How the #MeToo movement exposes the failure of HR
Since the Anita Hill testimony, companies and their employees have looked to Human Resources departments to prevent workplace sexual harassment. Except, as The Atlantic’s Caitlin Flanagan noted in a recent feature for the magazine, that approach hasn’t worked at all. Flanagan joined THINK to examine the role of HR post-#MeToo.
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So how do you fix an fix that really isn't one? Do you agree with the findings of this? So many questions.
No fix is possible simply because people tend to forget that anyone working for a company has a boss. The only ones without a boss are the owners. The owner's only loyalty is to himself and the boss's only loyalty is to the company. They all practice a policy of CMA (Cover My Ass) which means if there is an issue, they will address it in the way that is the least amount of hassle and the most profitable. If Joe Blow or Sally Heels makes them a lot of money but they have a problem keeping their privates private, it is more likely that the person who is costing the company money (via wages) would be eliminated first in order to solve the harassment complaint. The easiest and most effective way to deal with such a situation is to end the unwanted attention simply by embarrassing them/turning them off either in public or in private conversation. Nothing like a "Damn, that's tiny!" or a "Jesus Christ, did you douche today?" to get rid of unwanted advances. Follow up with a few episodes of finger-pointing while giggling with your friends across the room, you won't have any more problems. If the person tries to act shitty or tries to get you fired, just tell them "I just love how cell phones can record anything these days, don't you? Now we really should get back to work before someone starts asking questions YOU don't want ME to answer."
I have to agree with you 100%. I don't see a fix other than taking it upon yourself.
Indeed.
HR is not a money making department
Correct Charger, but what it does is save a company money from lawsuits and the likes. In that sense, it has become an insurance policy against the complainant.
Some things can never actually be fixed, they can only be mitigated and/or addressed after the fact.
Agreed. I don't think that this can be fixed on a grand scale.
It's also going on in universities, too.
And here is a shocking stat. Most of our HR's are run by women. Same with the universities. It's not an accident. it's by design.
I don't know that employers on the whole can fix the problem, especially large companies in which management often has no real acquaintance with most employees. This is a moral problem within our culture, and employers can't raise their employees to be decent people. That was their parents' job.
Employers should, of course, take seriously any employee who claims to have been harassed or assaulted while at work, and take steps to prevent it happening again, up to and including firing the harasser. But prevention - I doubt that sexual harassment can be prevented. Employers can't tell at hiring who will feel entitled to sex from coworkers and who won't, for the most part.
This is up to society to fix. Employers have a role, but they can't possibly go it alone.
I agree that prevention is hard to achieve, but once an event has happened, it should be taken very seriously and it isn't always.
On the university level, girls are often told not to pursue a course of action because it will make them into social pariahs and the sad part is that it is usually coming from a female who deals with these issues.
I think this is the key to the whole thing. If somebody wasn't taught what it means to be a decent person, then they will be the problem and won't understand why they are the problem.
Or they'll understand, but they won't care, and they'll deflect blame to their victims.
"I was just joking with her! How was I to know that she doesn't like for someone to pay her a compliment?"
"He shouldn't be so sensitive. Most men would be glad of the attention!"
The company I work for let somebody go about a month ago because he was referring to women as "Legs" or "Chesty". He couldn't understand why it wasn't acceptable.
Good grief.
I'm hoping that those were given to you by your significant other and not some mentally deficient mouth breather at work.