Gresham Burger King Strips Employee of Dignity

I am revisiting a story which was covered in today's Oregonian. You can read it here---> Gresham Burger King is sued in disrobing

Once again we see how failure to use common sense ends with a traumatized young lady and a company facing a lawsuit. All of which could have been easily avoided if at any time any of the people involved would have stopped, and thought about what was happening.

The basic story is as follows. A female worker was accused of stealing $50 from a customer, after the end of her shift she is outside with her mother when the manager asks her to return with him to his office. The manager claims he has a police officer on the phone who wishes to speak with her. The caller instructs the minor female to completely undress in front of the manager. She complies. At some point the young girl is sitting on a chair, naked with her legs closed and the caller instructs her to spread her legs so the manager can see between them. She refuses. Finally, after 45 minutes the girl's mother comes in and instructs her daughter to get dressed and they leave.

Now let us review and perhaps question the actions of everyone involved. First, if you are in a position of authority and you receive a call from someone claiming to be in law enforcement who is asking you to follow bizarre instructions over the phone shouldn't you at least attempt to verify this person's claim? The story never explains how the manager came to be on the phone with this caller to begin with.

Second, even if your company has placed you in a position of authority it should be obvious that you do not have the right to ask any employee to strip down for you, much less a minor female. This guy managed a Burger King after all, it was not exactly a high-security government facility.
Third, you are a parent and your child has been accused of a crime by her employer and you just let her be taken away for questioning without accompanying her? Bad move. And then you sit idly by for 45 minutes before you check to see what is going on? Ok, not criminal perhaps but still bad parenting.

The girl involved can be excused. Even though it should have seemed obvious that getting disrobed for your manager was not company policy she was definitely feeling intimidated and she had to assume she was speaking to a real police officer because that is what her manager had told her.

Personally, I think the manager should have known better and in addition to being sued he should have faced criminal charges. For one thing, in my position at work I have received calls from people claiming to be in law enforcement asking me to provide them with customer information. Perhaps these were legitimate law enforcement officers, perhaps not. But in each case I refused to comply and I directed them to the proper people within our organization for assistance. So again, the manager of the Gresham Burger King should have known better.

Common sense. Use it.