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Too 'irresistibly attractive'


Texsox

  

16 members have voted

  1. 1. Should the laws be changed to make this firing illegal?

    • Yes, the employee did nothing wrong
      6
    • No, employers are paying her salary
      8
    • I'm glad I don't have to decide
      2


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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/i...ksEnabled=false

 

Horndog bosses in Iowa have a new tool to save their marriages — they can fire employees who are too hot for the workplace.

The state’s all-male Supreme Court ruled 7-0 Friday that an Iowa City dentist legally canned his female assistant because she was “irresistibly attractive” and a threat to his marriage.

The bombshell ruling came after Melissa Nelson sued her boss of 10 years, Dr. James Knight, for discrimination.

The married mother claims she was fired in January 2010 after Knight's wife became jealous of the pair’s relationship, which included harmless text messages between them outside of work.

“I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think it’s right,” Nelson said on CNN Saturday night. The 32-year-old also said she was stunned to be fired.

“I worked hard, enjoyed my job, and one day it just came to a screeching halt.”

Knight, 53, admitted Nelson was a great worker, but he complained her tight clothing was too much of a distraction.

He even once told Nelson that if his pants were bulging, she would know her outfits were too revealing, the lawsuit said. And he quipped about her irregular sex life, saying it was “like having a Lamborghini in the garage and never driving it.”

 

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/i...8#ixzz2FtPPN5bS

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/i...ksEnabled=false

 

Horndog bosses in Iowa have a new tool to save their marriages — they can fire employees who are too hot for the workplace.

The state’s all-male Supreme Court ruled 7-0 Friday that an Iowa City dentist legally canned his female assistant because she was “irresistibly attractive” and a threat to his marriage.

The bombshell ruling came after Melissa Nelson sued her boss of 10 years, Dr. James Knight, for discrimination.

The married mother claims she was fired in January 2010 after Knight's wife became jealous of the pair’s relationship, which included harmless text messages between them outside of work.

“I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think it’s right,” Nelson said on CNN Saturday night. The 32-year-old also said she was stunned to be fired.

“I worked hard, enjoyed my job, and one day it just came to a screeching halt.”

Knight, 53, admitted Nelson was a great worker, but he complained her tight clothing was too much of a distraction.

He even once told Nelson that if his pants were bulging, she would know her outfits were too revealing, the lawsuit said. And he quipped about her irregular sex life, saying it was “like having a Lamborghini in the garage and never driving it.”

 

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/i...8#ixzz2FtPPN5bS

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QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 23, 2012 -> 10:26 AM)

 

Employers in most states can already fire employees for any reason whatsoever, but I do understand the differences here. I think she'd have more of a case if this was a publicly traded company or even a company with more than a handful of employees. I can somewhat understand the predicament as this is a small privately owned family practice, which creates a different set of situational rules...at least, I think it does.

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I think it is kind of stupid on the dentist's part. I mean, if he can't control himself around her, that is demonstrative of his problem not hers. But I suppose if women get hired for many jobs because of their looks, it is only natural that their looks can equally work against him. While I don't find anything legally wrong with what he did, I think it is a pretty stupid reason. Why couldn't the dentist tell her to just wear less revealing and less tight clothing?

 

I also just saw her picture from the article. That is "irresistibly attractive"? Yikes...I mean she is not bad looking, but looks to have a really fake tan.

Edited by maggsmaggs
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QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 23, 2012 -> 10:41 AM)
Employers in most states can already fire employees for any reason whatsoever, but I do understand the differences here. I think she'd have more of a case if this was a publicly traded company or even a company with more than a handful of employees. I can somewhat understand the predicament as this is a small privately owned family practice, which creates a different set of situational rules...at least, I think it does.

 

As I understand it, she sued based a sex discrimination, that if she was male, she would not have been fired.

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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 27, 2012 -> 06:47 PM)
Better to get rid of her than have her deal with sexual harassment because he's unprofessional/a perv.

 

He's pretty lucky he didn't get countersued with sexual harrassment, and not discrimination. The texts and comments were absurd.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 27, 2012 -> 02:14 PM)
I believe I've read that he still likely will be.

 

Eh, without more I'm not sure that rises to the level of sexual harassment. You can be raunchy without it being harassment. The key is her proving it created a intolerable, hostile environment.

 

It's actually a good decision from a legal perspective. We don't want to expand gender discrimination into a hot or not contest. Way too subjective.

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My dad many years ago owned a business with a cousin of mine. Dad ran the plant, cousin ran the office, but they both had to agree on hires. My dad wouldn't let him hire ANYONE for the office that looked even OK, since 10 years prior, my cousin started banging the secretary there, and later divorced his wife and married her. Wasn't going to let him get the company in trouble by him even being tempted, so found a reason to just reject anyone that looked good. His second wife agreed with my dad, of course.

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QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 28, 2012 -> 10:16 PM)
Since she sued and wanted her job back, suing for harassment would be nearly impossible.

 

Based on her comments about the doctor, harassment would be very hard to prove at this point. As you said, a person suffering from harassment usually wouldn't want their job back in the first place. She's probably going to have to suck it up and walk away, go find another job.

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