Meet Dru DiSilvestro, the manager at an electrical contractor in Elmer, NJ, accused of sexually harassing Kimberly North, a 23-year-old employee, while in the midst of litigation brought by another employee accusing DiSilvestro of flashing his penis and leaving a dildo on her desk. And that wasn’t even the first lawsuit accusing DiSilvestro of harassment. His employer settled another even earlier suit accusing him of sexually crude language.
According to the New York Post, “North says DiSilvestro for years made comments about her ‘hot body,’ grabbed his crotch while making lewd faces at her and asked her about her sexual preferences.” Further, when she broke up with her boyfriend, “DiSilvestro allegedly sent her a text … of a porno video and a GIF of a woman performing a sex act on a man.” Her lawsuit includes screenshots of the alleged text messages.
Worse yet, when North complained to DiSilvestro’s bosses they did nothing, even though they were already in the middle of defending the penis-and-dildo lawsuit. Eventually, North took a leave of absence because of the anxiety of working with DiSilvestro, and quit a month later. Her lawsuit soon followed.
If you ignore complaints of egregious sexual harassment brought by an employee while already litigating similarly awful claims of sexual harassment brought by another employee against the same supervisor, you might be the worst employer of 2020.