Woman Claims Boss Forced Her to Pick Up Dog Poop After She Rejected Male Coworker's Advances

"What kind of human being does something like that?” Shanae Johnson asked.

January 10, 2018

Dog poop sign — Image via Getty/ullstein bild
Getty

Shanae Johnson, a 26-year-old woman living in New York City, has filed a complaint against her boss after he reportedly forced her to clean up dog poop as payback for rejecting a male coworker’s advances.

Johnson, who worked at the Easy Thrift Shop in Brooklyn, New York, told theNew York Daily News that her boss Earl Dennis made her pick up dog poop in a deliberate attempt to humiliate her and give her anxiety. She claims he even recorded her on his phone as she attempted to go through with the task, even as she became nauseated and started to cry. In the end, she refused to complete the task, which was when the owner, infuriated with her, picked up the dog poop himself and held it to her face. He told her it was fake dog poop. The incident took place on Nov. 29.

"It felt so degrading," Johnson said. "I’m talking to you now, and I’m shaking. It was so degrading."

Johnson has already filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights and explicitly stated that the cruel prank was punishment for shutting down a male coworker a few days prior to the incident. She identified this co-worker only as "Joe." She said was working with him at Tax Town, a financial services business which also belongs to Dennis, after Dennis himself had requested the two to help out.

"You smell so nice. What are you wearing?" Joe, who was her supervisor, reportedly told her. Johnson also cited in her complaint that Joe stood "unreasonably close" to her and "sniffed" her.

"How old are you? Just asking to see if I am not too old for you," Joe allegedly asked.

"I am 26 and have been married for six years. Please stop," Johnson responded.

Dennis denies the entire incident. "I don’t know anything about this," Dennis told the New York Daily News. "I think there’s something mentally wrong with her."

"It didn’t happen," he continued. "We’re good people. We don’t do anything bad."

Dennis also said Johnson was a volunteer, not an employee. But Johnson’s lawyer David H. Rosenberg has claimed otherwise. "She was paid in cash. We have texts from her to him about running late," he said. "My client rejected sexual advances and was retaliated [against] for doing so. Her boss made her pick up what he described as 'dog poo' and filmed the incident on his cell phone."

"I don’t know why he’d want to do a prank like that, while recording it on his phone. What kind of human being does something like that?" Johnson said. "It was so humiliating. If I could erase it from my memory, I would do that."