3:59 PM [EST]
Answer This Question
Sign In to Answer this Question
Related Questions with Answers