The titans of industry, the sexual predators are falling from grace.
“Yet another industry titan tumbled from his perch on Wednesday as NBC announced the firing of star Today Show host Matt Lauer for alleged “inappropriate sexual behavior.” As the day wore on, specific allegations against Lauer emerged, including an accusation of sexual assault and reports that he exposed himself to a female colleague.”
The dilemma of speaking up about workplace sexual assault and harassment!
Those who experience workplace sexual assault and harassment are ‘damned if they speak up and damned if they remain silent’. If no one does anything to help the victim, to end the violence, most eventually leave their jobs. The perpetrator is allowed to continue to the next victim.
Victims have ruined careers and destroyed dreams.
Finding the path to speaking up.
“There’s a direct line to be drawn between alleged workplace sexual harassment and women quitting or questioning their jobs—and it goes beyond these recent anecdotes.”
I was denied my career, possible advancement, the opportunity to serve and protect just because I made the choice years ago to speak up about sexual harassment. Are you a victim? Were you a victim?
“What’s more, the study found that women who experienced unwanted touching or multiple harassing behaviors reported “significantly greater financial stress” in the subsequent two years, establishing a “clear temporal order between sexual harassment, job change, and financial stress.” Sexual harassment’s financial impact “is comparable to experiencing other negative life events—serious injury or illness, incarceration, assault—suggesting that sexual harassment may have analogous scarring effects,” the study says.”
Are you the kind of leader that allows and ignores workplace sexual assault and harassment?
Ignoring the violence you become part of the problem, part of the trauma, part of the lifelong scars for victims. Think about the excellent employees leaving your organization?
The most recent are Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer. For me the titan that I was most disappointed was Charlie Rose, not that I thought he was perfect only that over the many years had come to respect this person, his promotion of human rights and equality as someone who had integrity. Clearly no one said anything and there were more victims. The message needs to be that anyone in a position of power or not can be a predator and not to naively assume incorruptibility. The Weinstein effect has taken the titans of Hollywood, business and media giants, taken them down from their pedestal of impunity. The voices of victims who will no longer be silent, the survivors who refuse to be brushed aside and careers ruined, lives ruined, self esteem left shattered, are shouting and the change has finally happened.
“The public reckoning following the bombshell sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein in early October has prompted the ouster of some of the biggest names in Hollywood, comedy, hospitality, and media; with headlines about their firings splashed across the globe. But buried in the cringe-worthy tales of unwanted tongue kissing, awkward come-ons, and untied bathrobes is the fact that the abuse has disrupted the careers of the men’s alleged victims, too. Unlike the accused, most of these women didn’t lose their jobs involuntarily. Rather, after experiencing the alleged harassment or assault, they quit their jobs, leave their chosen industry altogether, or come away from the encounter with their ambition crushed.”
Speaking up is part of taking back you power and the road to recovery. I remember the first time sharing my story, I could barely say the words. It gets better with time and positive supports. It is not your fault and you are not alone.
http://fortune.com/2017/11/30/matt-lauer-fired-sexual-harassment-jobs/