I recently heard someone say that presidential hopeful, Herman Cain, must have been guilty of the charges of sexual harrassment that had been spoken against him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thrown in the towel on his run for the presidency.

I would have said that also at an earlier place in my journey of life. But now, I know that couldn’t be further from the truth.

As a young clinical administrator, I too had been threatened with suit. I had taken over the office management responsibilities for a group of physicians and after a couple of years, found myself facing charges from a female lawyer (hired gun) who was hired by one of the office nurses after I addressed my refusal to tolerate her continued unprofessionalism one day in the office.

The charges brought against me were absolutely false (I know, we all say that) and didn’t include sexual harrassment THANK GOD! But false charges were made, none the less. For example, one charge included underpayment of her salary. She was making more than any of the other nurses at that time. The minimum wage was around $3.50 an hour and she was making about $14.00/ hour. That fact didn’t prevent the nurse or the lawyer from making the ridiculous charge however.

We sought legal advice, I learned not to use the phrase “office bitch” out loud, and everything just went away after ignoring her threat to “sue for much more if a large sum of money wasn’t paid in 30 days.” 

Regardless, I did learn that just because somebody brings charges against you, they are not always true. The sad fact about life is that there are people who really do love to bring harm to others. And sticks and stones may not break bones but words CAN harm you.