Zookeepers take note: an employment-related practice your supervisors should avoid

February 19th, 2005 by Julie Ferguson

It’s the weekend, so we couldn’t resist bringing you this rather unusual story of two fired employees, a gorilla, and a million dollar employment lawsuit. We would like to think employers don’t need to be told these things, but apparently some people need things spelled out in some detail: it’s not a good idea to ask your employees to disrobe in front of the gorillas. No, not even when the gorilla in question is celebrity “talking” ape Koko. In fact, unless you can prove that it is an essential function of the job, it’s generally a bad idea to ask your employees to disrobe in front of anyone, beast or otherwise. And another pointer. OSHA takes a dim view of things when you store gorilla urine in the same refrigerator where your employees keep their lunches. There are probably other lessons in this story as well, but those seem to be the two big take-aways.