I have a good friend who runs a small physical therapy business with about a dozen employees. Our conversations usually involve Mets baseball, being a dad, or current events.
But yesterday he called me with a legal problem that he hoped I could help him with.
Because he is a small business owner and he operates his workplace like a family operation, it is unusual for him to face human resources problems. He is the CEO, COO, HR generalist, payroll supervisor, and plumber at the business. He wears many hats even though his degrees are in physical therapy. If you run a small business you know what I’m talking about.
Anyway, he has a PT assistant who is a young woman that has been working with him for a couple of years. She is a top-notch employee and he trusts her with all his clients. She brings no drama to the workplace and the patients always praise her work.
This past year he hired a male graduate student from a local university to assist at his practice while he completes his studies in physical therapy. He works part time three days a week.
Last week the female PT assistant asked to speak to my friend about the graduate assistant. She said she had waited to bring the matter to his attention because she didn’t want to “make waves,” but she finally felt like she needed to say something.
She told my friend that a few weeks after the graduate student started he began to ask her personal questions that she thought might be crossing a boundary. He was particularly interested in her dating life and what she liked to do on weekends. She tried to be friendly but also was firm about setting a boundary. However, he did not seem to get it.
More recently he began making comments about her hair and the fit of her clothes, and also began talking to her about women he dates. She again told him she was not interested. However, he persisted. Finally last week, he commented on how tired she looked as asked if she was staying out late with her guy friends.
She became uncomfortable because he was not accepting the boundaries she set and he was disrupting her work life. So she went to my friend to complain. She was uncertain about what she could do but she was feeling uncomfortable and she was thinking about looking for another job.
My friend called and asked what he should do. I told him that he needed to do an investigation into possible sexual harassment. He told me he told the female employee to write down what was occurring because he required a written report to go any further. She was hesitant.
I told him absolutely he did not need a complaint in writing to investigate. Her verbal complaint was sufficient to initiate an investigation. I told him that he should immediately contact the male employee and place him on administrative leave while he did an investigation. I also told him that if he believed that the male employee had violated a company policy against sexual harassment he should fire the employee immediately.
His obligation was to ensure a safe workspace for all his employees and if the male employee could not comply with policy there was no problem in letting him go.
The Law Office of Eric R. Brown 
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