NBC News takes the unprecedented step to release its internal Matt Lauer harassment report

Image by Max Goldberg via Wiki Commons

Yesterday morning, NBC News released the complete report into its months long investigation of Matt Lauer.

I was astounded by NBC’s transparency. It is extraordinarily rare for a private company to release an internal investigative report of one of its employees. In fact, it runs counter to conventional wisdom that harassment investigations should be kept as confidential as possible under the circumstances. Perhaps the combination of NBC’s status as a news agency and the high profile nature of the allegations spurred its decision.

Nearly half of American workers admit to engaging in workplace revenge

Photo by Avalon_Mists on Pixabay

And every time I scratch my nails
Down someone else’s back I hope you feel it

Alanis Morisette 

Revenge. So natural, and yet so wrong. “Turn the other cheek” is always the preferred practice, and, yet, often life is more “smack you in the cheek” as you turn away.

Even at work.

According to a recent study, 44 percent of workers admit to partaking in some type of workplace revenge.

Anti-harassment anthems

Yesterday, I came across the very cool video for a new Speedy Ortiz song, “Villain.”

The song tackles issue of harassment, assault, and consent.

Rock music has always tackled the important social issues of the times, and #MeToo should be no exception.

#Me(n)Too

According to the Washington Post, nearly one in five — about 17 percent — of harassment complaints filed with the EEOC come from men.

And many involve same-sex harassment.

Some examples:

In the era of #metoo, let’s not lose focus on the “me”s other than sex

Photo by Luke Braswell on Unsplash

We’ve all done a lot of talking over the past six months about sexual harassment. We should not forget, however, that our laws make harassment unlawful if it’s based on membership in any protected class.

A federal jury in Detroit just provided employers a very real reminder of this fact.

It tagged Ford Motor Co. with a $16.8 million verdict. The plaintiff, a former Ford engineer, proved that the automaker created a hostile work environment based his Arab background.

Harassment training is about creating a culture, not checking a box

Bloomberg reports that demand for anti-harassment training videos has surged in the #MeToo era.

Here’s the problem, however. The Bloomberg article talks about training videos, the absolute worst kind of training.

Anti-harassment training is all about creating an anti-harassment culture in your workplace—about employees understanding what harassment is, how to complain about it, and that your company does not ever accept it.

“Measure twice, cut once," and, for the love of God, don’t email porn to everyone on your company’s contact list

Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash

In what may be the greatest (or, depending on your perspective, worst) employee mistake of all time, the Utah State Bar emailed a photo of a topless woman to more than 11,000 of its members.

For its part, the Bar has apologized, and has said it is investigating how the incident occurred and will publicize its findings.

Speculation on the cause of the unfortunate email ranges from hackers to a disgruntled employee.

It’s neither.

Readers, let me break this case for you.

Two recent issues of confidentiality of harassment allegations

The confidentiality of harassment allegations has been a hot topic of debate in the #MeToo and #TimesUp era.

Consider, then, each of the following two pronouncements on the issue by two different branches of the federal government—one by the NLRB and one by Congress.

Love and work aren’t always peanut butter and chocolate

I listened with great interest to the latest episode of the Hostile Work Environment podcast, which featured as its guest my good friend, Dan Schwartz, talking about the pitfalls of Valentine’s Day at work.

Dan cited CareerBuilder’s annual V-Day survey, which offers some interesting stats about the current state of office romances:

• 22 percent of workers have dated their boss (up 7 percent from last year)
• 31 percent of workers who started dating at work ultimately married each other
• Almost one in ten female workers whose work romance soured left their job
• 41 percent of workers had to keep their romance a secret

Yet, love and work do not always go well together, especially on Valentine’s Day.

Sexual harassment is the hiring scarlet letter

Dear Jon, 

I resigned from my last job amid allegations of sexually inappropriate misconduct. The allegations became public. Even though the women are all liars, no one will hire me. What can I do? 

Sincerely,
Steve W.

This example has played out (sort of) at my alma mater, Case Western Reserve School of Law.

What is your profession doing to combat harassment? Mine appears to doing a lot, as ABA adopts new anti-harassment policy

The policy-making body of the American Bar Association has adopted a formal resolution that urges legal employers to prohibit, prevent, and promptly redress sexual harassment and retaliation claims.

Moreover, to make sure that law-firm leaders are paying close enough attention, Resolution 302 [pdf] also urges that firms adopt measures to ensure that the heads of law firms are informed of the financial settlements of such claims.

The resolution contains the following key measures:

SNL tackles #MeToo, but what should you do when employees discuss #MeToo at work?

How do you discuss sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct with your friends and colleagues?

Saturday Night Live, in one of its most brilliant sketches in a long time, offers a suggestion.


Or, rather, a suggestion not to have the conversation at all.

How likely are you to sexually harass?

Are you tired of seeing your Facebook feed littered with the results of your friends’ quizzes, with titles such as, “Which Game of Thrones Character are You?” or “Which Disney Couple Defines You?”

Well, I have one more quiz for you to take, and this one may just pique your interest.

It’s the Likelihood to Sexually Harass quiz.

We have now entered the harassment-overreaction phase

When one of your biggest stars loses his high-profile job in one the year’s biggest sexual harassment scandals, how to you react?

With a brand new, and painfully detailed, anti-harassment policy.

Amid all of the sexual harassment concerns, let us not forget that other types of harassment exist

So much of the news lately has focused on sexual harassment, that it’s easy for one to forget that other types of harassment also exist.

For example, racial harassment.

Since we are but a week away from Christmas, I thought it appropriate to use a holiday-time example to illustrate.

It’s not #MeToo that’s killing your office holiday party; it’s your workplace culture

Last week, Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked if the #MeToo movement is ruining the office holiday party.


“Is the #MeToo movement becoming a spoiler for this season’s Christmas parties? … I can see this year it might a little less festive. No alcohol and no fun and no lampshades and no nothing, and, I don’t know, maybe that’s better. Is this just killing all the fun of Christmas?”

Is this the worst harassment training video of all time, or is it the best?

Much of the news lately has focused on how we, as employers, can do a better job training and otherwise educating our employees about workplace harassment.

So, I ask—is this parody the worst harassment training video of all time, or, is it so bad, that it’s actually the best training video?


I think I’m leaning towards the latter—that this video is so brilliant in its awfulness that it might just make a really good training tool, or least part of great compliance and education program.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Our harassment laws are not the reason for our sexual harassment problem

Last week, the New York Times ran an Op-Ed titled, Boss Grab Your Breasts? That’s Not (Legally) Harassment.

It argues that our lax sexual harassment laws, and the courts that apply them, are responsible for our current workplace harassment problems.

How not to harass women, in one easy step

Last night we went to dinner at our favorite local restaurant. Donovan ordered his favorite dish—gluten free penne alfredo. He is not a great eater. Usually, despite this dish’s “favorite” status, he will eat two bites and proclaim, “I’m full.” Last night, the general manager, who was covering chef duties, decided to have a little fun at D-Man’s expense. Instead of a full plate of pasta, he sent a small dish with two lonely noodles. We howled. Donovan was not amused. We explained that sometimes teasing is an expression of affection, which was the category into which this little joke fell.

I’m happy to report that Donovan got over the good-natured joke, and, for the first time I can recall, cleared his full plate (after it was delivered to the table).

That was funny.

What’s not funny?

How do we start to STOP sexual harassment?

www.pinterest.com/pin/202802789447314070

Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Mark Halperin, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes … the list of men accused of sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct seems to know no end.

I very much hope that we have reached the beginning of a cultural watershed against sexual harassment in America. Which is undoubtedly a good thing, especially when you consider a recent Washington Post survey reporting that nearly one-third of women have received an unwanted sexual advance from a co-worker.

All of which begs the question … if sexual harassment is so prevalent in the American workplace, how do we start having a conversation about how to stop it?