One Monday morning, when I came into work, I stopped to say good morning to our receptionist.
She proceeded to tell me about how she had a busy weekend and how her neck was very sore.
I asked, “What were you doing?”
She got a shocked look on her face and spun in her chair to face her computer. Puzzled, I just went to my office.
Later that day I am called into the owner’s office to be told that I was having a sexual harassment complaint filed against me. I was clueless.
“It is about your conversation this morning with Becky.”
Still clueless.
“You accused her of...excessive sexual activity.”
It literally never occurred to me that “What were you doing?” was anything other than a legitimate curiosity into what had she done that weekend to cause her to injure her neck.
There was no way, officially, to fight the complaint. I was assumed guilty. I had to write a formal apology, which kept getting bounced back - HR had to approve it before it was sent - because I would not admit to harassing in writing.
They finally accepted an apology in which I, verbatim, related the exchange and apologized to her for making her feel uncomfortable.
This was 18 years ago. Total BS
Me thinks the lady doth protest too much, and “lady” is a stretch.