Yesterday, I wrote a post about an article in Slate Magazine that described how mall Santas are hired. I suggested that some of the hiring principles used in the Santa hiring process were good for any kind of hiring.
In keeping with the holiday theme of focusing on Santa and trying to draw employment law lessons from St. Nick in the workplace, there’s another article, this one bizarre, that’s worth reading. It seems that in Danbury, Connecticut, Santa was groped by an adult woman–sexually harassed, if you will.
While there are perhaps numerous lessons to be drawn from this incident, I’m sticking with one. (This is going to be a short post.) Employers can be liable for the sexual harassment of their employees by third parties, like customers, vendors, and Santa-lap-sitting-adults. If third-party harassment is reported, you must investigate and take action. It seems that Santa’s employer acted promptly in this situation to protect him from unwelcomed sexual advances. Check out this modern day Christmas story.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Dan Schwartz // Dec 19, 2007 at 11:15 am
Its a bizarre story. I ended up posting about it yesterday since it was in my home state. Above the Law and ABA Journal also have some coverage. If you’d like, you can check out this link for more information.
Click Here
Happy holidays!
2 John Phillips // Dec 19, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Thanks very much. Santa’s been good for employment law bloggers this year. Thanks for the links. I had seen abovethelaw but not the ABA Journal.
3 Dan Schwartz // Dec 19, 2007 at 12:35 pm
BTW, your post on the Slate magazine was great and I’m going to get aro und to commenting on your series on the Art of Firing. Good nuggets in there.
4 John Phillips // Dec 19, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Thanks, Dan. Occasionally, Slate has some stuff that doesn’t, at first blush, appear to be employment-related. And then you read it a second time, and an employment nugget appears. Look forward to you comments on the Art of Firing.
5 That’s What She Said » Blog Archive » Merry Christmas // Dec 21, 2007 at 1:48 pm
[…] and heading for the mall to finish up my Christmas shopping. In the meantime, check out my friend John Phillips’ blog entry about a sexually harassed mall […]
6 John Phillips // Dec 21, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Happy holidays, Julie. Good luck on resolving the writers strike.
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