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Comment by icebraining | Hacker News Reader

"Private conversation" is anything not related to work, from asking if there's a good restaurant to geeking out on the latest TV show episode; it certainly does not imply any sexual attraction!

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Agreed. However once the conversation goes private it's just that - a private non work related conversation. Unless there's anything illegal there like physical threats etc it's a private matter between the parties directly involved.

From every sexual.harassment training I've had given by lawyers working in the field, the idea that a change of venue/forum necessarily removes something like this from work-related is absolutely not the case.

I think there's a fine line there. From what I understand from whatever corporate training I went through in the past - if there's a job-related activity like team dinner and then some ppl go to the bar for a few drinks - this is still 'job related'. Same goes for business-related travel and so on.

In this particular case though - a weekend conversation after an explicit request to take it private - not sure if this qualifies as "job related".

And even if it somehow does qualify as being 'job related' I guess my point is that I can see how by agreeing to switch to whatsapp the signal that she sent was 'yes, let's talk in private' and if he's the kind of dude who calls someone he barely knows a 'milf' I can totally see how in his mind this was 'yea let's hook up' :)

Coworkers speak privately to one another all the time about all sorts of things. Even in private conversations, they can reasonably expect professional and appropriate behavior from their colleagues.

When does someone become "more" than a coworker? There's no clear line there, but it's definitely not during the very first private conversation.

Don't think there's a question here whether his comments were appropriate or not. They were not.

Ppl also get harassed on the street with all kinds of inappropriate comments.

The question here is whether this constitutes a workplace sexual harassment or not. It's probably going to be a judgement call on behalf of the employer, however they have to be careful not to get a wrongful termination lawsuit to deal with down the line if they do end up letting him go.

It's a workplace issue because the two people were brought together by their employer and the conversation was initiated in a work context.

You're right that people get harassed by strangers in all sorts of public places, but that's not what happened here.

Yup same here. Every sexual harassment training course I've attended has said that just because it is not happening on company time or on company property does not make it not harassment.

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