The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Friday that employers in the state can legally fire workers they find too attractive.
In a unanimous decision, the court held that a dentist did not violate the state’s civil rights act when he terminated a female dental assistant whom his wife considered a threat to their marriage.
The dental assistant, Melissa Nelson, who worked for dentist James Knight for more than 10 years and had never flirted with him, according to the testimony of both parties, sued, saying she would not have been fired if she were a man.
At trial, Knight testified he had complained to Nelson on several occasions that her clothing was too tight, revealing and “distracting.”
But sometime in 2009, he also began exchanging text messages with Nelson. Most of these were work-related and harmless, according to testimony. But others were more suggestive, including one in which Knight asked Nelson how often she had an orgasm. She never answered the text.
In late 2009, Knight’s wife found out about the text exchanges and demanded her husband terminate the dental assistant because “she was a big threat to our marriage.”
In early 2010, he fired her, saying their relationship had become a detriment to his family.
Nelson sued, saying that she had done nothing wrong, that she considered Knight a friend and father figure, and that she would not have been terminated but for her gender.
Knight argued that Nelson was terminated not because of her gender — all the employees of his practice are women — but because of the way their relationship had developed and the threat it posed to his marriage.
The seven justices, all men, said the basic question presented by the case was “whether an employee who has not engaged in flirtatious conduct may be lawfully terminated simply because the boss views the employee as an irresistible attraction.”
The high court ruled that bosses can fire workers they find too attractive and that such actions do not amount to unlawful discrimination.
The case was Melissa Nelson v. James H. Knight DDS, PC and James Knight.
I don’t get how this is lawful. Could the same thing happen to a good looking man? I smell discrimination all over this.
The guy was a horn dog and his wife found out so he fires his assistant? He had no right. Hope this goes to a real court instead of some backwoods court.
Its his business. If he accosted her, then he could be sued or prosecuted. Give me a break.
so text messages about orgasms dont count?
No surprise here. The American worker has become a spineless jelly fish and employers are doing just about anything they want these days. If she had been in a union, it would not have been near as much fun for the dentist.
Your right, there would have been an assistant for each tooth at double the pay rate of the average non union assistant.
Yes, the WalMarting of America is a much better plan. If you are lucky enough to have a job, it doesn’t pay enough to live on. The new American dream is to pay off your used mobile home before your 80th birthday. We are in a race to the bottom in America these days grampy, don’t be afraid to step on the gas by slamming unions every chance you get! lol.
You should start a retail business employ a couple million people that as a rule do not have a high skill set and pay them each $20.00 per hour or more with full benefits and then you can be happy.
Or, I could pay them minimum wage and only work them part time. Then, you could help pay for their groceries, heating oil, and “free” health care down at the emergency room.
I trust that you will find that hardly anyone at WalMart works for minimum wage. My wife worked there at one time and actually made far above minimum wage and was very satisfied with her benefit package, profit sharing and compaqny discount. She always thought it was a great place to work. My point in my original comment was that it is their choice as a company to pay what they choose to , nobody is forcing anyone to work for them. If you would like to do something different with your employees go right ahead.
$13,600 a year is the average salary for a Walmart under employee. Google it. The Walton clan is now worth in excess of $104 billion, or $104,000 million. I think that is enough, they don’t, but I do. I also think they could afford to give those people a raise. I cut them off years ago. Giving the Walton brats more money is like giving a heroin addict more heroin. It is not the way to cure their addiction.
Do you patronize Hannaford, Shaw’s, Target, K Mart, Rite Aide, any local C-Store or gas station? There are tens of thousands of businesses that pay no better or worse than WalMart. The Walton family invested their money, time and effort to build their business. They employ millions of people around the world and produce jobs for other companies that otherwise would not be there. How many people have you ever employed? How many jobs have you created?
Again, nobody forces someone to work at WalMart or any other business. If someone wants to make more money than they are personally responsible to aquire more advanced job skills to obtain better employment. A company should not be expected to pay people at a higher rate because you and others think that they have a moral obligation to do so.
The Walton family built their business? lol. I thought they picked the right name on the crib? Their father built the business and left it to them. He also took care of his employees and tried to feature American products. His kids do neither. I have employed many people in the past at a living wage. They would go back to work for me tomorrow, if I ever chose to go back into that business. I have been in the marine construction and diving and salvage business on MDI. You are just like all the other defenders of the greedy Walton brats. You dodge the point and change the subject. One more time, and it is the last time I will ask you. Is it fair that we have to supplement minimum wage employees with food stamps, heat assistance, and “free” medical care down at the emergency room while their “employers” stack up billions? Shouldn’t the minimum wage be enough to get those people off the tax payer’s backs, regardless of skill level?
The Walton family built their business, I am sure all those children played important roles throughout their lives leading to the growth that WalMart has had over the years. You failed to answer my question of whether you patronize the businesses that I mentioned, as they are no better than WalMart in how they treat their employees. The fact that we have to supplement lower wage employees with welfare benefits is not somwthing that I am endeared to, but you can’t single out WalMart from the tens of thousands of companies that pay no better or worse than they do. If a person has minimum skills, why should they make more than there skills warrant? The question of minimum wage needs to be taken up with lawmakers. You in your comments fail to recognize that there is a degree of personal responsibility on the part of people to better themselves to enable them to make a better wage if they so desire. I personally am not a huge fan of WalMart, but also know that they can’t be singled out in conversations such as this.
I do not patronize most of those businesses you listed. I do 90% of my business with in a 5 mile radius of my house with locally owned businesses where I know the owner. I do the rest over the internet with companies that only carry American made products. You are sure right about one thing, it isn’t just Walmart anymore. They all want to be like the big W and it has led to an explosion of under employment and “public assistance” wages throughout the nation and on every corner. For many people in rural Maine, WalMart or Family Dollar is the only show in town for employment, regardless of education or skill level. They ran everyone else out of business. I always had a ton of respect for the people of Vermont when they said no to WalMart. I still do not think there is a WalMart in Vermont to this day. Their down towns are thriving still.
Not many – folks travel quite a ways to find one.
5 Walmart Stores near “vermont”
http://www.walmart.com/storeLocator/ca_storefinder_results.do?serviceName=&rx_title=com.wm.www.apps.storelocator.page.serviceLink.title.default&rx_dest=%2Findex.gsp&sfrecords=50&sfsearch_single_line_address=vermont
Having been in a union and seeing what low life the union bosses from Boston are I will slam the unions every chance I get.
The majority of our founding fathers were members of the world’s oldest union, the brotherhood of Masons. I am a proud member as well. Slam away grampy, We have broad, strong shoulders and never ever run from a fight. When you hear the phrase “…in order to form a more perfect union” do you cringe? lol.
Good for you. You can start shouting some catchy slogan now.
Private union membership is down to 7% in America grampy. You are going to get your wish for a world without unions pretty soon. Everyone will be working for $5 an hour and the world will make sense to you once again.
Spoken like a complete dcehaboug.
Truth hurts doesn’t it?
What truth its that?
Happens to me all the time! :-)
Sounds to me that if the wife had not found out about the text messages she would be still be employed. She worked there for ten years. Granted she was warned about the way she dressed but she was only terminated after the wife found out about the text messages. The judges were wrong.
It’s not even clear if there had really been any changes in her dress habits. The boss appears to have had an obsession and very likely created that issue entirely in his own mind.
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She was fired because her boss is admittedly a weak inferior man. I do not believe for one minute that his marriage was saved. Anyone that weak and that disloyal to his spouse is not likely to remain faithful.
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The key phrase here is: ” The seven justices, all men,”
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Their wives should also be concerned. They all believe that it is the other woman’s fault if a man cheats on his wife.
Hope she’s got a decent lawyer. This is a U. S. Supreme Court case if there ever was one… with a decent settlement she won’t have to worry about working for any more horny dentists. I think he could have easily taken care of the situation by creating a uniform dress code for the office. Same rules for everyone. Not following the rules could have then been a fire-able offense, but with rules in place, she may have very well toed the line.
They all wear scrubs at my dentist’s place.
Note that the only testimony about inappropriate dress came from the mind of an obsessed apparently unstable man.
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It is quite possible there was absolutely nothing inappropriate in the way she dressed.
I like the way most women look in jeans, does that mean I could fire a woman for wearing jeans I thought made her look to good.
Stupid decision by the courts.
She should have sued him for sexual harassment!
The day I got fired for this (after being asked by my boss about my orgasms) I’d be filing a sexual harrassment suit that would do more harm to Mr. Dentist and his wife than their dull minds can apparently imagine.
I agree. She should file a sexual harassment suit.
Sure she didn’t answer his Sext, her story and she is sticking to it.
If she did the boss could have gotten a subpoena for her phone records. That fact that he did not do that supports her apparently completely truthful statement.
Stevey just assumes all employees are lying leeches out to strip him of his fortune.
It sounds like the marriage was in trouble to begin with on the other hand if he was asking that kind of stuff he’s a lout.
Hey, if he wants to let her go, it’s his business. With the publicity this has received, I bet she ends up with a better job before the story’s electronic ink dries, and everybody now knows what an loser he is. If I were one of his patients, I’d be looking for a new dentist. These things have a way or working themselves out.
Hey, if he wants to let her go, it’s his business. I’m willing to bet that with the publicity this is getting, that she’ll have a better job before the story’s electronic ink dries, and everybody now knows what a loser he is. If I were one of his patients, I’d be looking for a new dentist. These things have a way of working themselves out.
I see this going badly for him, doesn’t sound like grounds for her to be fired.
We’ll see how that works out the first time a man is fired for being too sexy.
A job, especially any particular job, is not a right. A job is a mutual contract between two people. Without a contract either of those individuals can end the mutual contract at any time.
Fired for being too attractive? In Iowa? I’d think that wouldn’t be a problem. :)
This is the first piece I’ve ever read about anything or anyone in Iowa being too sexy. What’s that state coming to? Can’t the dental certification board put in a prohibition against leering and other lascivious behavior? Corniness can be tolerated in Iowa, but the other? Never!
Related in a way, why is it that Mrs. Halftrack has never ordered the general to get rid of Miss Buxley, what with the way she struts her stuff around the file cabinets?
Wow
The high court ruled that bosses can fire workers they find too attractive.
Some might ask for a definition of the words because there is a difference between being “attractive” and being “an irresistible attraction.”
From time to time I meet and chat with a woman who is perfection in every department. She is more than attractive, but I have long marveled that she lacks what one might call “an irresistible attraction” or sex appeal. I can also testify that a friend of mine was once married to a woman, not necessarily beautiful, but who had such “an irresistible attraction” that I, an unmarried man, simply stopped visiting at their house. Not that it made any difference, because she ran off with another man within a year, anyway.
So here we have a woman who is perfection in every department who is completely devoid of sex appeal, and another ordinary housewife whose mere presence pushed the buttons of a middle-aged man to the extent that he couldn’t even visit there. I discount any suggestions that being well past seventy and married and fifty years older when I met the second one made any difference.
There is no question in my mind that there are some people who should not share the same workplace, be it an office, a store or a church, because there exists between them an irresistible attraction. The attraction is somewhat intensified if one or both of the parties are already married to someone else. Novels have been written about this and I have heard detailed accounts from friends about having it happen to them.
If you have been involved in one of these affairs you know that it too often leads to no good. You might be surprised that you don’t read about it more often.
The humble Farmer