Comment by hermannj314 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hermannj314 | Hacker News Reader

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Please get someone from HR involved. Do not immediately fire the employee as this could lead to severe financial problems for you. Despite the peasant with pitchforks in this comment section, wrongful termination / paying unemployment / litigation, etc. is also something you may want to avoid. This employee of yours may not be aware of the policy or the law and is possibly entitled to progressive disciplinary action based on your employment policies (and I disagree with those below that said sexual harassment was somehow equivalent to murder and embezzlement - WTF?). From what I read sexual harassment laws might not even apply to your business if you have fewer than so many employees, I am not a lawyer or an HR professional, so don't listen to me.

The employee did something wrong, no sensible person doubts that, but not necessarily something that allows you to fire them without consequences for you. You need to speak to HR and then if necessary your legal representation.

Who are all these people who think a small startup has a HR department?

Really? I'm pretty sure my advice has merit even if you don't have any HR professionals on full-time staff, just like 'lawyer up' has merit if you don't have a lawyer on staff. It really isn't hard to piece together.

If you have no HR staff or lawyer on staff and have a question requiring their expertise, you can hire consultants or lawyers to assist you with your problem.

If you are a really small start up and can't afford to do any of this, then you should read the law yourself and make your own conclusions.

If you don't have time to make your own conclusions you should just do whatever you want.

How many contingencies do I need to assume here? I'm giving advice on the Internet.

With respect, and I'm not saying this applies to you, but I'm poking fun at the people throughout this thread who keep saying that these incidents should be reported to HR, or we should get HR involved, or some combination.

In my opinion, these are comments from people sitting comfortably behind their chair at insert Fortune 500 company here, who have no idea what it's like to work at or run a startup. The suggestion that said startup should go out and hire an HR consultant is equally ridiculous.

That's not to say "lawyer up" isn't good advice, because I think it is, but startups routinely hire lawyers; they do not routinely hire HR people.

My startup was almost 4 years old and well past a B round before we ended up hiring our first HR person.

So, to be clear, what I'm saying is if the problem is bad enough, you should consult a lawyer. If it isn't, you should handle it in-house with common sense and perhaps some advice from advisors/lawyers. At no point do I think it's reasonable to advise someone to go out and hire an HR consultant.

I guess the same ones who imagine that all the employees have an employment contract.

Most employment contracts allow for a probationary period during which the contract can just be cancelled. It sounds like this was a new employee so it may well be the case.

I believe sexual harassment is considered gross misconduct, and that can be grounds for immediate termination regardless.

A good lawyer would be able to advise.

Fire him, even if there are financial consequences to you. It's the right thing to do. Sure, do it right and follow the law as best as possible... but do it.

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