This is the first article on the sexual harassment paradigm shift, and I say that with full respect for the term, that directs attention where it should be, management. Early today my wife told me that yesterday an associate of hers announced that her husband would no longer hire women because it was too dangerous. It took a minute for me to manage to say what I thought about that as it had actually made me speechless. That was not only a stupid statement but an indication of the cultural problem we are now facing. The blame is on the women (usually) who were harassed and now took action. Why? The managers were hiding and glad to quickly node along with statements such as the above.

Anyone who has managed people in high pressure situations or even just long enough to learn how hard that is, know that you need to pay attention to things and stop things quickly. We all also know how common it is for a manager to enable an abuser by being passive putting the burden on other managers to protect their people. Obviously I’ve been there. As a corporate executive for many years I had to deal with but was fortunate to learn early that quick action on behalf of an employee having problems with an abusive manager usually warns that person off. They may not go away, that has been the problem but it at least put their focus on me and not an employee. And as an “equal” in the gender game they usually don’t want to fight so they go elsewhere. My conclusion has long been that sexual abusers are a type of bully and want nothing to do with a fair fight.

My point is that this is a management issue as you state. It has nothin to do with gender except as a result of our cultural problems. We need to talk about this as a professional management issue.