Maxine Neuhauser, James Flynn Quoted in "Really! You Can't Do That at Work"

Sexual harassment has become a widely recognized problem in the #MeToo era, but it’s been a big and almost entirely unrecognized problem for a very long time.

The Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Northern New Jersey understands that it’s a problem, and it’s there to help. This Thursday night, it’s offering a workshop on understanding, identifying, and preventing sexual harassment. …

Two lawyers — Maxine Neuhauser and James Flynn, both of Epstein Becker & Green, and more specifically of that huge firm’s Newark office — will offer a workshop. After that, a panel will answer questions about what constitutes harassment, and what people can do about it.

Ms. Neuhauser has more than 30 years of experience dealing with harassment, she said; “after that long in the practice of employment law, I know that there are stories that you just can’t make up,” she said.

She will talk about “how it is important for people to understand their rights as well as their obligations in the workplace,” she said. “The workplace is not a free-speech zone, and it is not a consequence-free zone. The fact is that at the workplace, we are dealing with people — and that can sometimes be a challenge. But that challenge should not rise to the level of having to deal with illegal behavior directed at you.

“And so our program is going to be focused not just on what the law is, but on what employees in general — and women in particular — are entitled to expect and to demand in any workplace they’re in.

“And I will illustrate those things through a library of stories,” she added. “And really you can’t make this stuff up.”