By Jack Tuckner, Esq.
You know, the whole hashtag #metoo movement – reckoning, awakening – it’s about time, super important. But what seems to get lost is that, it’s not just about celebrities.
The only women, the only men typically spoken about in the media are celebrities. We’re talking about Gretchen Carlson, Harvey Weinstein, porn stars, $30 million settlements; the average person doesn’t feel that she can lose her job, the average person isn’t going to have another contract waiting for her, another movie, another starring role as an anchor on another network. The average person is worried that she is going to lose her job, perhaps lose her home, her apartment, not be able to find another job right away, really be SOL.
And that’s scary as heck. And you don’t know what to do if you think that your boss is subjecting you to unwelcome sexual attention, sexualizing you, objectifying you, it may be subtle, it may appear to be “playful,” but in the meantime, you don’t like it, and you know what, you don’t have to put out one whit of energy, one molecule of effort, beyond what’s required to perform the essential functions of your job.
If you were a boy performing the same job, would you be treated the same way that your manager, boss, supervisor, colleague is treating you, and if not, if there is any whiff of sexual content, anything unwelcome, nonconsensual, something that makes you uncomfortable, it’s illegal. And you need to oppose it, and you have to do it in a way that you’re protected because there is proof that you’re pushing back. So, you want to put it in writing. If you need help with how to word your complaint, how to contend with the repercussions from when you complain, give me a call. My name is Jack Tuckner at Tuckner, Sipser. We’re the women’s rights in the workplace lawyers, and we have been handling hashtag #metoo cases way before it was fashionable. Your case is as important as any celebrity’s #metoo case, too.