'Kick Me' Sign Becomes Federal Case for Intel

The May 9 Wall Street Journal article “'Kick Me' Sign Becomes Federal Case for Intel” included a quote from Denver Managing Partner Todd Fredrickson. The article considered the case of a 50 year old Intel Corporation employee in New Mexico who filed a workplace harassment lawsuit against Intel and seven of his co-workers. The allegations followed an incident in which a co-worker stuck a “kick me” sign on the employee’s back. Fellow employees then took turns kicking him in his backside before one co-worker finally intervened and removed the sign. The man claimed that this was only one of several pranks played on him and that his supervisor did little to investigate his grievances. His complaint also included charges of racial and sexual discrimination. Todd said the case does little to substantiate the sophomoric behavior it alleges is truly linked to racial or gender discrimination, but he also finds it surprising that a company as large as Intel would tolerate the kind of prankster culture alleged in the complaint. “When you slice and dice these kinds of allegations, you may find out that only a small fraction of them in reality occurred."