#MeToo Backlash

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.