about 20 years ago I had a client that I was friendly with accuse me of sexual harassment. It was a completely messed up situation because she was the one who actually did the harassment to me.
I was getting rid of some furniture that she knew about and wanted some of the items. Told her the price we were asking and she asked if there were ways that she could lower the price.
I didn't bite, kept saying the price we were asking, but would give her a little bit of a deal. she kept at it with the vague comments "...is there anything I could do to get a better price?..." kind of talk. little flirty giggles and that eye blinking look while asking.
she just kept at it.
"there are things that I could do to you if you could give me a better price..." the crazy thing is that she was doing this in front of my team members. making it a joke and kept at it all day.
again, I would answer with, well. you could arrange for the mover or courier to help with moving the stuff. I just didn't want to go down that road. this was a good client that she worked for. I know my boundaries.
finally one of her colleagues just said "...I think she's offering you a blow job!".
rolling my eyes, i was truthfully just shrugging it off. laughed and let the day go forward.
2 days later, I get a meeting request with the president of the company and go to his office and there are about 4 other people in there, lawyers. they tell me that they had a sexual harassment complaint against me and they were terminating our relationship.
Talk about being found guilty without a trial.
they just wanted distance. I get it, but I was floored. It still bothers me to this day. I truly was the one being harassed.
found out later that she used it as an excuse to be put on a different account, wanted to move up the ladder more quickly etc.
Just sharing this because it's the one making the complaint that will win every time.