I wanted to take a moment to respond further to the stories of workplace sexual harassment that have been coming forward more and more in the past weeks. Many, from various talking heads to Eric Trump, seem to be suggesting that all a woman (or man) needs to do to dispel sexual harassment is go to human resources. Firstly, this point of view totally ignores the reality that many workplace cultures subtly encourage employees not to file harassment claims. Additionally, as I’ve discussed in my book, in many instances of workplace bullying (including sexual harassment), HR can oftentimes be part of the problem – either because they don’t have the power to effectively resolve issues, or because they are actively taking part in creating issues. Blindly directing targets of sexual harassment to HR is not only foolish, but potentially harmful in the modern workplace. Unless HR is completely trustworthy in the given organization, targets need to gather substantive evidence of their harassment to back themselves up when they finally make their situation known – otherwise, HR can end up empowering the bully or harasser further, sometimes unintentionally. As opposed to encouraging more women to speak up about harassment, which is valuable, I suggest another option: we need to encourage HR officers to grow backbones. In many workplaces like Fox News, where ongoing harassment seemed to be an open secret, where was HR? Where is HR when an employee is showing clear signs of domestic abuse, sexual harassment or mental issues? Many of the workplace bullying cases I see day to day could be avoided – if HR was empowered to help employees effectively, and had the real intention to do so.
Expanding the Inquiry at Fox News
It seems that in the fallout after the exit of Roger Ailes, Fox News is expanding its inquiry into what others within the organization knew about the sexual harassment allegations. However, it’s worth noting that the inquiry isn’t expanding into a full-scale cultural investigation – it’s still limited to Roger Ailes. While the Murdochs have to realize that they’d appear negligent not to expand their investigation to see who else was aware of Ailes’s behavior, they should open up their organization to the positive changes a comprehensive cultural review would bring to their organization. Not only would many employees probably feel better about the whole situation, but it would portray a positive image to viewers who might feel confused or deceived by Ailes’s harassment and subsequent departure. You can read more on this at The New York Times.
Image: Fox News at the 2016 DNC. Image Credit: Eric Thayer for NYT.
Paul Ryan's Unique Opportunity
Paul Ryan has a unique opportunity right now – the opportunity to flush some substantive truth out of Donald Trump. Trump’s refusal to endorse Ryan aside, one of the main thorns in the proverbial side of Trump’s campaign is his refusal to open his tax returns to the public. Since Trump has no history of public service for voters to judge him upon, his tax returns would provide some hard records on what he’s actually accomplished, especially considering that he’s selling himself to the American public on his business prowess and integrity.
With the spotlight on Paul Ryan due to Trump’s vindictive refusal to endorse him, Ryan should use this opportunity to turn the tables. He should demand that Donald Trump make his tax returns public in exchange for his continued support. Not only do the American people need to make sure Trump doesn’t have any skeletons in his closet, but it would be good for Ryan to truly test how dedicated Trump is to the political party he’s dominating in what looks like a hostile takeover. Additionally, it may push the media to press harder on Trump’s background, which until this point has remained largely unchallenged by the American press. If Ryan decided to really push Trump at this moment, it could be a turning point in the US election.
Image via The Fiscal Times
Donald Trump Knows Nothing About Sexual Harassment
At the risk of sounding exhaustive, Donald Trump’s statements on sexual harassment are clearly inane – he’s talking about a subject that he obviously knows nothing about. His suggestion that a woman should change her career (regardless of her actual ability to do so) in the face of harassment shows a fundamental lack of empathy and serious regard for an issue that should concern both women and men everywhere. In fact, protections should be in place that prevent a target of sexual harassment from having to switch jobs or careers at all – that’s the whole point. Additionally, Eric Trump’s later attempt to save face by implying that “strong women” don’t allow themselves to be harassed is thinly veiled victim-blaming – plus, his suggestion to go to Human Resources doesn’t take into account that, in many cases, HR can be part of the problem. Targets of sexual harassment in the workplace need to gather documented evidence of the issue so that they have substantive protections when filing a claim, with HR or legally. By continuing to stand with Roger Ailes, Donald Trump is showing how little regard he has for sexual harassment as a problem in and of itself – and how little regard he must have for working people everywhere. Maybe Ivanka is staying “mum” on this subject because she knows her family is wrong on this one, despite being at the center of this debacle. You can read more on this at The New York Times.
Image: Donald Trump and his children in 2014. Image Credit: Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency via NYT
Board Corruption Impacting School Children
When children are involved in any organization, whether it’s a school or a nonprofit, they should always come first. However, according to this story from The New York Times, there seems to be so much neglect, greed and corruption at the board level of the Hershey Trust Company that the kids who attend the Milton Hershey School don’t have anyone to depend on. The school, founded by the chocolate tycoon in 1909 for underprivileged kids, is supposed to be run by the Hershey Trust Company; however, between bad business deals, overblown trustee salaries and breaches of general practices that seem designed to serve the board members over the children, this truly does seem like one of the greatest “nonprofit scandal[s] in the last 30 or 40 years,” as one critic states in the article. Sadly, corruption from the top-down is not too uncommon – however, when it comes to protecting children and making sure they get the education and resources they need, this case is particularly appalling.
Image: Children playing hockey on the grounds of the Milton Hershey School. Image Credit: Will Figg for NYT
Is this the kind of company you would work for? Is this the kind of company you would invest with?
I have many thoughts on this particular story, where it seems that issues of harassment at the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, are coming to a head. Firstly, it’s important to note that it’s not just females who get harassed sexually in the workplace. Essentially, a male employee was repeatedly sexually propositioned and harassed by a male supervisor, and was discouraged to report this by both the culture of Bridgewater and its internal reporting systems. Not only are all confrontations at this company video-recorded for circulation amongst managers and executives, but the entire culture of the fund is built around aggressively questioning employees about their new ideas on the spot, a policy they call “radical transparency.” The thought is to allow great ideas to rise to the top based solely on merit, but it sounds like a recipe for workplace bullying. This particular case of sexual harassment shows that this culture kept the harassed employee from getting the help and recognition he needed; additionally, after filing claims with several labor and human rights organizations, it seems like the employee was forced to settle due to the confidentiality agreements all Bridgewater employees have to sign. Everything about this story, and this organization, seems suspect – how can an organization support so-called “radical transparency,” without allowing people to come forward about workplace bullying and sexual harassment? You can read more about the alleged harassment at The New York Times.
Main Image: Ray Dalio, the founder and CEO of Bridgewater Associates. Image by David A. Grogan for CNBC/Getty Images, via The Hive.
Volkswagen, You're Not Fooling Anyone Anymore.
“The evidence paints the most detailed picture yet about how the deception unfolded and who was responsible.” Even though this will be sorted out in court, it seems that the evidence is indisputable: the highest levels of Volkswagen’s management were aware of the emissions scandal. There are even emails from board members begging for someone to “Come up with a story, please!” as law enforcement came closer and closer to discovering the truth. The board of VW should just come clean here – the longer they try to defend the indefensible, the more they put their organization at risk of financial bankruptcy. That should matter to them at least, considering that they are already morally bankrupt. You can read more about the new evidence in The New York Times.
Image: Maura Healey and Eric Schneiderman, the Massachusetts and New York Attorney Generals respectively, as they discuss the new lawsuits they're filing against Volkswagen, along with the state of Maryland. Credit: Bryan Thomas for NYT via NYT
Athletes Deserve Safe Workplace Cultures, Too: Sex-Testing at the Olympics
This story is completely baffling. If you are a professional athlete, your workplace is the field – and if you’re an Olympic athlete, your workplace is also the testing facility where you’re checked for doping. However, the practice of sex-testing female athletes – or giving female athletes very invasive check-ups to confirm that they are legitimately women if they happen to be “too muscular” or “too manly” to be believed – has completely ruined lives. There have been very few cases of male athletes impersonating female athletes to get ahead in sport, and most of the time, these tests reveal that a given athlete may be an intersex individual – which affects hormones through no fault of their own. While there is some debate about this issue, what it really comes down to is that there has to be a better and more psychologically safe way to handle this situation: revealing an athlete as an intersex individual has almost always resulted in humiliation, and has sometimes resulted in suicide. Fundamentally, this practice of sex-testing is mortifying and shows a fundamental disregard for female athletes competing at the top of their fields. Olympic athletes deserve psychologically healthy, safe and fair workplaces, just like everyone else – and I wish Dutee Chand, the athlete featured in this story, all the luck in the world this summer at the games. You can read more about Chand and the practice of sex-testing female athletes in the New York Times.
Image: Dutee Chand, by Sohrab Hura/Magnum for NYT
Ban Russia from the 2016 Summer Games
There seems to be a lot of debate about whether or not Russia should be banned from the Olympic Games in Rio this summer. Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the founding president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), makes a solid argument for excluding them – however, he does not send a strong enough message. If Russia is allowed to compete next month, what message will it send to today’s youth? Every day, today’s young people are exposed to news stories about lies, harassment, corruption, greed, abuses of power and cheating in almost every realm of society – government, business, religion, the media and arts, etc. The Olympic Games are in a rare position to offer young people a beacon of fairness, setting the example that through healthy competition, people from different walks of life can find common ground. Whether you win or lose, you can be proud of how well you played the game. The IOC has failed us, and more importantly the youth generation, by failing to ban Russia thus far. As Pound puts it, this is no “political issue,” but rather “a matter of tawdry, organized cheating.” The Olympics must transcend the rhetoric and do what’s right by eliminating any internal rot – only then can our young people really have heroes to look up to. You can read Pound's full article at The Globe & Mail.
Image: The 2012 Summer Olympics, via Wikimedia Commons
Message to Top-Level Predators: No, You Can't Get Away With It
I have to say, I am surprised by the quick response by the Murdochs to the now confirmed sexual harassment allegations against Roger Ailes. It’s been about two weeks since the lawsuit filed by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, and in that time, the management of 20th Century Fox, Fox News’s parent company, have taken swift action to conduct an objective internal investigation that found several others to corroborate Carlson’s claims. It seems that even Megyn Kelly, one of Fox News’s newer matriarchs, was affected by Ailes’s sexual harassment. As much as we can commend the Murdochs for dealing with this situation quickly once it came to public light, we have to ask – how come this was not dealt with long ago, since Ailes’s behavior was an open secret at Fox News? I hope Fox goes on to shift culturally, in addition to getting rid of Ailes. Ultimately, though, this really has to serve as an example to other high-level employers who think they can harass with impunity. A message to all the predators out there: regardless of your level, change or be changed by being brought down in disgrace. You can read more about Ailes's resignation at the New York Times.