Can you translate to human why " the person who reported this to you, who was called a "milf" by the bizdev guy, was on a PIP." is a nightmare scenario. If she is on a PIP (just checked out what that means), she is on a final warning basically?
She's someone you're trying to manage out of the company. Maybe you were harsher on her performance metrics than you needed to be, because in the back of your head, getting rid of someone who complained about sexual harassment was easier than dealing with the problem. Presto: colorable sexual harassment and/or retaliation claim.
Thank you.
How does firing the accused harasser clear the path to PIP firing? It still looks just as much as retaliation for pushing another employee out.
It doesn't. That's the point: get rid of sexual harassment risks before they can create problems like this.
If someone sexually harasses someone who the company needs to let go for unrelated performance reasons, then this gives the victim a lot of leverage for lawsuits or expensive financial settlements if and when she is terminated for those unrelated performance reasons.
You're right. If she was already on a dated and documented PIP before the report, then you're probably OK. It would be worse if you were just about to put her on a PIP.
I don't think timestamps are going to be as dispositive as you'd hope they'd be in this situation.