The latest tale of political correctness gone mad involves an associate lawyer at London firm Shearman and Sterling who went out drinking with a bunch of mates. He took a female intern with him and she later went on with him to a strip club where he tried it on and was rebuffed. The next day the intern filed a complaint, claiming he'd made suggestive remarks and tried to touch her. The lawyer was subsequently fired for something that happened after hours.The intern claimed that she did not realise she was entering a strip club [didn't the nude gyrating women tick her off?] and that she told the associate that she should leave, but that he responded that he had already paid for the entrance fee and they should stay a while longer.
The firm confirmed that the associate paid for the entrance fee to the strip club on the firm’s credit card.
“This guy’s an associate and I’m an intern,” the intern told the press later, “I didn’t want to piss him off.”
To which I say to the intern unless you were brought up in an Amish community you should not have gone into a strip club with a drunken lecherous lawyer unless you wished to er, take things further. I mean, surely the girl should take some responsibility? What did she think they were going to discuss in there, the finer parts of a brief, rather than be the recipient of an attempted debriefing?
All I can say is this story is the start of a slippery slope and may mean that many workers get in trouble at work for what they do off the clock, which is wrong.
On the other side of the coin, there's Russia where sexual harassment seems to be a bit of a gray area and where only two women have ever successfully sued for sexual harassment. In a survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.
Eighty per cent of those who participated in the survey said they did not believe it possible to win promotion without engaging in sexual relations with their male superiors.
Surely there's a middle ground here somewhere?
35 comments:
I shared a breakfast once with a lawyer in a greasy spoon just off Chancery Lane. He opened his plush Gladstone briefcase....and pulled out a pile of porn mags. It put me right off my two poached eggs on toasted muffins which I'd just covered in ketchup, I can tell you.
On reflection I should have sued him for harassing my breakfast.
Ugh. He's a pig, and she's an idiot.
"the associate paid for the entrance fee to the strip club on the firm’s credit card"
Seems like this bit gets the firm involved, on or off the clock.
Sounds like two idiots to me. First off, lawyers...Ewww! I say, use some common sense. If you don't like it, walk the fuck out of there. The guy sounds like a slime, but maybe we're only hearing the tale spun one way.
A middleground? Employee co-ed mud wrestling parties perhaps?
He gets sacked for only "trying" to touch her. She should at least let him touch her up now as a consolation.
Sounds to me like the legal eagle is pretty inadequate if his idea of showing a girl a good time is taking her to a strip club.
The girl could have been confused or naive but no matter how junior she was, there is no mistaking a strip joint.
I think these city boys play hard and the girls know it. If they choose to put themselves in the firing line, they might expect to be a target.
No sympathy from me.
but still, we are sexual creatures and it pisses me off that we have to put a lid on that for 99% of our lives.
It's the middle ground that so often doesn't get a look in and that is really frustrating.
She really is a twit and quite sneaky for doing that -
Here in Australia, we recently had a case where a woman rented a room in a hotel where they were holding a work Christmas do. She had sex with a fellow worker in that room and another worker (in her room) saw them at play. They complained and the girl got sacked. The interesting follow-up to this is in the following link, where the courts upheld the decision by the employer to sack her.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23105142-5007132,00.html
Sorry for the link, but its pertinent to the comment. Please delete it if you want as it is just confirming my veracity.
What percentage of those Russians were actually promoted after having sex with their bosses ??
I'd like to see those figures before deciding whether the Russian system has merit...
I've gone so far as to quit buying drinks out with co-workers for fear of getting sued over a DUI or auto accident. These days it's just too scary to take a chance on anything that can get you or your company sued.
Not much of lawyer if he couldn't fight to save his own job!
A middle ground doesn't exist IMHO. We're not concerned with assuming personal responsibility or learning how to grow a pair. We're concerned with how to cash out either by casting ourselves as prey (victim) or predator (lawyer).
The company I work for has a long-standing rule regarding 'off duty' behaviour, and there's been more than one employee who's been sacked for something that's happened on their own time.
Hardly surprising really from a company that'll make someone with 27 years service redundant because he gets paid more than a new start would get for doing the same job.
Lawyers are all into hard core porn and hard drugs. No wonder the grasping bastards have to charge so much per hour.
Read up a bit of tort law and then snort some coke on the bog.
As for the intern, she obviously possesses insufficient intelligence to scrub steps let alone practise law.
Sounds like she'll have a promising career ahead of her if someone dares to employs her.
It's illegal to be a heterosexual male nowadays. Hadn't you heard?
I guess I'm on the run then.
bottom line..... he's a lawyer,lol. That alone should clue you in to him not being trustworthy.
There is a grey line of being with coworkers on after hours but for the intern, all I have to say is be a woman and figure out that this is not office related. Now if they went to a strip club to talk about work, that would be different but this is obvious that this was after hours. What a whiner. How hard would it have been to say "No thank you, I'm not into that" and leave.
I agree with Emma and moi's comments that often the focus in workplace misconduct situations is casting oneself as a poor defenseless victim with zero responsibility in order to cash out in some way.
The delicious irony here is that in this case the technique has been used against a law firm, and a lame ass lecherous lawyer. I love reading about lawyers getting screwed. I've met too many greedy snakey ones.
Great post.
I say the intern would make a fantastic lawyer.
He leering she leeching.
gilbert...
On reflection I should have sued him for harassing my breakfast.
you'd need to be in the USA for a law suit like that, where you can sue McDonalds for scalding yourself on hot coffee
Karen ^..^...
yeah, they kind of deserve each other!
xl...
"the associate paid for the entrance fee to the strip club on the firm’s credit card"
Okay, maybe that was out of order but I don't think it's a sackable offence
badside...
I know, why didn't she just say goodnight when he suggested going to the strip club?
VE...
Employee co-ed mud wrestling parties perhaps?
now that does sound like fun
Gorilla Bananas...
She should at least let him touch her up now as a consolation.
here here
Midnight...
I knew you would be a voice of reason in the depths of a politically correct fog
unique_stephen...
I hear you but nevertheless I would not want to live in a society where men were allowed to expose their scrotums on the subway ;)
SPARSELY KATE...
Like if I'd gone into the strip joint with the guy okay I would have been pissed off that he'd tried it on but maybe I would have learnt from experience
Mike from Adelaide...
They complained and the girl got sacked.
I expect a bit more of a laid back attitude from you ozzies. For shame!
Here in another moralistic backlash Las Vegas KTNV-TV reporter Jeff Gradney was fired from his job just for posting an ad on Craigslist for threesome sex!
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212166454.shtml
fingers...
What percentage of those Russians were actually promoted after having sex with their bosses ??
they all got promoted after delivering the goods...
you know how it goes fingers, I'm sure you've had to munch your share of carpet as you crawled your way up the corporate ladder ;)
just bob...
These days it's just too scary to take a chance on anything that can get you or your company sued.
oh christ, it seems like taking a job these days is a liability...i'm glad I'm a lady of leisure
Steve...
Not much of lawyer if he couldn't fight to save his own job!
still, i almost feel sorry for him
moi...
We're not concerned with assuming personal responsibility or learning how to grow a pair.
I know, I know, when did feminism come to mean that women have to be treated like helpless children?
I was dancing that night...
I am taking my company of ten, eight of whom are women, to Vegas next week. Wed-Fri for our annual company outing. I am a good guy, but any one of them could probably own my company by now.
As long as it's not a red carpet...
mutley.....how can a dog do a strip tease? pray tell
wow, that was awkward...I would love to go to Vegas some day as long as I don't have to listen to Celine Dion
fingers
...LMAO...why aren't you a stand up comedian??
As a relatively confident woman, it does make me cross when other women behave foolishly and then try to involve disciplinary action.
But I cannot help but remember a works night out when I was 20, where the 40 yo director from one of the other branches made his interest in my mini-skirted self very clear with a series of lewd and lascivious comments, most of which were water off a duck's back to a girl with a rugby club background. It didnt bother me at the time but it was a very different kettle of fish a few hours later when the door handle to my single room was rattled very forcefully at 2am as someone tried to get in. I can recall propping a chair under the offending handle and sitting sleepless and afraid for the rest of the night. Drink does strange things to people and lines become blurred. A lot of sexual harrassment stuff is very OTT but there are reasons why it is there in the first place.
i don't agree with this, but i do think it is funny
http://www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/sexual-harassment-deal-with-it/
having my cake....personally speaking I have probably had more hassle from bitchy women at work than from lecherous men ...I am not really someone men sexually harass. Although when I was fourteen the boss of a delicatessen where I was working asked me if I wanted to be in a porn film he was making. I suppose that might be sexual harassment but I just said, "Er, no thanks," and didn't bat an eyelid.
kiki....I really don't think
Masterson is being ironic therefore I can't find anything about his book funny. It is my belief that he has mental problems. I wrote about him here: http://tinyurl.com/5h7ucn
to be honest emma, i think this type of reporting is crap! she knew, like ever woman KNOWS, when they are walking into a strip club...please, there are naked women...hello! hint hint...she should be fired for utter stupidity! however the man should be fired for the same damn reason, like he didn't know better? his momma didn't raise him to know better? his office didn't instruct him to know better? he has to wear a damn suit and tie to work what was he thinking? or better yet what was he thinking with!
At my work (financial institution, Australia) we have compulsory 'appropriate workplace behavior' seminars in which we're told that if you go out after work with people from work it's still a workplace, and the workplace rules apply. Yet another really good reason for not going drinking with colleagues.
As for this lawyer, using the corporate card at a strip joint is just poor judgement. He'll never get that through expenses.
I went back a read that "Whingers and Whiners" post and the bit about Itzkoff, a "whiny little rodent with no redeeming features" made me laugh til I snarfed.
Esp the part about how the chick asks him to get off while in mid thrust - "He can't even get a girl to make out with him even while she is on Ecstasy. Oh God." That's fuckin great.
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