WTFriday Diversion #2 – Procreate at Your Own Risk

[sigh] The best laid plans… So, apparently WTFriday is a pretty common thing on the internet. Oh, well, different names for the same thing. On we go…

This week’s phenomenal diversion from the boring part of L&E comes from the equally-phenomenal Employer Handbook Blog by Eric Meyer. And, in keeping with this week’s theme, it comes from the Land Down Under1.

Here’s the headline:

Woman hurt during hotel sex sues…her employer.

Thaaat’s right. What do they say about business trips? Once you’re out of your area code… it’s your boss’s fault? Her boss – which, fantastically, was some part of the Australian government, paid for the room. Here’s the reasoning behind the, um, ballsy claim:

The employee’s attorney argued, to no avail, that being injured while having sex “during an interval or interlude within an overall period or episode of work” was no different than being hurt doing other recreational activities.

You know, like showering or brushing your teeth. Guess how well that went over.

Check out Eric’s blog for the rest.

1. Where women glow and men plunder-rr. . . [↩]

WTFriday #1: Lawyers – We’re Just Like You!

Ed. Note: So, other L&E bloggers I follow have special Friday things that they post, like roundups of what they read, I think for the express purpose of not giving readers anything too taxing right before the weekend. Not having to worry about “readers” per se, and not feeling any compelling need to post the rest of the week1, that part of the special Friday post is lost on me. Nonetheless, I am jealous of all of them for myriad reasons, so I’m stealing the idea. As I’ve said before, one of the influences for this blog was Gary Skoning‘s “Wackiest Employment Law Cases” series.  I figured the regular Friday post would be a great way to pay homage to that tradition, so from now on, every Friday I’m going to link to the most ridiculous L&E-related story I’ve read this week. I’m calling it WTFriday. Clever, right? Okay, here goes:

If you poll a few labor & employment attorneys about what industry has the most L&E sketchiness, one of them is bound to say themselves. Not themselves specifically, but lawyers, as a group. We are the worst.

Don’t believe me? I had a friend from law school that went on three interviews in a month, two small firms and a slightly bigger operation, and all three of them asked her if she was planning on having babies anytime soon2.

So, from the “Shouldn’t We Know Better” Desk comes this headline in the ABA Journal:

Lawyer Accused of Harassing Employee, Asking Her to Wear Swimsuit to the Office

Yeah. You read that right. Apparently the prominent Chicago class action attorney (whose name you cannot read here, but is certainly available in the article) is facing a couple of lawsuits for trying to “work out a deal” with some of his female employees, and other totally normal successful-attorney-type behavior like taking off his pants at work.

The attorney says that the employee is raising false allegations because she was recently asked to look for another job.

Happy WTFriday, everybody.

1. Or month, sometimes. [↩]
2. You cant do that, FYI. [↩]