by Toni Shibayama
A Country Club GM wakes up one morning, grabs a cup of coffee, and logs on to his computer. As he does his morning search for sports scores, stock prices, and new book releases on Amazon, he casually Googles “Country Club Sexual Harassment Cases.” As the information floods his screen, he nearly spills his coffee when he sees the name of his Club, and his own name, targeted for a harassment lawsuit. He scrolls down… “San Diego Club Hit By $500,000 settlement”…. “Santa Fe Club Ordered to Pay $496,000 to Settle Suit.” He realizes he’s not alone; it’s a real problem in the industry.
Even though this GM is awake, he’s caught in a frequent nightmare that is hard to wake up from as more and more Clubs find themselves with a bulls-eye on their backs when it comes to sexual harassment suits. But the ripple effect goes way beyond the checkbook. Think of it in terms of the collateral damage to your Club’s reputation. That’s a dollar sign that’s hard to comprehend.
Here’s a good example: There is a brand new server and a member grabs her, picks her up, throws her over his shoulder like a caveman, and runs to his car, opens up the backseat, throws her in and shuts the door and starts laughing. All the co-workers are shocked and members are laughing; “That so and so; he’s such a card.” She runs in the locker room, gets all of her stuff and leaves. And you can bet her next stop is a local attorney.
Did anyone see that this member would be a potential problem? Had employees approached their managers about inappropriate advances? And if so, was action taken or was it avoided because “he’s an important member”? I bet a lot of the managers probably sat back and said, “I wish I would’ve done something.”
It’s important to train your employees to feel like they have a voice. That they can talk to you; maybe there’s a hotline where they can anonymously reveal something they felt was inappropriate. But then again; maybe they didn’t feel comfortable doing so because they feel there will be retaliation.
You must train your managers, supervisors and leads to monitor what’s going on in their department. Everyone’s watching what you’re doing. You need to protect your employees, to let them know it’s inappropriate for members to put their hands on employees (and vice-versa). Make sure your employee manual stresses the need for people to be kind, nice, and fair, thus creating a safe environment. Let them know the old adage of “They are just joking around,” or “Boys will be boys” doesn’t fly here. You want people to feel respected. Doesn’t matter how old they are, or what country they are from, or what visa they have, everybody deserves respect.
The incident that I mentioned is a true story. That club is still going through this lawsuit and it’s probably up to a little over a million dollars by now. And will insurance cover it? Possibly but if they do, expect the premiums to skyrocket or worse off, the policy will not be renewed. So, shame on that club; they’re going to pay for it dearly. And it’s going to be connected with that GM’s name forever.
So please take the time to notice what’s going on between your employees and members. Notice the conversation that’s happening between them. It’s your responsibility to do that. And it really doesn’t take much because you would want somebody to notice if it was happening to you.
Finally, remember; sexually harassment can sometimes be a “he said-she said” scenario, but the burden of proof falls on the Club to prove it didn’t happen. Be cautious; if you start filing a lot of employee claims and the names look familiar, a red flag should go up. Who hired this person? Did they work at a different club? Did we do any reference checks? Did they go through orientation? Or did we just fast track them because it’s hard to find good candidates? Do your due diligence. Is that person helping the team or hurting it? It’s just like finding a spouse; take your time. Because if the mentality is just to hire a warm body, chances are somewhere down the road your Club is going to get burned.
Toni Shibayama is a Broker/Risk Consultant for S&K Insurance in Southern California. She has more than 15 years experience in risk management, job safety, Workers’ Compensation, wellness and HR consulting. Toni is also the author of “The Private Club General Manager’s Big Game Playbook.”
She can be reached at toni@sk-insurance.com and by phone at 213.627.5204.
