• 24
  • October
    2011

Some jobs require that individuals be in the office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Other jobs in San Francisco require employees to be flexible, and jobs may require co-workers to communicate outside of normal working hours. With the technology that is available today, it is often faster and more efficient for co-workers to communicate via text messages or emails from their smartphones than any other way.

However, regardless of the medium through which co-workers are communicating, they should always show respect toward the person with whom they are communicating. Recently, a university football coach was fired for sexually harassing an administrative assistant who worked in the university's football department.

The man had been the associate athletic director for football operations for years. Although he has worked under the university's head coach since the mid-90s, it was not enough to protect his job when sexual harassment allegations turned out to be true.

A 24-year-old female who worked in the football department filed the sexual harassment lawsuit. She told investigators that the assistant coach pulled down her dress and bra, and fondled her breasts. The coach repeatedly told her that he wanted to kiss her, and when she refused, he would kiss her as she walked away.

During the two-year span of sexual harassment, the assistant coach texted her repeatedly. According to the woman's statements to investigators, "He would ask me when I was going out, where I was going, and what I was wearing. He would ask me if I went home with anyone and about my sex life." Although she told him to stop, he refused.

Investigators reviewed the allegations, and the assistant coach was fired. An article in Friday's edition of The Washington Post revealed that the university paid $400,000 to the woman to settle the sexual harassment complaint. As part of the settlement, the administrative assistant agreed to end all complaints against the assistant coach.

Source: ESPN Outside the Lines, "Cleve Bryant was fired for harassment," Steve Delsohn, Sept. 16, 2011