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Better aid victims of harassment Guest writer

My first job after college was at a nonprofit working as an assistant to an area vice president. The job offer came in a phone call from the vice president himself a few hours after my interview.

I was thrilled. I felt like I was going to be a part of something big.

When my boss, 35 years my senior, asked me to pick him up from the airport one evening, I thought nothing of it. I didn’t flinch when he proposed that we grab a beer before I took him home to his family. But when he leaned in to kiss me as we pulled into his driveway, I was stunned.

I called a friend on the ride home to try to understand what happened. “Yes, that was sexual harassment,” she confirmed. Instead of reporting him, I resolved to discreetly deflect future advances, lest I get fired or bring down a man who seemed critical to the organization.

Over the next two years, I was suspended in between two equally undesirable fates. Either I endured his hand on my leg or my breast, or I accepted weeks of hostile silent treatment because I refused it. When I submitted my resignation to human resources, I decided to disclose. If anything, I could protect others, right?

The next woman was braver than me. She reported him right away, and the organization “rewarded” her with a transfer that increased her daily commute by more than an hour. Nothing happened to him. More reports came. He was required to take a sexual harassment class, but kept his job. He was fired years later, only after a new CEO came on board who would no longer protect him.

I’m glad the #metoo movement is bringing victims’ stories into the light and holding predators’ feet to the fire. But when will we start holding the protectors of such men accountable?

Predators don’t stalk their prey in a vacuum. Harvey Weinstein reportedly had a whole machine of complicity — board members, lawyers, assistants — that allowed him to continue with impunity. When will their actions be scrutinized? When will they be dismissed from their jobs?

I have forgiven my former boss. I think of him rarely. But I can’t shake my resentment for the HR staff and the institutional machinery that, in spite of repeated complaints, did very little to protect female employees.

How do we take the momentum from the movement beyond individual punishment and into systemic change that prevents continued sexual assault in the first place? The recent class-action lawsuit against the Weinstein Company, which legally recognizes the responsibility of a wide network of people beyond Weinstein himself, is a good start. It will hopefully send a loud message to other companies that they are legally and ethically bound to give every allegation due diligence and every employee a safe space to report. A fter working several years in HR, I understand how any HR department is in a difficult position. They must respond to employee complaints while ultimately protecting the company they represent from liability. But there are ways around this conflict of interest.

One strategy is for companies to use a third-party service which assigns an independent advocate to serve as an intermediary between an employee and her company during a sexual-misconduct investigation. This service would be akin to employee assistance programs which companies regularly provide as an employee benefit.

Ultimately, most companies won’t invest in strategies such as this until they are called to account. Matt Lauer was not fired from NBC until it was no longer worth it to keep him on board in the face of potential lawsuits. Just 10 years ago, it was still “worth it” to keep my former boss on board in spite of multiple allegations because he was in the middle of securing the largest institutional donation the organization had ever received, and after all, it was a different time.

Now is the time to demand better workplace policies and practices. Now is the time to build a new system for our children, like my daughter who will be entering the workforce in about 20 years.

Imagine a world where a woman can walk into a job and not have to provide sexual favors in order to keep it. A world where, if any such proposition is made, she can confide in someone with her company without losing her job. A world where she will be protected and cherished simply for the employee and individual that she is.

That is the kind of world I’d like for my daughter, and that is the kind of world we can create.