Bloomberg recently reported that Wall Street was undertaking "controversial strategies" that "risk isolating women in finance." On December 3rd Bloomberg released an article entitled "Wall Street Rule for the #MeToo Era: Avoid Women At All Cost."
Are men so fearful of being tainted with sexual harassment charges that they are ostracizing women in the workplace? This is an outrageous reaction - not a solution.
Extreme tactics cited in the article include: No more dinners with female colleagues. Don't sit next to them on flights. Book hotel rooms on different floors. Avoid one-on-one meetings. As a wealth advisor stated, just hiring a woman these days is "an unknown risk." What if she took something he said the wrong way?
Is this the beginning of a new age of sexual discrimination? Women may find more closed doors and exclusion from training / mentoring programs or other opportunities, thereby negatively impacting their professional growth and careers.
But there is a positive response. New research from the Society for Human Resources Management, (a survey of 18,000 U.S. employees, at all levels across 15 industries) reflected that about one-third (32%) of executives say they've "changed their behavior" due to greater awareness of the hazards of sexual misconduct in the workplace. This includes risk to employee morale (23%) and employee engagement (23%). 21% of the respondees indicated that harassment has "never been an issue" in their organization. Almost 40% of the executives indicated their response to the movement was to be more "careful" or "mindful" about locker-room humor and sexist jokes.
Smart employers take the appropriate measures to address and eliminate harassment concerns in the workplace through: (1) Harassment Policies, (2) Supervisor and Employee Training, and (3) Investigation.
#MeToo has changed the landscape. Let's tread carefully as we are all learning in this process. Sexual harassment claims aren't black and white, they are multiple shades of grey.
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