A man on TikTok says his girlfriend was fired from her job of four years after she reported her manager for sexual harassment.
The man, named Ken Waks (@ken), says his girlfriend emailed Human Resources to report the harassment, and she provided six different examples with witnesses.
A few months earlier, a man had broken into his girlfriend’s car to “leave her a present” after harassing her, Waks says. HR did nothing.
This time, the harasser was the girlfriend’s direct manager of four months. After Waks’ girlfriend provided six different instances of the manager sexually harassing her, HR told her “we’ve received your concerns,” Waks says. Then, HR put his girlfriend into a group chat with the manager who was harassing her. They allegedly told both the girlfriend and the manager, “We have received your concerns, and we are going to work to address them.”
@ken We will be suing them for everything we can. I’ll be documenting the whole thing. This is why people are afraid to speak up against #harassment #wrongfultermination #workplacediscrimination #employmentlaw #corporateamerica #retaliation ♬ BORN FOR THIS – Foxxi
“Terrified to go into the office, terrified of retaliation, terrified of what this guy might do, she works from home that day,” Waks says in the video. He explains that his girlfriend worked from home the Friday before Memorial Day, then had the holiday off of work, then Tuesday was her day off.
On Tuesday, HR emailed Waks’ girlfriend saying she had to come into the office Wednesday at 10 a.m. for a meeting. Waks says one of the company’s owners was also scheduled to be on the call.
During the meeting, his girlfriend got fired, Waks says. The company cited “poor workplace attendance.”
“She has worked there for four years, has never gotten in trouble for anything,” Waks says in the video. “She has never been warned about attendances, never missed a showing or anything related to her job, has only received exemplary marks in four years.”
The TikToker alleges his girlfriend was fired as a form of “retaliation” from the company. He says his girlfriend was “wrongfully terminated” and says they will be suing the company.
“That call was not at all about sexual harassment, that call was not about what she was going through, it was not about trying to find new ways of working,” Waks says in the video. “They immediately took the manager’s opinion, whatever, and sided with him—chose him over her. You think this guy’s not going to do it again?”
Waks adds that he “will not sleep” until this issue is fixed.
“This is why people do not come forward,” he adds. “This is disgusting. It is insane that people would do this in corporate America.”
The TikToker says he has everything recorded and documented, and he will get his girlfriend “justice.”
In a comment on his video, Waks wrote, “I will be taking this video down later per legal consult, it will be back after we win, and I will document everything as to what we did.”
Viewers widely agreed with Waks that the terminations was grounds for a lawsuit and urged him to get a lawyer immediately.
“That’s a lawsuit. Congratulations,” one viewer commented on the video.
“Yeah 100% she needs to bring a lawsuit,” a second viewer commented.
A third wrote, “From a lawyer: GOOD ON YOU GUYS! Lawyer up & stop this insanity. No one should have to put up w that.”
In reply to that comment, Waks wrote, “Everyone in my family except me is a lawyer, and I knew what we needed to do while she was going through this to set up this case.”
Another comment read, “Never go to hr get a lawyer!” Waks replied, “I know, but you have to show you tried to follow “the rules” before you can go win a suit.”
Some viewers called out the company’s HR department.
“HR here. oh hell no. I am so sorry this happened… get em! they didn’t even complete an investigation. temporal proximity of the term is major sus,” one user said.
“lmao isnt HR supposed to prevent the company from being sued for this kind of stuff?” another user asked.
Multiple viewers asked Waks to reveal the company’s name, but he said he wouldn’t do that yet.
“I will wait until the lawyers say I can definitively flame them openly,” he wrote in reply to one comment.
The Daily Dot reached out to user @ken via TikTok comment.
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/irl/girlfriend-fired-for-reporting-sexual-harassment/