Over reacting to sexual harassment allegations
The latest complaints are about Satya Nadella‘s poor handling of sexual harassment allegations, and calls for EVP of HR to resign for not being empathetic. There is a lot of emphasis on “believing” those who allege sexual harassment and also outrage against those accused of harassment even if not proven. Basically accusation is proof! Guys, better watch your back. While many claims of harassment may be true, inevitably there will be misuse if we treat accusations as proof. Besides, men often face similar issues, but we just tend to downplay them. You don’t want to end up in a situation where you can’t disagree with a female colleague or pull up a woman subordinate. We are already in a world where anyone who addresses the elephant in the room when it comes to under representation of women —only 20% of CS graduates are women— is quickly labelled a sexist. If a female Googler had written a memo like that of James Damore with genders reversed, would google have fired her? Watch out before your fight against sexual harassment backfires!
The issue is when there is proof and management violates policies anyway to protect the harassers.
Sexual harassment is actually quite a vague term that covers a surprisingly wide range of behavior. This is unfortunate since on hearing the term people tend to assume the worst.
Don’t fight it and go with the flow. Keep your skills sharp so if something implodes you can go elsewhere.
Keep your hands in your pocket and avoid stupid jokes. You’ll be fine
Not always. I've seen this card played by women who are about to get PIP, as a move to stop the termination process by making false accusations against their manager. It should be criminal, but it's not.
Accusations must trigger an investigation. If proven to be false the person should be fired and forced to pay damages. But on the contrary, if accusations are true, the harasser should be prosecuted
This world is going nuts. People are always looking for a reason to be offended. I am scared of having non-work conversations with my female colleagues anymore. Sadly, that will also offend some. Look, he jokes around with his male colleagues, but doesn’t do so with me because I am a ..... No more non-work conversations with anyone is one solution
Speaking of overreacting....
I feel the same way, though not limited to any gender. The safest way to lead a conversation is to repeat mainstream media. Don't question or disagree with anything as this can also be offensive.