Source | LinkedIn | Cleo Stiller
Alejandro oversees a department of ten people within a larger company of three hundred. Recently, his CEO scheduled a meeting with him. When Alejandro arrived, the head of Human Resources was sitting with the CEO. That’s never a good sign . . .
Alejandro was, as he told me, completely shocked to find out that he’d received two separate verbal sexual harassment complaints for making inappropriate comments with sexual innuendo. They wouldn’t tell him what he said and they wouldn’t tell him whom he had offended, citing the need to protect the employees’ anonymity.
As far as he could tell, there was no formal investigation conducted and he was handed a letter stating this was his first and final warning. They didn’t offer him any training so he could make sure he didn’t make the same mistakes again. Another complaint would result in termination and loss of stock options. In Alejandro’s mind, his entire career, which he’s worked so hard for, could be over in a blink of an eye—and he considers himself a good guy! Later that day, he went home and didn’t sleep for a few nights, trying to figure out what he possibly could have said.
