WWJD, no, what would jurors do? I have an employee who took a photo of another employee having specimen bags, ice, and water all over her workstation. The employee then slapped the phone out of her hands and continued to slap her hands as she typed an email to her superiors. She called campus police, they failed to support charges of simple assault.
Is this now acceptable behavior?MD Anderson Cancer Center
Wow, that's a wild story. I would say as soon as someone lays their hands on another employee they should be fired. It doesn't matter what the provocation is, you can't have people assaulting each other in the workplace. I'm surprised that no one was fired, to be honest.
The police officer did tell the Tech that her coworker could get fired if she filed charges, but added that they could both end up getting fired. The following day, the Tech did admit to the officer that she was intimidated by that statement. The investigation went south and was closed that day after the police officer told the Tech's Manager that she was unprofessional.
Chief
Fireable.
Chief
That’s a tough situation. Even without police support, you might still address it internally. Document everything, consider involving HR, and assess if further steps, like disciplinary actions or mediation, are needed.
Pro
Ok who behaves like this at work? No no no
All of these things occurred in this order: Police did phone interviews with the employees on the shift, the person assaulted was asked, "what race is your coworker", supposedly thats how they ID persons. The case was closed by PD. The assaulted employee was given a memo of expectation with corrective actions for having her phone out, being unprofessional, and being in the other person's space and needs to attend a class on professionalism. The assaulting employee was moved from night shift to evenings to avoid conflict. Just goes to show that management, HR, and PD are all protecting the institution of MD Anderson from any liability at any cost.
Doesn't "hands on" change a situation from an argument or disagreement to "assault" immediately?
I agree, but HR and the dept Manager would rather blame the assaulted employee to the point that they told the police officer she taunted the other employee by taking the photo.
Rising Star
They're asking for a retaliation lawsuit. The employee who was trying to report the breach of sanitary conditions by taking a photo now has to go to classes on professionalism AND there was no recourse for the person who physically assaulted them.
The person assaulted should email her supervisor and those in this meeting to recap the events, and everything int he meeting. She should seek clarification that the remedy to her report about unsanitary conditions and a physical assault while on the job includes professionalism classes for her and the offending employe only moves shifts. She should ask for clarification of what hospital policy states the course of action is for physical assault of a hospital employee and ask why that policy isn't being followed.
Whoever reads that will have to either acknowledge that pile of garbage occured or rebuttle in some way....but documenting her account in an email would hold a lot of weight if she decides to sue
I've advised her to keep all emails surrounding this incident. I told her to print them out in case they get "lost", and keep them in a folder at home in case she gets fired or further harassed. She can at least sue for wrongful termination or retaliation and show the pattern of harassment and persecution she has faced. I don't support this type of corporate behavior.