John McCain speaks to the National Restaraunt Association

Earlier this month, the 89th annual National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show was held at McCormick Place in Chicago. Attendees from the hospitality and restaurant industry had the opportunity to hear from special guest, U.S. Senator and Republican Party nominee, John McCain.

“The restaurant industry and its entrepreneurs have created 13 million jobs and over the next decade in a strong economy, you will likely create another two million of them. However, this will depend on the choices we make in Washington,” stated McCain.

After McCain addressed the Show, he took the time to meet with some of the industries CEOs and mayors, including NRA president Dawn Sweeney and Michael Kaufman, chairman of the Board of the Directors.

Kaufman, regarded the senator as, “an ally of the restaurant industry on immigration and the need for comprehensive reform and was pleased the senator took the time to address the Show.”

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were also invited to the Show, but were unable to attend due to the current presidential primary contest.

Weather Channel Sexual Harassment Suit

If there was ever an example of how NOT to handle sexual harassment in the workplace, look no further than The Weather Channel.

Former co-anchor Hillary Andrews filed suit----and won----against The Weather Channel’s Bob Stokes, her former co-anchor, after a laundry list of inappropriate comments and unwanted sexual advances were made to her during her employment at the network.

Andrews’ suit claimed that Stokes made several inappropriate sexual advances, including following her into her dressing room and asking if she would like to lick his “swizzle stick.” When Andrews responded negatively to Stokes’ remarks, Stokes began to insult her on the air and attempted to “sabotage her on-air performance,” according to arbitration documents.

The next step was to take the issue to upper management, who then placed Andrews on the night-shift while leaving the highly-rated Stokes on air during prime-time hours.

Exhausted and out of options, Andrews eventually resigned. Not surprisingly, Stokes was fired shortly after losing the case, and The Weather Channel is doing all it can to prevent any documentation of the suit from becoming public.

However, they have thus far been unsuccessful. The internet is teaming with stories, blogs, and copies of arbitration documents related to the suit. All this is because TWC wouldn’t do the right thing in the first place when they had the chance.

However, there is always a silver lining, and the good thing is that now people are talking about sexual harassment, how to handle it, and how to prevent it.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC received 12,510 sexual harassment charges in fiscal year 2007. 16 percent of these complaints were filed by males.

And according to the EEOC, “prevention is the best tool to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Sexual harassment training is not mandatory in every state, but there is no doubt that had The Weather Channel mandated such training for its employees, it may have been able to prevent these types of incidents from happening. At the least, the network could have had some liability relief in such a case. Learn2Serve.com offers sexual harassment training in an online format, giving companies the peace of mind that guidelines for behavior have been established, and possibly even granting them insurance relief.

“Our training removes undue burdens from the shoulders of the companies,” said Joy Sisson, Business Unit Manager for Learn2Serve.com. “It promotes personal responsibility for individual employees, and definitely makes it easier on the company to handle such issues if and when they arise.”

Do you trust your favorite restaurant?

Trust. Sometimes it’s earned. Sometimes it’s given without a second thought. When it comes to restaurants, customers give it away freely for the most part. At least initially, think about it. Let’s say that I walk into a new burger joint for my first time. My expectation is that regardless of whether or not I end up liking the food, I assume that it will be safe to eat. I assume that strict food safety guidelines are in place. I assume that the business has passed inspection. I assume the entire staff washes their hands with hot water and anti-bacterial soap after each trip to the restroom. I assume no one ever drops a hamburger patty or steak on the floor and then puts it back on a plate to be served. I assume that the cooking and wait staffs are all congenial people who would never take out their frustrations on an unsuspecting customer. I don’t think twice about the possibility of a psycho-killer cook putting cyanide ketchup on my burger. I lend my trust-to put potentially hazardous materials into my body-based on assumptions. And if I don’t die or get sick, then my trust endures.

But it’s probably happened somewhere, sometime before. Have you ever seen the movie “Waiting”? Makes ‘ya think, doesn’t it? Sure it does, but you still eat out. And why? Because these days, not everyone has time to cook for themselves at the drop of a hat. Or sometimes we’re just too lazy. We sacrifice reason at the altar of convenience. We risk possible death or sickness every day for its sake. We do the same thing when we drive vehicles. And though I am sure I will probably eat out tonight, it just seems silly to me when put into perspective.

Let’s say that tomorrow I win the lottery. I am now super rich. I have more money than I will ever need. Next month, I’m driving an Aston-Martin. I am less likely to trust a friend out of my sight behind the wheel of my new exotic sports car than I am to trust some guy who I have never met to prepare something for me to put INSIDE OF MY BODY. I can replace the car. Remember, I’m rich. Super rich. Can’t replace my body, though.

That’s one reason why I tip well and NEVER complain. I will never (at least intentionally) give anyone a reason to “get me in the gut”. NEVER. I have enough friends who work in that business and have heard enough stories from them that the only way for me to eat out is to have this blind faith that as long as I am nice, they will be too. Let’s just hope that’s the way it is in the real world.