Matt Lauer Fired due to Inappropriate Sexual Behavior. Has This Happened to You?

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Heard this am about this from NBC News: Matt Lauer fired for inappropriate behavior.

Here is the NBC video regarding the announcement.

What is your opinion? Have you encountered sexual harassment in the workplace?

If you would prefer to discuss this privately, please PM me and you will remain anonymous.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I have been slapped on the behind by a male nurse I was working with....as in...hand pulled back and *SMACK*!!...after he gave me report on a patient.

I have had a physician run his crotch over my back end when I was bent over doing something work related and a congenial smile as if he had somehow just complimented me by doing it.

I have been propositioned for oral sex with the proposition being repeated multiple times even after I was very clear in my disinterest in said activity.

I have had flowers left on my desk in a very public way even after it was made clear I wasn't interested, spurring a LOT of talk and speculation among coworkers and embarrassment for me.

I have had patients proposition me and comment on my body shape, size, etc in ways that had nothing at all to do with the care I was providing.

On and on it goes. So yeah. I have had this happen to me.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
I haven't read all the comments and I hope someone has already said something similar.

Matt Lauer supposedly physically touched.

I am a male nurse and I "sexually harass" every single female on my unit and they do it right back. I wouldn't have it any other way, we are family. I have NEVER touched a coworker without her permission and if anyone was ever offended, I would stop immediately with that person.

We got a new bladder scanner on our unit and a few of the nurses said "Come on, let's test this thing on you and see that thing you got." And of course I let them.

Work would be boring if we didn't have fun with each other. It makes us closer and family.

I ask coworkers all the time to show me their "t word." Heck, I did it tonight.

Once again, if ANYONE ever asked me to stop, I would.

Yep. And that person would be totally accepted and not feel at all like an outsider for objecting to inappropriate work behavior by your entire unit, right?

See, that is the problem. You have a culture of this going on there. It creates pressure to submit to it, keep silent about it, go along with it and/or accept it or participate in it whether they are comfortable with it or not. Who is going to come forward in that climate?? It is wrong and unprofessional. To say that sexually inappropriate behavior makes you a "family" is just....deluded.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
Yep. And that person would be totally accepted and not feel at all like an outsider for objecting to inappropriate work behavior by your entire unit, right?

See, that is the problem. You have a culture of this going on there. It creates pressure to submit to it, keep silent about it, go along with it and/or accept it or participate in it whether they are comfortable with it or not. Who is going to come forward in that climate?? It is wrong and unprofessional. To say that sexually inappropriate behavior makes you a "family" is just....deluded.

^^ This! Thank you for wording it better than I would be able to.

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I got asked by an attractive MD once just in passing if I'd like to go to a hotel and watch dirty movies together? I was so embarrassed. I answered, "No, thank you." :shy: :sarcastic: :speechless:

He was married, I think w children, and so was I. Wonder how long it took for him to find someone else?

Was that just a 'horny guy' assertive question or what??? It just felt inappropriate and objectifying. :wacky::nurse::banghead:

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I haven't read all the comments and I hope someone has already said something similar.

Matt Lauer supposedly physically touched.

I am a male nurse and I "sexually harass" every single female on my unit and they do it right back. I wouldn't have it any other way, we are family. I have NEVER touched a coworker without her permission and if anyone was ever offended, I would stop immediately with that person.

We got a new bladder scanner on our unit and a few of the nurses said "Come on, let's test this thing on you and see that thing you got." And of course I let them.

Work would be boring if we didn't have fun with each other. It makes us closer and family.

I ask coworkers all the time to show me their "t word." Heck, I did it tonight.

Once again, if ANYONE ever asked me to stop, I would.

Good lord! I hope you don't get new employees on your unit often, because I imagine anyone new walking into this atmosphere would have to extremely taken aback by the atmosphere. What do you suppose would happen if someone asked you to stop? You'd stop with THEM, but continue to sexually harass everyone else on your unit? Wouldn't that person be more or less ostracized? Would they still be considered a valuable member of the team?

I knew that some guys don't see the problem with sexual harassment, but I am very surprised that one would actually defend it.

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Specializes in Neuro.
'...nearly all women...'? I seriously doubt 'nearly all women' have been harassed in some fashion. If so, then it would be naive to say they are 'harassed' at a higher frequency than men.

Your mind set is exactly part of the problem. Yes nearly all women, not all women. But please minimize the female experience with male expertise.

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I haven't read all the comments and I hope someone has already said something similar.

Matt Lauer supposedly physically touched.

I am a male nurse and I "sexually harass" every single female on my unit and they do it right back. I wouldn't have it any other way, we are family. I have NEVER touched a coworker without her permission and if anyone was ever offended, I would stop immediately with that person.

We got a new bladder scanner on our unit and a few of the nurses said "Come on, let's test this thing on you and see that thing you got." And of course I let them.

Work would be boring if we didn't have fun with each other. It makes us closer and family.

I ask coworkers all the time to show me their "t word." Heck, I did it tonight.

Once again, if ANYONE ever asked me to stop, I would.

Are you serious?

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Unfortunately I have... my DON.. who would tell me how hot I am, and what he would do if only. He was engaged and they were trying for a baby. It's crazy. I was a brand new nurse, and I never acted on it, I wish I would of said something. He's now got his Doctorate and in charge if so many facilities. I no longer work there, and to this day he will still reach out to me and see how I am. Has also now married, and they had that baby....

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We need someone's expertise.

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I have had some experience in this. :-(

In a non-nursing job a man harassed me, flirted with me, and kept pestering me to go to lunch with him-- but only him, other co-workers were not invited. I was married at the time, kept turning him down, and reported him. The company dealt with this by transferring him. So he could bother other women at the new place.

After I quit a job, the manager asked me to work on some "private" projects for his other company. But I had to go to his house if I wanted the job. This man had such a bad reputation that his personal assistants kept quitting. (The one who lasted the longest was a cross-dressing male assistant!). Anyway, I told him no thank you and never heard from him again.

And yes, in nursing. One male nurse has made sexual jokes more than once, talked about other female co-workers's bodies in front of me, and when I tell him it's not cool and please don't talk about that kind of thing with me, he insists he's "just joking" and implies I don't have a sense of humor. He also asked me out the first time I met him after he found out I was a newly single person. He has been married for 30 years. And, I found out that recently he and his wife (who he always talks badly about at work) had a vow renewal ceremony. I feel sorry for her and wish someone would tell her about her husband.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

To say "me too" sounds very cliche. But it happened to me, too. I was in high school. A car full of boys I grew up with since age 11 picked me up, offering a much-wanted warm ride---- walking 2 miles home on a frigid day in Chicago. I trusted them. Until they took me to an abandoned warehouse parking lot and attempted to gang rape me. I fought, bit, scratched and kicked my way out of that car, and ran home on ice and snow like on the wings of a dove.

I was out of breath and upset when I got home. Mom asked what was wrong. I refused to tell her or Dad or ANYONE. I was ashamed I let it happen. I knew my parents (who were not kind people) would blame me anyhow. They were jocks and popular; who was I gonna tell, the cops, who had a son in the group? No---- the Principal, who had a daughter in that school? No. A teacher? Never; these guys were untouchable.

I was powerless, ashamed, embarrassed--- (they laughed at me the first day of school after that and spread rumors I was a "skank") ----and humiliated, violated.

They went on with their lives, going to top colleges on football scholarships; I believing I was a stupid "skank" flunked out of college myself. Zero self-esteem. I buried that memory for years until I saw one of the men, years later in Arizona, where I lived at the time---- in a restaurant. Figure the odds, but there he was, looking as arrogant and ugly as the day we graduated, with kids in tow. He looked right through me, not remembering or recognizing even who I was. I was used trash he forgot years before. The memories flooded back, and I left the restaurant throwing up in the parking lot. The whole thing relived in my mind again.

They went on to marry and have kids and still are successful lawyers, businessmen, etc today. They got away with it scott-free.

But I kept my silence. No one but my husband knows what I suffered that snowy, wintry night in Chicago, all those years ago. No one. And took me til last year to even tell my husband after nearly 30 years' married when he saw the story about Matt Lauer and accused the women of lying to get a payoff. I blew up and told him my story. He was frozen, silent at what I told him. And sorry he had said what he had cause it took me an hour to stop crying after I told him.

So go to hell Matt Lauer and all these men who got away with abusing vulnerable people long ago. Read the story on USC, the gyno who got away with sexually abusing 1000s of patients over 30 years. The ones who spoke up, were not listened to, even another staff gynecologist and several chaperone nurses.

See as a woman, I still have little faith in the "system" for justice even today.

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