About a month ago an incident involving myself, a shift manager and a newer crew member occured at work. He falsely claimed that the manager and I had been sexually harassing him on the night shift. I will say that we did joke around with him, but ne
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About a month ago an incident involving myself, a shift manager and a newer crew member occured at work. He falsely claimed that the manager and I had been sexually harassing him on the night shift. I will say that we did joke around with him, but never crossed the sexual harassment line because all of the joking was mutual. When we would joke around with him, he would joke right back with us. We never let it interfere with our work and it was never meant to be taken seriously. Most of the joking did not even take place inside of the actual walls of the restaurant. The employee who made the accusation was relatively new and had previously expressed a serious interest in becoming a manager, his job performance was under fire and management had previously expressed an interest in letting him go. He made these claims after a manager position had been offered to me, in front of him. His attitude towards me changed after I was offered the position he wanted and he constantly began to question me about whether or not I would end up taking the position. After making his accusation to our General Manager, she decided to take his claim to Corporate, to let them handle it because she did not know how to. They supposedly began to conduct an 'investigation', what in fact they investigated is not clear. It was later determined that the manager and myself would no longer be able to continue working for this company and the man who accused us would be allowed to stay. We were never made aware of what exactly he was accusing us of and therefore had very little opportunity to defend ourselves. We were told that since he was the accuser and however ludacris his accusations may be, he would be protected and be allowed to stay. He was only asked to sign a piece of paper that stated he would not speak any further about this ordeal and if he was caught doing so, he would be fired without a warning. I am truly devastated by these events because they are so untrue and unfair. While I will admit that any joking never should have taken place, I will not admit that we were solely at fault, nor did any sexual harassment ever occur. This person never once showed any discomfort, unease, or ever asked us to stop; he was just as much of a participant as we were. He would initiate most of the joking and his jokes were always of a much deeper sexual nature than mine. It has been brought to my attention that this man has been caught not only talking about the incident, but spreading further rumors, smoking in the bathroom, slacking on the job, and still nothing has been done. He apparently has a history of drama with his other jobs and has possibly done this before. Does anyone have an idea about what can be done? I of course want my job back, but why did he get off so easily when in the investigation it was found that he was at fault too?
